Abstract: Does the legislature have intentions concerning the effects of legislation? If so, how can that intent be known by outsiders? Existing theories of legislative intent can be divided into three camps: skepticism, constructivism, and realism. This paper begins by outlining problems for existing realist accounts. The paper then offers a new realist theory of legislative intent: the rational unity account. The paper explains how this account avoids the problems with existing versions of realism, while also capturing the sense in which the legislature is a rational agent with intentions that can be distinguished from the intentions of individual legislators. We explain what evidence outsiders can, and should, use when attributing intentions to the legislature.

Co-authored with David Tan (Deakin University)