Statutory Interpretation Flashcards
First Report, ‘The Legislative Process’, House of Commons Session 1997
‘legislation speaks in a monotone and its language is compressed’
Fothergill v Monarch
Lord Diplock
‘The audience to whom the language that [Parliamentary Counsel] chooses to address is the judiciary, whose constitutional function is to resolve any doubts as to what written laws mean’
The Law Commission ‘The Interpretation of Statutes’ 1969
‘account must be taken of the inherent frailty of language, the difficulty of foreseeing and providing for all contingencies, the imperfections which must result in some degree from the pressures under which modern legislation has so often to be produced and the difficulties of expressing the finely balanced compromises of competing interest which the draftsman is sometimes called upon to formulate’
Corocraft Lrd v Pan American Airways
Donaldso, J
‘The duty of the courts is to ascertain and give effect to the will of Parliament’
No ‘mathematically correct answer’ as
‘interpretation of statutes is an art not a science’
Royal College of Nursing v Department of Health
Unforeseen developments in the law.
Offences against the person act 1861- offence for any person to carry out abortion
Abortion Act 1967 - medically registered practitioner can carry out abortion
Developments in science and hormonal abortions possible - nurses can administer these. Act was aimed at criminalising back street abortions. Act of nurses was outside the mischief of the act - mischief approach
HRA s.3
‘so far as it is possible to do so’
Intentional obscurity
Adler v George
Draftsman’s error
Official Secrets Act - offence to obstruct member of armed forces ‘in the vicinity’ of prohibited area. Defendant was in the prohibited area.
Golden rule applied - absurd result following the literal rule.
Also, the mischief the act was trying to prevent was the members of the armed forces being obstructed.
Third step of progressive approach - added words to statute
Cutter v Eagle Star
Uncertainty - what is the meaning of road. Car park is not a road - does not lead to a destination.
Literal meaning of road = used to go to destination. This was used in case
Slim v Daily Telegraph
Diplock, LJ
‘the notion that the same words should bear different meanings to different men, and that more than one meaning should be ‘right’ conflicts with the whole training of a lawyer. Words are the tools of his trade. He uses them to define legal rights and duties. They do not achieve that purpose unless there can be attributed to them a single meaning as the ‘right’ meaning’
Maunsell v Olins
Lord Simon:
court must ‘put itself in the shoes of the draftsman… to consider… what statutory objective he has’
Black-Clawson
Lord Simon:
‘interpretation cannot be wholly concerned with what the promulgator of a written instrument meant by it; interpretation must also be frequently concerned with the reasonable expectations of those who may be affected thereby’
Lord Reid:
‘We are seeking the meaning of the words which Parliament used’
R v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions ex parte Spath Holme
Lord Nicholls:
‘Statutory interpretation is an exercise which requires the court to identify the meaning borne by the words in question in the particular context’
‘intention of Parliament is an objective concept, not subjective’
Cusack v London Borough of Harrow
Lord Neuberger
‘canons of construction have a valuable part to play in interpretation, provided that they are treated as guidelines that than railway lines’
The Sussex Peerage Case
‘If the words are themselves precise and unambiguous, then no more can be necessary than to expound those words in that natural and ordinary sense’
R v City of London Court Judge
Lord Esher
If words of the act are clear you must follow even if it leads to an absurd result.
R v Harris
Defendant bit off victim’s nose - statute made it an offence to ‘stab, cut or wound’
Literal rule - act of biting does not fall in this category. Conviction quashed.
Whitley v Chapell
Offence to impersonate someone entitled to vote
Defendant impersonated a dead man - person must be living to be entitled to vote therefore under literal rule defendant acquitted.
This outcome did not follow Parliamentary intention - placing sovereignty above intention?
London and North Eastern Railway Co v Berriman
Railway worker killed whilst oiling track. Statute provided compensation for those killed ‘relaying or repairing’ track. Literal rule - oiling does not fall in this category so no compensation. Result not absurd enough for secondary meaning so widow entitled to nothing.
- unjust?
Fisher v Bell
Offence to offer flick knives for sale. Conviction quashed as display of goods in an invitation to treat not an offer
R(on the application of Haw) v Sec State for the Home Department
Refusal to use literal rule - court did not believe it expressed the intention of Parliament
Grey v Pearson
Lord Wensleydale
‘grammatical and ordinary sense of the words may be modified so as to avoid that absurdity and inconsistency, but no further’
R v Allen
Avoidance of absurdity
Bigamy - offence to marry someone else when already married. Impossible to commit with literal interp as civil law does not recognise second marriage. Golden rule - marry should mean go through a marriage ceremony
Re Sigsworth
Affront to public policy
Estate of a person dying without will goes to the ‘issue’ In this case, son was the sole issue but he killed mother. Contrary to public policy to allow criminal to gain from his crime.
