The purposive approach

• The purposive approach 

  • Court looks at the purpose of that statute and interpret the words to bring about that purpose (Lord Denning)
• Purposive approach - a very controversial approach that hasn’t been fully accepted and criticised by the House of Lords over it possibly breaching parliamentary sovereignty.
• The purposive approach advantages:

  +   Judges can take into account new technological advances (Quintavalle)

  +   Allows a fair decision to made be in most cases (Jones)
• The purposive approach disadvantages:

  -       Undemocratic as unelected judges are interpreting the law set by parliament 

  -       May be time consuming to find what parliament originally meant