JSI Seminar: Legislative Intent: A Rational Unity Account

(co-authored with David Tan, Deakin University)

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT IS BEING HELD ONLINE AND IN-PERSON AT SYDNEY LAW SCHOOL.

Speaker: Associate Professor Stephanie Collins, Monash University

Does the legislature have intentions concerning the effects of legislation? If so, how can that intent be gleaned? Existing theories of legislative intent can be divided into three camps: skepticism, constructivism, and realism. This paper begins by outlining problems for constructivism and (existing accounts of) realism. However, this does not imply a retreat into skepticism. Instead, the paper offers a new account of legislative intent: the rational unity account. The paper explains how this account avoids the problems with existing versions of realism and constructivism, while also capturing the sense in which the legislature is a rational group agent with intentions that can be distinguished from the intentions of individual legislators.

About the speaker

Stephanie Collins is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Monash University. Her work primarily develops theories of group agency and group responsibility. Her monographs are The Core of Care Ethics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), Group Duties: Their Existence and Their Implications for Individuals (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Organizations as Wrongdoers (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

Thursday 14 April 2022

Time: 6-7.30pm AEST

PLEASE NOTE: This event is being held an online and in-person at Sydney Law School. Please indicate your viewing preference when registering.

CPD Points: 1.5

This event is hosted by the Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence at The University of Sydney Law School.