Unit 23 - Aspects of the Legal System and Law-making Process
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Explain the rules of statutory interpretation
Introduction
In this assignment it would be explained the three important rules that are applied
when interpreting a statute also called statutory interpretation.
A statute is also known as a legislation which are the written laws of the British legal
system.The legislation is created and implemented by the Parliament and enforced
by various authorities.
Due to the fact that interpreting the meaning of a legislation is not always
straightforward the judges has to use it in accordance with existing law and rules of
‘statutory interpretation’.
What is statutory interpretation?
Statutory interpretation is process by which courts interpret and apply legislation.
Some amount of interpretation is often necessary when a case involves a statute.
Sometimes the words of a statute have a plain and straightforward
meaning.However if the word of the statute is not clear than problems arise as failure
within legislation to cover a specific point; ambiguity as to its meaning; drafting
errors; new legal developments; and changes in the use of language. Some statutes
date back to the 18th century and use words which now have a very different
meaning today.
The name of the rule Explanation
THE MISCHIEF RULE This is the application that is used where there is ambiguity within the
legislation or when the courts are hearing unforeseen
loopholes.Therefore it could be used to interpret a statute only when
that statute was passed to remedy a defect in the common law.The
literal and golden rules looked at what parliament said, but the
mischief rule looks at what they meant.
The mischief rule was used in the landmark Heydon’s Case in 1584
where the court said that is required to have 4 issues in order for the
statues to be interpreted.As a result the issues were to :examine the
common law prior to the Act, locate the mischief or defeat in the
common law, identify the remedy Parliament meant to propose to
eliminate the mischief, and finally, to give effect to that remedy.
In addition these rule is narrower than golden rule therefore is used
only to detect the mischief and to spot tha those statues were made
up to a remedy.
The mischief rule was referred by the Law Commission, which
included it as a statutory interpretation in 1969, as a "rather more
satisfactory approach" than the other two established rules.
THE LITERAL RULE The literal rule is the law used to interpret statutes therefore the
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