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Statutory Interpretation

The mischief rule

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

Overview

Recall questions on the four matters a court must consider, Smith v Hughes, why Royal College of Nursing v DHSS was controversial, preambles, and the 1969 Law Commission recommendation.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

State the mischief rule.

Numbers

Which case laid down the mischief rule?

Key term

What four matters does Heydon's Case direct the court to consider?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    State the mischief rule.

    Model answer

    The court identifies the defect in the previous law that the statute was passed to cure, and reads the statute so as to suppress that mischief and advance the remedy.

  2. 2

    Which case laid down the mischief rule?

    Model answer

    The rule was laid down in Heydon's Case (1584).

  3. 3

    What four matters does Heydon's Case direct the court to consider?

    Model answer

    What the common law was before the Act, what mischief that law failed to provide for, what remedy Parliament resolved upon, and the true reason for that remedy.

  4. 4

    What was decided in Smith v Hughes (1960)?

    Model answer

    Women soliciting from balconies and windows were held to be soliciting in a street, because the mischief the Act addressed was the harassment of people walking in the street, and that is exactly what they were doing.

  5. 5

    What was decided in Corkery v Carpenter (1951)?

    Model answer

    A bicycle was held to be a carriage for the offence of being drunk in charge of one on the highway, because the mischief was drunken people in control of transport endangering others.

  6. 6

    What was decided in Elliott v Grey (1960)?

    Model answer

    A car jacked up with its battery removed was still being used on the road for the purposes of the compulsory insurance requirement, because the mischief was the hazard an uninsured vehicle on the highway presents.

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Law Making in Wales and the UK
Delegated Legislation
Statutory Interpretation
Judicial Precedent

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Roles v Nathan ( ).
196319411945

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AThe defendant owed the victim a duty of care and breached it.
BThe breach carried a reasonably foreseeable risk of death.
CThe breach caused the death.

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Pecuniary loss is financial and measurable.
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