What is Statutory Purpose?

Abstract

Over the past few decades, an impressive body of work has developed exploring theoretical issues relating to statutory interpretation. Philosophically-informed accounts of the meaning (or, as I shall say, the linguistic content ) of statutory provisions have been proposed. Theories of legislative intent have become more sophisticated, and the sceptical challenge to the existence or utility of legislative intent has been refined in important respects. Increasingly rigorous accounts of textualism and intentionalism have been offered, as well as some robust challenges to the distinction between these two schools of thought.