Legislative measures and legislators’ motives

This review of Wojciech Sadurski’s Constitutional Public Reason explores the relationship between the legislative measures voted on by legislators and their motivations for so voting. The relationship between such measures and motivations is examined by reference to GEM Anscombe’s famous example of a man at a pump to illustrate the different descriptions that may be given for a human action. Where the relevant action requires the participation of more than one person, only that aspect of each person’s plan of action that is shared with the others can be ascribed to them jointly, suggesting that the purpose of legislation does not encompass every motivation of the diverse legislators that voted for it.