Legislative Intent and Acting Intentionally

Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Law (Bloomsbury Press, Stefan Magen & Karolina Prochownik, eds. 2022)

11 Pages Posted: 14 Apr 2021 Last revised: 15 Mar 2022

See all articles by Kevin Tobia

Kevin Tobia

Georgetown University Law Center; Georgetown University - Department of Philosophy

Date Written: March 25, 2021

Abstract

An experiment reveals a distinction between ordinary judgment of what legislators did "intentionally" and ordinary judgment of "legislative intent." The former reflects the well-known side-effect effect: bad effects are deemed more intentional than good ones. However, this pattern disappears in judgments of legislative intent: bad outcomes are not evaluated as more legislatively intended than good ones. For ordinary people, a law's legislative intent is not simply what its drafters did intentionally.

Keywords: experimental jurisprudence, experimental philosophy, legal theory, legal philosophy, jurisprudence, legislative intent, side-effect effect

Suggested Citation

Tobia, Kevin, Legislative Intent and Acting Intentionally (March 25, 2021). Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Law (Bloomsbury Press, Stefan Magen & Karolina Prochownik, eds. 2022), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3812474 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3812474

Kevin Tobia (Contact Author)

Georgetown University Law Center ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/kevin-tobia/

Georgetown University - Department of Philosophy

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