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Are Legislative Intentions Real?

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journal contribution
posted on 2019-10-29, 09:24 authored by Jim South
In Lacey v Attorney-General (Qld), six members of the High Court asserted that the legislative intention is not an objective collective mental state and that such a state is a fiction. They also asserted that the legislative intention is ascertained by applying the rules of construction. This article considers whether it follows from these assertions that there is no such thing as a true intention behind an Act. The article contends that legislative intentions should be conceptualised as intentions taken to have been acted on, rather than formed, by the legislature. It further contends that when conceptualised that way, it can be seen that the intentions ascertained by applying the rules of construction can be real or fictional. The article concludes that acceptance of that proposition would not affect the way the courts interpret legislation under the existing rules of construction, but that it would limit the extent to which those rules can be modified.

History

Publication Date

2014

Volume

40

Issue

3

Type

Article

Pages

853–889

AGLC Citation

Jim South, 'Are Legislative Intentions Real?' (2014) 40(3) Monash University Law Review 852

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