Statutory Interpretation Flashcards
What is the literal rule?
When a judge takes the literal meaning of the words in the statute as in Whitley v Chappel.
What is the Golden rule?
When there are several meanings of a word in a statute the judge take the one that leads to the least obscured outcome as in R v Allen.
What is the Mischief rule?
When a judge is presented with a case, they try to identify the “mischief” the statute was intended to stop and make a decision on the point of law to reflect this as in Heydon’s case.
What is the purposive approach?
When a judge looks at what the purpose of the statute was and decides a point of law to reflect this as in Jones v Tower Boot.
When must a judge use the purposive approach?
When dealing with the EU Law. This has helped judges become more comfortable with using the purposive approach.
What is an intrinsic aid?
Anything contained within the statute itself that helps a judge to make a ruling that reflects the will of parliament.
Give some examples of intrinsic aids:
Long and short title, relevant sections from elsewhere in the Act and
