On the Different Understanding of the Legislative Intent in the Anglo-Saxon Discourse. Analysis of the Views of Stanley Fish, Larry Alexander, Jeffrey Goldsworthy, Richard Ekins, and Victoria Nourse

Keywords: interpretation, intention, intentionalism, purposivism, originalism

English abstract: The intention of the legislature, as a constitutive concept for intentionalism, is understood very differently by representatives of this trend and not only by them. The aim of this study is to familiarize the Polish reader with how intentions are understood by five authors: Stanley Fish, Larry Alexander, Jeffrey Goldsworthy, Richard Ekins, and Victoria Nourse, as well as to conduct a comparative analysis of their views. This involves the use of a theoretical method consisting in the description of concepts and an attempt to compare them. In the light of the findings, it should be emphasized that Victoria Nourse’s views are more in line with the assumptions of purposivism than intentionalism. Stanley Fish and Larry Alexander represent a radical variety of intentionalism, on whose basis, due to radical ontological assumptions, it is not possible to build any methods of interpretation capable of practical application. Not so with Jeffrey Goldsworthy and Richard Ekins, who assume that the legislature acts in accordance with “simple common sense”.

Language: Polish

Published: Number 4(37)/2023, pp. 15-26.

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