A discussion of the judicial interpretation of statutes and constitutions. The essays were originally presented as papers at a workshop on Legal Interpretation, Judicial Power, and Democracy, held in Melbourne in June 2000. Participants at the workshop were legal theorists from Australia, New Zealand and the United States. They were invited to explore relationships between legal interpretation, judicial power, democracy, the rule of law, and legal positivism.;The essays are divided into three parts. Those in Part 1 share a particular concern with the proper role of law-makers' intentions in legal interpretation. The essays in Part 2 are more eclectic, defending or discussing particular approaches to interpretation. They include a history of the theory and practice of ""equitable"" interpretation from the 13th century to the 21st. The final part contains essays which deal with constitutional interpretation.
