CONSTITUTIONAL REMEDIES

Question 1

WHAT ARE THE 4 CORRECTIVE TECHNIQUES?

Answer 1

1) reading down
2) reading up
3) reading in
4) severance

Question 2

WHAT IS READING DOWN?

Answer 2

• thats if the legislation is on the face of it constitutional but is reasonably capable of a more restricted interpretation that would be constitutional and valid

Question 3

WHAT IS READING UP?

Answer 3

• when there is more than one possible reading of the legislative text and a more extensive reading is adopted to keep legislation constitutional

Question 4

WHAT IS READING IN?

Answer 4

-In exceptional cases, the court will read something into the meaning of a provision to rescue it or part of it

Question 5

WHAT IS SEVERANCE?

Answer 5

• it is opposite of reading in
• the court trues to rescue a provision from unconstitutionality by excising a part of the provision from he rest of the text to keep the remainder constitutionally valid
• 2 requirements need to be met:
  1) it must be possible to separate the unconstitutional part of the provision from the rest of the provision
  2) What remains of the provision must still be able to give effect to the purpose of the legislation

Question 6

WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPLES FOR APPLYING CORRECTIVE TECHNIQUES?

Answer 6

• it must be consistent with the constitution and its values
• result achieved should interfere as little as possible with the existing law
• courts must be able to define with sufficient precision how the legislative meaning should be modified to comply with the constitution
• court should be faithful to the legislative scheme