The Golden Rule and Purposive Approach (Judicial Creativity) (4)

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The Golden Rule
- This allows the literal rule to be avoided, but only where it leads to absurdity as in Re Sigsworth where the courts held that a murderer could not inherit his mothers estate whom he had murdered.
- The Golden Rule is an example of how slowly judges are becoming more and more creative
The Purposive Approach
- This allows creativity but also upholds parliamentary sovereignty
- Judges must interpret what parliament intended but may put their own values on it, such as in R v Secretary of State...
  - Here it was held that whilst cloning creates embryos without fertilisation, these embryos should be protected by law as government intended to protect embryos from harm