satutory interpretation

• precedent


  a precedent is something that proceeds, or comes before. the supreme court relies on precedents that is, earlier laws or decisions that provide some example or rule to guide them in the case they're actually deciding
• literal rule


  the words of the statue are given their natural or ordinary meaning and applied without the judges seeking to put gloss on the words or seek to make sense of the satute
• golden rule


  it allows the courts to assume that parliament intended that its legislative provision have a wider definition than its literal meaning, and so the grammatical and ordinary sense of the word can be modified to avoid inconsistency or absurdity.
• mischief rule


  the rule requires the court to look to what the law was before the legislation was passed in order to discover what gap or mischief the legislation was intending to cover
• purposive approach


  the purposive approach is a principle of statutory interpretation that requires judges to interpreted a statute in a way that gives effect to the legislature's intended purpose or objective.
• internal aid


  internal aids are those contained in the statute itself
• examples of internal aids

  - the long title of the act

  - explanatory notes

  - other sections of the act

  - definitions of the sections in the act
• external aid


  external aids are things which were not in the sourse
• examples of external aid

  - dictionary's from the time the act was passed

  - Hansard

  - textbooks

  -academic writings

  - law commission reports

  - case law from other jurisdictions
• Literal Rule - Whiteley v Chappell (1868)


  the defendant used the vote of a dead man. the statue relating to voting rights required a person to be living in order to be entitled to vote. held: the literal rule was applied and the defendant thus was acquitted
• London and North Eastern Railway v Berriman 1946


  a railway worker was killed whilst oiling the track. no look out man had been provided. a statute provided compensation payable on death for those 'relaying or repairing' the track
• golden rule - Adler v George 1964


  under the official secretes act 1920 it was an offence to obstruct a member of the armed forces 'in the vicinity' of a prohibited place. the defendant was in the prohibited place, rather then 'in the vicinity' , at the time of the obstruction. the golden rule is applied as it is absurd that a person to be liable if they are near the prohibited place and no actually in it
• R v Sigsworth 1935


  a son murdered his mother. she had not made a will. under the statute setting the law of intestacy he was her sole issue and stood to inherit her entire estate. the court applied the golden rule holding that the application of the literal rule would lead to repugnant results. he was thus entitled to nothing
• mischief rule - Smith v Hughes 1960


  Streets Offences Act 1958 made it an offence for a prostitute to solicit potential customers in the street or public place. As she was sitting in her front room and attracting men, she claimed that the Act did not apply to her. The judge decided that the aim of the act was to stop women soliciting men for sex and money. He decided that even though she was not on the street or in a public place, she was still guilty.
• mischief rule - Case Eastbourne Borough Council v Stirling 2000


  taxi driver was charged with paying for hire in any street without a license to do so. although he was on a private taxi rank he was likely to get customers from the street
• mischief rule - Royal Collage of Nursing v DHSS 1981


  the royal collage of nursing brought an action challenging the legitimacy of the involvement of nurses in carrying out abortions. held - it was legal for nurses to carry out such abortions. the act was aimed at doing away with backstreet abortions where no medical care was available. therefore the actions of nurses fell outside of the mischief act 1861 and within contemplate defence in the 1967 act
• purpose approach - R v Registar General ex parte Smith 1990


  act stated that an adopted person will obtain a birth certificate if he is 18 or above and makes the application in a correct manner. Smith applied when he had been convicted of murder and was detained. the court held he could not get this information
• purpose approach - R v Human Fertilisation and Embryology authority 2003


  the house of lords held that the cloned embryos were covered by the statute taking purposive approach to statutory interpretation
• Pepper v Hart 1992


  the house of lords departed from Davis v Johnson and took a purposive approach to interpretation holding that Hansard may be referred to and the teacher was not required to pay tax on the per he received
• why does a judge need to interpret statute

  - uncertainty or ambiguity of langue

  - broad terms

  - bad drafting including drafting errors

  - new or unforeseeable developments, such as new technologies that mean that old acts do not cover present day situations

  -changes in the use of language