Statutory Interpretation

What Statutory Interpretation covers

Statutory Interpretation is examined in AS Unit 1, The Nature of Law and the Welsh and English Legal Systems. It covers the need for statutory interpretation, the literal rule, the golden rule, the mischief rule, the purposive approach and European influence, rules of language, presumptions and intrinsic aids and extrinsic aids, the Human Rights Act 1998 and evaluating the approaches.

The 7 subtopics

Each one has its own page. WJEC AS Law students sit this topic in the first year.

• The need for statutory interpretationAmbiguity in a statute, what a broad term is, with an example and constitutional tension at the heart of statutory interpretation.Open →
• The literal ruleRecall questions on the constitutional case for ordinary meaning, Whiteley v Chappell and Berriman, Parliament's response to Fisher v Bell, and the servants of the draftsman criticism.Open →
• The golden ruleRecall questions on the narrow and broad applications, R v Allen and Adler v George, the principle applied in Re Sigsworth, Zander's criticism, and the outcome in Berriman.Open →
• The mischief ruleRecall 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.Open →
• The purposive approach and European influencePurposive approach to interpretation and position of European law in the United Kingdom following withdrawal.Open →
• Rules of language, presumptions and intrinsic aidsEjusdem generis rule, rule expressio unius est exclusio alterius and rule noscitur a sociis.Open →
• Extrinsic aids, the Human Rights Act 1998 and evaluating the approachesExtrinsic aids to interpretation, four extrinsic aids and declaration of incompatibility.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: applying the plain meaning whatever the outcome. Golden rule: modifying that meaning far enough to avoid an absurd outcome.

• Mischief rule vs Purposive approach

  Mischief rule: looking back to the defect in the law before the Act. Purposive approach: looking to the object the Act as a whole was designed to achieve.

• Intrinsic aid vs Extrinsic aid

  Intrinsic aid: material inside the Act itself. Extrinsic aid: material outside it.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Why do the courts have to interpret statutes at all?

   Model answer

   Words drafted in advance must be applied to facts the legislature never imagined, and language is seldom precise enough to settle every case, so a court must decide what the enacted words cover.

2. 2

   Give three reasons why the meaning of a statutory provision may be unclear.

   Model answer

   A broad term may cover an uncertain range of cases, a drafting error may have survived the legislative process, or developments in technology and society may have produced situations the Act does not obviously address.

3. 3

   What is meant by an ambiguity in a statute?

   Model answer

   An ambiguity exists where a word or phrase will bear two or more different meanings, each of which the sentence can carry.

4. 4

   Explain what a broad term is, with an example.

   Model answer

   A broad term is one deliberately left general so it can be applied case by case, such as vehicle or reasonable, leaving the court to decide whether particular facts fall within it.

5. 5

   How can a shift in ordinary language create a problem of interpretation?

   Model answer

   A word may have changed its everyday meaning since enactment, so the court must decide whether to give it the sense it bore when the Act was passed or the sense it bears today.

6. 6

   Explain the constitutional tension at the heart of statutory interpretation.

   Model answer

   Parliament makes law and judges apply it, but every choice between possible meanings has some law-making effect, so a judge must be able to justify the chosen reading by reference to what was actually enacted.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Statutory Interpretation revision questions

Is Statutory Interpretation examined at AS in WJEC Law?

Yes. It sits in AS Unit 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Statutory Interpretation cover in WJEC AS-Level Law?

7 subtopics: the need for statutory interpretation, the literal rule, the golden rule, the mischief rule, the purposive approach and european influence, rules of language, presumptions and intrinsic aids and extrinsic aids, the human rights act 1998 and evaluating the approaches. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Statutory Interpretation organised?

By the WJEC 603-1978-1 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.