Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

authentic interpretation

Interpretation arrived at by asking the drafter or drafting body what the intended meaning was. "The procedure of referring the doubtful statute to its author has acquired a name in the literature of jurisprudence. It is called authentic interpretation.' ... [Although] this device has been tried in . . . recent times in certain European countries, ... [it] has always failed, and no thoughtful adviser would recommend it to any government today." Lon L. Fuller, Anatomy of the Law 29-30 (1968).