Regarding intentio operis in the texts of legal acts

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present intentio operis as an interpretative strategy created by a text. According to Umberto Eco, this strategy can help to transcend the opposition between intentio auctoris and the interpreter’s unrestrained freedom. Although as a concept intentio operis belongs to literary texts, it seems to be an interesting construct to apply to legal interpretation, especially because it links different points of view on textual interpretation: the structural (‘how the text is constructed’) and the pragmatic (namely aspects of communication, such as the communicative intentions of the empirical author, the communicative intentions of the text).

Keywords

• intentio operis; interpretation; communicative competence; textual cooperation; interpretive strategy