Legislative Intent: The Use of Positive Political Theory in Statutory Interpretation

Recent legal research on statutory interpretation has raised questions about the usefulness of legislative history-committee reports, hearings, floor debates-in assisting judges in interpreting the intent of legislation. Many legal scholars have expressed skepticism on the grounds that majority rule decisionmaking is chaotic (the Arrow Impossibility Theorem) and that members of the legislature may shirk their responsibilities or engage in strategic misrepresentation of their preferences and expectations. This article applies the economics of information and organization to examine the structure of the legislative process in order to identify how legislators solve the problem of instability of majority rule and to identify the activities in which members have an incentive to reveal