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The courts have to evaluate what they think the law's drafters meant: Yeah, it says this, but it's obvious the legislators didn't mean for it to be read that way. It'd be nice if there were footnotes that expounded on what the authors were trying to accomplish to help courts interpret the laws.

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At least in the US, it's not the drafters' intent that matters, but the intent of the legislators who voted on it. (Legislators actually have lawmaking power. Drafters are usually unelected staff or even lobbyists.)

When a statute is ambiguous, courts do sometimes look at the congressional record (eg floor debates) to determine intent.

To add on that, there are several competing theories of statutory interpretation in US legal thought. It's a very complex subject. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_interpretation#Sta...

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