Statutory interpretation Flashcards
What is essential in an act?
- Correct wording
What does the interpretation act 1978 do?
- It gives judges some guidance
What occurs in many cases?
- Disputes over words
What are the reasons as to why an Act may be unclear?
- A broad term
- Ambiguity
- A drafting error
- New developments
- Changes in the use of language
What are the 3 rules of statutory interpretation?
- The literal rule
- The golden rule
- The mischief rule
What is the literal rule?
- When judges take the ordinary/grammatical meaning of the word and apply it- even if result is absurd
What is the golden rule?
- An extension of the literal rule
- Judges use literal rule but if it results in an absurdity then they can alter the meaning of the words to give a satisfactory result
What is the mischief rule?
- When the judges are able to ignore the meaning of the words to ensure they research the desired outcome
What does the literal rule respect?
- Parliamentary sovereignty
Name two case in which the literal rule was applied
- Whiteley v Chappell (1868)- def was “impersonating a person entitled to vote”, however person was dead and therefore not entitled to vote, literal rule applied
- London and North Eastern Railway Co v Berriman (1946)- railway worker killed whilst oiling the tracks, widow tried to claim compensation but act stated worker must have been “relaying or repairing”, literal rule applied
What are the two views of the golden rule?
- The narrow and wide application
When is the narrow application used?
- If words of an Act have two meanings the judge can choose which one to use
What are two cases in which the narrow view was applied?
- Jones v DPP 1962
- Adler v George (1964)- “in the vicinity”, defs were “inside” prohibited place, golden rule applied to avoid absurdity (The Official Secrets Act 1920)
When is the wide application used?
- When words have only one meaning but this meaning would result in absurdity
Name a case in which the wide application was applied
- Re Sigworth (1935)- involved interpretation of The Administrations of justice Act 1925, a son murdered his mother to claim her inheritance, if granted money the result would have been repugnant
What does the mischief rule do?
- Gives the judges flexibility and discretion
- Able to ignore the wording of the statute in order to reach the desired outcome
What are the 4 points the courts should consider in regards to the mischief rule?
- What was the common law before act was written?
- What was the mischief for which the common law did not provide
- What was the remedy parliament proposed
- The true reason for the remedy
Name 2 cases in which the mischief rule was applied
- Smith v Hughes 1960- defs charged with “soliciting in a street or a public place for the purpose of prostitution” contrary to The Street offences Act 1959 s1, however, they were soliciting from upstairs windows, “mischief” parliament was intending to stop so they were charged.
- RCN v DHSS 1981- The Abortion Act 1967 stated only drs were authorised to carry out abortions, however by 1981 it was clear that nurses were in fact carrying out simple procedures. Purpose of act was to prevent backstreet abortions.
What does the purposive approach do?
- Goes beyond the mischief rule, Judges decide what Parliament meant to achieve
Name 2 cases in which the purposive approach was applied
- Rv Registrar-General, ex parte Smith 1990, court had to consider S51 of Adoption Act 1976, serial killer wanted to meet natural mother but this was too risky
- R (Quintavalle) v Secretary of State 2003, court had to consider definition of embryo in the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Act 1990
What are the advantages of the literal rule?
- Respects sovereignty
- Since parliament is democratically elected they can be held to account by electorate
- Judges are unaccountable since they are not elected
- Prevents judges from becoming too powerful
- Makes law more certain
What are the disadvantages of the literal rule?
- Assumes every act is perfectly drafted
- Words may have more than one meaning
- Can result in absurdity
Zander stated “the literal rule is mechanical and divorced from the realities of the use of language
What are the advantages of the golden rule?
- Respects sovereignty except in limited circumstances
- Provides an escape route when the literal rule results in an absurdity
- When there are two meanings judges can choose the most sensible one
- Prevents repugnant outcomes
- Used rarely to prevent judges having too much power
What are the disadvantages of the golden rule?
- Limited in its use
- Not always predictable when courts will apply it as judges may have different views in regards to what is absurd
- Zander describes it as a “feeble parachute”- escape route that doesn’t do too much
What are the advantages of the mischief rule?
- Promotes the purpose of the law by looking at the gap
- More likely to produce a just result
- Law commission prefers this rule
What are the disadvantages of the mischief rule?
- Can result in judicial law making
- Judges do not always agree with how statute should be interpreted (RCN v DHSS)
- Judges fill gaps in law with own views
- May lead to uncertainty
- Not as wide as purposive approach, only looks at gaps not considerations
What are the advantages of the purposive approach?
- Leads to justice
- Broad approach, judges can fill gaps
- Useful when there is new technology which was unknown when act was written
- Gives judges more discretion and avoids absurdity
What are the disadvantages of the purposive approach?
- Can result in judicial law making
- Judges fill gaps with own views
- Can be difficult for judges to discover intention of parliament
- May lead to uncertainty
What are the 3 rules of language?
- The ejusdem generis rule (list of words limited to general words)
- Expressio Unius Exclusio Alterius (mention of one thing excludes other)
- Noscitur a sociis (a word is known by the company it keeps)
When do courts use aids?
- When trying to discover the intention of parliament
What are intrinsic aids?
- Matters within the statute
What are some examples of intrinsic aids?
- Long title, short title, preamble, headings and marginal notes
What are extrinsic aids?
- Matters outside the statute
What are some examples of extrinsic aids?
- Other acts on the same topic, newspapers, dictionaries from the time, case law, law commission reports and hansard
What is hansard?
- The official report of what was said in parliament when the act was debated
What did the HL do in the case of Pepper v Hart 1993?
- Relaxed the rule and accepted that Hansard can be used in limited ways
What is the effect of EU law on statutory interpretation?
- Purposive approach preferred by most European countries
- Judges more likely to apply approach to UK law
- English courts must interpret law based on EU law
What does section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 state and what is an example of a case in relation?
- That legislation must be read and given effect in a way that is compatible with the ECHR
- Mendoza v Ghaidan 2002
