...are to ensure consistency/uniformity and predictability, thus creating confidence in the legal system. The stare decisis (stand by what is decided) enacts the requirement on the courts to follow/abide by the previous rationes decidendi of previous cases. Mainly, the lower courts will abide by precedent decisions due to the hierarchy invested therein (Binding precedent). In 1966, the House of Lords (now known as UK Supreme Court) referred to the doctrine of precedent as “…an indispensable foundation upon which to decide the law and its application to individual cases. It provides at least some degree of certainty upon which individuals can rely in the conduct of their affairs, as well as a basis for the orderly development of legal rules”. However, the House of Lords advised that: “…that too rigid adherence to precedent may lead to injustice in a particular case and also unduly restrict the proper development of the law. They propose, therefore, to modify their present practice and, while treating former decisions of this House as normally binding, to depart from a previous decision when it appears right to do so. In this connection they will bear in mind the danger of disturbing retrospectively the basis on which contracts, settlements of property and fiscal arrangements have been entered into and also the especial need for certainty as to the criminal law. This announcement is not intended to affect the use of precedent elsewhere than in this House.” This Practice...
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...The literal rule of statutory interpretation should be the first rule applied by judges. Under the literal rule, the words of the statute are given their natural or ordinary meaning. They don’t interpret meaning. Lord Diplock in the Duport Steel v Sirs case (1980) defined the rule: “Where the meaning of the statutory words is plain and unambiguous it is not then for the judges to invent fancied ambiguities as an excuse for failing to give effect to it’s plain meaning because they consider the consequences for doing so would be inexpedient, or even unjust or immoral.” This definition says that a judge should not deviate from the literal meaning of the words even if the outcome is unjust. If they do they are creating their own version of how the case should turn out and the will of parliament is contradicted. R v Harris (1836) 7 C & P 446 concerned a case where the defendant bit off his victim's nose. The statute made it an offence 'to stab cut or wound' the court held that under the literal rule the act of biting did not come within the meaning of stab cut or wound as these words implied an instrument had to be used. Therefore the defendant's conviction was quashed. The golden rule is an exception to the literal rule and will be used where the literal should be used first, but if it results in absurdity, the grammatical and ordinary sense of the words may be modified, so as to avoid absurdity and inconsistency, but no further. So, The Golden Rule is a modification of The...
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...most case. Statutory interpretation allows the judge to have a clear meaning of what is meant by the statutes. Hence, statutory interpretation is an important process when the case is judging by court and courts would seek to interpret the statutes at full steam. In the modern legal system, there are four general approaches to construe statutes that are respectively the golden rule, the literal rule, the purposive approach and the mischief rule. The quoted statement by Lord Denning means, when statute is interpreting, the judge need to understand the entire content of statutes and ascertain the intention of Parliament that better than reading different section of statues and to understand them separately, or words by words. In other words, Lord Denning said that by applying purposive approach better than literal rule. We need to understand and ascertain the meaning of four approaches before discussing the statement by Lord Denning. Whichever approaches or rules may be applied by court, giving a clear meaning of particular words in the statute or interpret the basic meaning of statute. The literal rule try to give a plain, straightforward and ordinary meaning to the words of statutes in the context of statutory provision or the Act, Maybe this word has a simply and popularly understood meaning but this word would has no more one meaning in the particular statute. In addition, some technical words of legislation...
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...statutory interpretation, a lot of judges would have trouble in deciding their judgments in deciding a case. This essay will analyse the four rules, intrinsic aids and extrinsic aids and presumptions in the interpretation of statutes. There are four different rules of interpretation in English law which are the literal rule, the golden rule, the mischief rule and the purposive rule/approach. Each rule take different approaches and some judges prefer to use one rule while other judges prefer another rule. Traditionally, the English courts have taken a literal approach to the interpretation of statutes. The Literal Rule is the cornerstone of this approach. The literal rule requires the courts to give the words of a statute their plain meaning. It is for a court to interpret Parliament’s intention from what it has actually said – not from what it thinks it meant to say. This can produce some surprising results as, in practice, words seldom have a single plain meaning. The example case of the literal rule can be Whiteley v Chappell (1868-69). It was a statutory offence to impersonate “any person entitled to vote” at an election. The defendant impersonated someone who was on the electoral register but who had died before the election. He was acquitted as deceased persons had no right to vote in the election (Paul, 2002). The Golden Rule is an...
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...The aids to interpretation used by the judiciary, how this may impact upon the sovereignty of parliament This assignment aims to introduce and discuss the aids to interpretation used by the judiciary and how this may impact upon the sovereignty of parliament. The legal system of both England and Wales has a body which includes legislations, common law and other legal norms that are established by parliament, the crown and judiciary. The courts are organised in a hierarchal structure and England has no written constitutions like the US therefore giving parliament power of 'law-makers' especially after they made themselves a supreme body who represent the people of the country, they have unquestionable power (unlike the other law-makers) to add, remove and change legislations without consulting the outsiders. As parliament don't have time to look through all bills passed the following can make 'delegated' (or subordinated) legislations; ministry of crown, privy council, local authority, courts and tribunals. Regulations in Chester v Bateson 1920 shows an example of a delegated legislation being declared void by parliament. The English courts are set in a hierarchal structure with this England developed a doctrine of binding precedent (doctrine of stare decisis Latin for "to stand by decided cases") meaning, when cases are being tried judges are bound by decisions of superior or equal court status within their jurisdiction and they must check for previous similar cases for...
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...Unit 1 – Section A - Statutory Interpretation Approaches to Interpretation The Literal Rule Under this rule, the courts will give words their plain, ordinary or literal meaning, even if the result is not very sensible. “If the words in an act are clear, then you must follow them even though they lead to a manifest absurdity.” (R v Judge of the City of London Court) Examples: (Whiteley v Chapel) – D charged under a section which made it an offence to impersonate any person entitled to vote. D impersonated someone who was on voting list but was deceased. D was not guilty as the person is dead they are not literally entitled to vote. (London and North Eastern Railways Co v Berriman) – Unable to claim when husband was killed whilst carrying out maintenance work oiling railway track. Statue said a look out should be provided when relaying or repairing the track. Words relaying and rapairing were given the literal meaning and didn’t cover maintenance. The Golden Rule It takes the literal meaning but the court is allowed to avoid interpretation which would lead to an absurd result. There are 2 views on how the golden rule should be used 1) the narrow application and 2) the wider application 1) Narrow application – if a word has more than one meaning, you can choose between them In Jones v DPP if a word had more than one meaning “You can choose between those meanings but beyond this you cannot go”. Examples: (R v Allen) – Example of narrow application Was a bigamist...
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...interpreting legislation there are rules one needs to adhere to, to construe the meaning of words. In courts the starting for the interpretation of statues is the Literal Rule. All words in a statue which are given their ordinary and natural meaning, the Literal Rule gives it. Even if the outcome or result is silly, under this rule the Literal meaning must be followed. In R v The City of London Court Judge (1892) Lord Esher stated that once words have clarity in an act they must be followed even if they lead to manifest absurdity. An example of the Literal Rule was in the case of Whiteley v Chappel (1868) states that in the aim of preventing electoral malpractice a statue made it an offense to impersonate ‘any person who was entitled to vote’ at an election. The accused had impersonated the dead and therefore he was acquitted. A dead person was clearly not entitled to vote. Advantages of the Literal Rule are that it promotes certainty. It reduces litigation and it is constitutionally correct. Disadvantage of this rule is that it is an automatic and unthinking response. It fails to take into account of the inevitable imperfection of draftsmanship. Often may the Literal Rule be the correct one but it is not automatically so. When the answer to the problems cannot be found in words of a statue the Literal Rule is useless. The Golden Rule is used when the Literal Rule seems to cause incongruous or discordant results. It is an extension of the Literal Rule. Disputed words, court gives...
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...What is Statutory Interpretations? Statutory Interpretations is the process by which Judges interpret Acts of Parliament. 75% of cases heard by the House of Lords are concerned with statutory interpretation. Statutory Interpretation is the process of reading and applying statutory laws, and judges trying to find out the intention of parliament when passing the law. Sometimes the words of a statute have a plain and straightforward meaning. But in most cases, there is some ambiguity (can be interpreted in more than one way) or vagueness (unclear) in the words of the statute that must be resolved by the judge. An example of where the language was unclear can be seen in the case of Twining v Myers (1982), where court has to decide whether roller skates amounted to a ‘vehicle’. There may be other cases where the meaning of words change over time, for example the Offences Against a Persons Act 1861 uses the word “malicious” and “grievous” which either would not be used in this modern day and time, or if used have different meanings to which was intended when the Drafts Man of the act write it. Other means of when Statutory interpretations would be needed is when Drafting errors are present in the bill, this happens mostly when bills are rushed in times of emergency. Problems of interpreting statutes? The problems with interpreting statues is that Judges have to decide what parliament meant by a particular piece of legislation. In most cases judges correctly judge of what the intentions...
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...Chapter 3: Principles of Statutory Interpretation 3.1: The Literal Rule "If the precise words used are plain and unambiguous, in our judgment we are bound to construe them in their ordinary sense, even though it does lead to an absurdity or manifest injustice"- Jervis CJ in Abley v. Dale 1851. The literal rule means the interpretation of Acts purely according to their literal meaning; it has fallen out of favour since the 19th Century. The literal rule of statutory interpretation says that words in a statute should be given their ordinary, literal meaning, no matter how absurd the result . An example of this rule can be seen in IRC v Hinchy (1960), in which the House of Lords was considering the effect of the Income Tax Act 1952. Section 25 of the ITA stated that any tax avoider should pay a £20 fine and ‘treble the tax which he ought to be charged under this Act’. Hinchy’s lawyers argued that this meant a £20 fine and treble the amount of tax which had been avoided. Unfortunately for Hinchy, the House of Lords decided that the literal meaning of ‘treble the tax which he ought to be charged under this Act’ was that a tax avoider should pay a£20 fine and treble his whole tax bill for the year. The outcome of the case was that Hinchy had to pay £438, even though the amount he had avoided was only £14.It is almost certain that the meaning applied by the House of Lords was not what Parliament had in mind when the Income Tax Act 1952 was passed. The statute was badly worded. The...
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...Contenido STATURORY INTERPRETATION 1 LITERAL RULE 1 GOLDEN RULE 1 MISCHIEF RULE 2 PURPOSIVE APPROACH 2 ALTERNATIVES DISPUTE RESOLUTIONS 3 INTRODUCTION 3 ARBITRATION 3 CONCILIATION 4 MEDIATION 4 MINITRAIL 5 NEGOTIATION 5 Bibliography 6 STATURORY INTERPRETATION LITERAL RULE This rule explains every word as an ordinary dictionary meaning. The aim of the court is to find the Parliament intentions when a word is used. Taken from: www.school-portal.co.uk In Sam´s case the selling of fish and chips and soft drinks can be defined as an invitation to treat which means that there is an offer which can be accepted or rejected by the offeree. In the present case exist a group of similarities regarding the case of Fisher V Bell (1960) in which it was argued that display and knife was an invitation to treat. Taking into account the definitions and parameter of the literal rule Sam is not guilty or convicted of the offence; according to this rule, the literal meaning has to be followed to obtain a complete understanding of the case and the situation. GOLDEN RULE This rule is an improvement of the literal rule which let at words into the proper context of those who are solving the case. The golden rule requires that the meaning of the words used in the study of the case need to have only one meaning offering the simplest signification unless when they are not applied it can be produce a misunderstanding and inconvenience. In this situation...
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...English contain many words with more than one meaning. In fact, some of the broad terms are used which have seven or more distinct definitions. With this being the case, even the best drafted legislation can include many ambiguities. This is the fact where people look at a text from different points of view they will naturally find different meanings in the language used. The courts are helped by a number of tried and tested rules of statutory interpretation. Judges have their own preferences as to these rules and are free to choose which approach to adopt depending upon the circumstances. The first option open to the judge is literal rule which involves applying the 'plain, ordinary, literal meaning’ of words even if this would lead to a manifest absurdity. This rule has been widely used even though the results have made nonsense of the law. This is illustrated in the case of Whitely v Chappell [1868] where it was held that the defendant was not guilty since a dead person is not, in the literal meaning of the word, "entitled to vote". This rule has also bought about harsh decisions due to the way it is applied. In...
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...breach of section 14. While riding his bicycle to university one day he was listening to his girlfriend who had rung him on his mobile phone to tell him about her day. He argues: 1. He was not talking on his mobile phone 2. He is not driving a motorcar, truck, motorcycle or similar vehicle Using the rules of statutory interpretation and the four-step process, explain to Django whether he is breach of section 14 by discussing each of his arguments in turn. Step 1 Area of Law: Common law rules of statutory interpretation Step 2 Principles of Law: Students should discuss: Literal approach – define it. IRC v Hinchy and other cases Golden Rule – define it Alder v George and other cases Mischief rule – define it Smith v Hughes and other cases The Ejusdem Generis rule-define it Hy Whittle Ltd v Stalybridge Corp and other cases Step 3 Application of the Law: If the literal rule was applied, this would be the answer If the golden rule was applied, this would be the answer If the mischief rule was applied, this would be the answer If the ejusdem generis rule is relevant, then it should be applied as well Step 4 Conclusion: The result will differ depending upon which rule is applied....
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...area which was located near her kitchen. John Ruth issued a notice that there had been a breach of Augusta Margaret River Shire Council local law that relates to the discharge of metals and metallic particles into soil, areas of vegetation, waterways, sewers, drains or similar areas. This law is followed by a significant fine of $3000. Daisy argues that the law does not apply when an insignificant amount of particles is discharged into a water storage container. The following provides an outline of relevant legal concepts and approaches to determine the validity of Daisy's argument. Statutory Interpretation Statutory interpretation is a method used by courts to interpret and apply legislation. It is necessary for legislations to have rules...
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... mainly because some statutes have a plain and straightforward meaning. And there usually is ambiguity and vagueness within the words of the statute and it is left to the judge for the matter to be resolved. 2.0 Some of the methods of statutory interpreation that we will reveal and discuss are the Literal Rule, Golden Rule, Mischief Rule and also anylase the Purposive Approach used by the courts of United kingdom and other countries who have adapted to the Laws of United Kingdom. 2.1 The Literal Rule During the 18th and 19th centuries the court started to take more of a literal approach within their courts they took a strict view of the words of a statute. If the case before them was not precisely covered they were not prepared to countenance any alteration of the statutory language. An example of this is: “Whiteley v Chappell (1868) LR 4 QB 147. In this case, the defendant pretended to be someone who had recently died in order to use that person’s vote. It was an offence to ‘personate any person entitled to vote.’ As dead people cannot vote, the defendant was held not to have committed an offence. The Defendant had voted using a dead person’s name.” 2.2 The Golden Rule Some judges have suggested that a court may depart from the ordinary meaning where that would lead to absurdity. It only applies where the words are ambiguous. An interpretation that is not absurd is to be preferred to one that is. An example of this is: R v Allen (1872) LR 1 CCR 367 The defendant...
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...Introduction This report will be based on the following which is the process when making an act of parliament the different stages they have to go through when a new law is being brought out and also the rules of statutory interpretation. For the merit, the methods of law making will be compared and contrasted and also the applying the rules of statutory interpretation. For the final part of this report, the role of the Judiciary in the formulation and interpretation of legal rules. How (most) laws are made * Most new laws passed by Parliament result from proposals made by the government. * Proposals aim to shape society or address specific problems. * Normally, they ‘re created over a period of time An issue or problem emerges on the government's agenda Originally, a government's plan is well-informed by the general election. Politician parties compete for support from British voters by campaigning on their view for the country and how they would make things better for the UK and change things. The political party which wins the election then forms the government, and bases its legislative agenda on its election manifesto. But, where no single political party decisively wins the election - as happened in 2010 - two or more parties may form an alliance government. They might have to negotiate a joint vision and agree on which new laws to champion in the future of the parliament. Once in government, other events and effects also compete for ministers' attention...
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