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Ninjalawyer gave the benefit of his opinion which is generally correct in common law jurisdictions. Intent of the legislature may become relevant in a very limited fashion if it is required to resolve an ambiguity in the wording of the legislation concerned. If there is no ambiguity, the question never arises.
However, Ninjalawyer's comments were limited to Common law jurisdictions, as are my own. France is, of course, a civil law jurisdiction and I am not familiar with its rules of interpretation. I do, however, note eschwartz's comment with approval. That is:
"It may be that there are places where the "intent" of the law is enforceable, but I don't really consider that to be lawful.
I cannot imagine the horror of living in a place where the "law" is that arbitrarily dependent on whatever the politicians say it is -- and then have it apply retroactively.
If they can explain the intent in court proceedings, they should've used that explanation as the text of the law."
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