Statutory interpretation Flashcards
Define Statutory Interpretation :
Statutory interpretation involves the role of judges when trying to apply an act of parliament to an actual case.
Statutory interpretation is essential to enforce and apply law
List some reasons why statutes need to be interpreted :
Mistakes - due to human error
Words can change their meaning - from 1980’s words don’t mean the same thing (Cheeseman v DPP)
Circumstances can change
An act may use a broad term instead of limited or specific words e.g. dangerous dogs , doesn’t mention which breed
What are the 4 main rules of statutory interpretation ?
- Literal
- Golden
- Mischief
- Purposive
Define what the Literal rule is :
Judges take the ordinary, literal and natural meaning of the word and apply it to the case.
The rule respects parliamentary sovereignty and provides a consistent approach to the law.
Lord Esher said in 1892 that ‘ the court has nothing to do with the question of whether the legislature has committed an absurdity’, can you give a criticism point along with this
Famous cases such as Fisher v Bell and Whiteley v Chappelll where judges have used the literal rule tend to be ones which produce absurd results are used to criticise the rule. Judges who use this rule or support believe it is not their job to change the wording of an act which may true however when an act works perfectly for majority cases but not for that one the judges should interpret the law differently otherwise Defendants that have done things wrong escape conviction .
What was held in the case of Fisher v Bell and the case of Whiteley v Chappell ?
Applying the literal rule, shopkeeper wasn’t offering for sale a flick knife so was acquitted
Applying the literal rule to the phrase ‘entitled to vote’ he was found not guilty as dead people aren’t entitled to vote
What was held in the case of London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) v Berriman and can you give a criticism
Judges applied the literal rule ‘relaying and repairing’ and this didn’t include oiling, so his wife wasn’t entitled to compensation.
A criticism of this rule is that a man is dead and although he wasn’t relaying and repairing at that time legally the company were supposed to provide a look out person and the fact that they didn’t have in place shows that they were negligent hence they should face some kind of punishment especially since its resulted in the death of a man but due to the literal rule they weren’t held liable.
Define the Golden rule :
The Golden rule is an extension of the literal rule. Originated from the case of Becke v Smith. If the literal rule gives an absurd result which parliament did not intend, judges should alter words in statute to produce a satisfactory result.
What are the two ways the judge can use the golden rule ?
The narrow and the wide golden rule
Define the narrow golden rule and what was held in the case of R v Allen and R v Maginnis
The Narrow golden rule can be used when a word has more than one meaning, the judge can pick the meaning that makes sense.
It was held that he was convicted of the offence of marrying 2 people since the courts used the Golden rule to define marry as married in the eyes of the law
He was found guilty of ‘supplying’
Define the wide golden rule and what was held in the case of Re Sigworth and Adler v George ?
The wide golden rule is where the judge understand the meaning of the word but does not apply the literal meaning as it would be undesirable/ repugnant and it would set a bad example for the public
The D killed his mother for inheritance so they used the WGR so he wouldn’t be entitled to the property as this is repugnant.
Courts used WGR to convict him as it was bad for public policy to let him get away
Define the mischief rule : and what was held in the cases of Smith v Hughes and DPP v Bull
The mischief rule was established in Heydon’s case, it gives the judge flexibility when deciding what ‘mischief’ parliament intended to stop, this way they ignore the wording of the statute and reach the desired outcome
In Smith the women were not ‘in a street’ but in a balcony window however they were found guilty as judge used the rule to cover balconies and windows
in DPP v Bull same thing except he wasn’t guilty as the rule was written to only apply to women
What was held in the cases of RCON and Corkery v Carpenter
- Judge used mischief rule to allow nurses to carry out abortions due to medical advancements
- D was guilty eventhough bicycles weren’t mentioned in act as through the mischief parliament was trying to prevent anyone using any transport on road whilst drunk
Define what the purposive approach is and what was held in the case of R v Registrar
The purposive approach to statutory interpretation looks for the purpose of an act. The Judge will look outside of the act to find out parliaments true intentions
It was held in R v Registrar that the court thought that parliaments purpose would not have been used in a way to allow or promote a possible crime
What was held in the case of Jones ?
Courts decided that purpose of anti-discrimination legislation was to make employers responsible if they allowed racial harassment to occur
