Statutory Interpretation

What Statutory Interpretation covers

The literal, golden and mischief rules and the purposive approach, the aids a judge may use, and the pull of European and human rights law on how statutes are read.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The Literal and Golden RulesRecall questions on what the literal rule requires, the narrow and wide approaches to the golden rule, and the advantages and disadvantages of each rule, from certainty and respect for Parliament to absurd results.Open →
• The Mischief Rule and the Purposive ApproachRecall questions on the questions set out in Heydon's Case and on how the purposive approach goes further than the mischief rule.Open →
• Intrinsic and Extrinsic AidsRecall questions on intrinsic aids such as titles, preambles, schedules and interpretation sections, and extrinsic aids including dictionaries, Law Commission reports, explanatory notes, treaties and Hansard under the three Pepper v Hart conditions.Open →
• The Purposive Approach: Evaluation and European InfluenceRecall questions on why EU law and section 3 of the Human Rights Act pushed courts towards purposive reading, and the advantages and disadvantages of the purposive approach, including judicial activism and parliamentary sovereignty.Open →
• Evaluating the Mischief RuleRecall questions on how the mischief rule serves legislative purpose, allows flexibility, produces just outcomes and uses historical context, and on the difficulty of identifying the mischief, judicial law-making and uncertainty.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Statutory Interpretation further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Literal rule vs Golden rule

  Literal rule: giving words their ordinary plain meaning even if the result is absurd. Golden rule: departing from the plain meaning only so far as to avoid an absurd result.

• Mischief rule vs Purposive approach

  Mischief rule: interpreting a statute to suppress the problem it was passed to remedy. Purposive approach: interpreting a statute to give effect to the purpose Parliament intended.

• Intrinsic aid vs Extrinsic aid

  Intrinsic aid: a source of help found within the statute itself, such as its long title. Extrinsic aid: a source of help outside the statute, such as Hansard or a Law Commission report.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does the literal rule require judges to do when interpreting statutes?

   Model answer

   Give words in a statute their plain, ordinary, grammatical meaning, even if this produces an absurd or unjust result.

2. 2

   Under the literal rule, what happens if applying the plain meaning of words leads to an unjust outcome?

   Model answer

   The judge must still apply that plain, ordinary meaning regardless of the absurd or unjust result.

3. 3

   What is the golden rule in statutory interpretation?

   Model answer

   A modification of the literal rule that allows judges to depart from the literal meaning when it would produce an absurd, repugnant or inconsistent result.

4. 4

   When may a judge depart from the literal meaning under the golden rule?

   Model answer

   When applying the literal meaning would produce an absurd, repugnant or inconsistent result.

5. 5

   What is the narrow approach to the golden rule?

   Model answer

   Selecting between alternative meanings of a word when it has more than one possible interpretation.

6. 6

   What is the wide approach to the golden rule?

   Model answer

   Modifying the meaning of words to avoid absurdity even when only one literal meaning exists.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Statutory Interpretation revision questions

What does Statutory Interpretation cover in AQA A-Level Law?

5 subtopics: the literal and golden rules, the mischief rule and the purposive approach, intrinsic and extrinsic aids, the purposive approach: evaluation and european influence and evaluating the mischief rule. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Statutory Interpretation organised?

By the AQA 7162 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.