Abstract

Justice is the ultimate noble result of the law. The justice must not only be done but be seen to be done. The legitimate authority to make laws has been centralized and transferred to the legislature in the democratic constitution, and the role of the judiciary is to interpret the laws and administer justice. One of the most basic criticisms leveled at the statutory interpretation process of the judiciary is that it sometimes engages in the statutory interpretation process by trespassing its authority and disregarding the intention of the legislature. This criticism is often identified by jurists as a conceptual and theoretical approach and that can create some conflict between the legislature and the judiciary. In any case, the judicial statutory interpretation process should take place in such a way that the intention of the legislature is evident, but discovering the intention of the legislature becomes an eternal effort. Some call this concept a myth and a fiction, while some call it an exercise of an inalienable duty of the judiciary. Although various ideologies exist regarding the exact discovery of the intention of the legislature, its importance and effect are not underestimated. Therefore, this scholarly work is expected to contribute to resolving the dilemma of the intention of the legislature that has existed for all time by identifying the approaches in the legal conceptual and theoretical perspectives that are currently available in the field, which is important in the interpretation of statutes by the judiciary. Accordingly, the academic contribution to this conceptual debate is made by referring to the academic books written in this regard, following the black letter approach. Furthermore, the identification of the intention of the legislature, its existing characteristics, existing criticisms as well as the approaches that are generally followed and should be followed judiciary are emphasized. Finally, it is highlighted that the source of the practices used by the judiciary in this challenging exercise of discovering this concept in its interpretation are the approaches derived from the intention of the legislature.

Keywords: Intention of the legislature, Interpretation of the judiciary, Judicial approaches, Statutory interpretation