Advantages and Disadvantages of the Literal Rule


	Advantages and Disadvantages of the Literal Rule
	Advantages the literal rule respects the soverignty of parliament the rule encourages certainty and people know where they stand. quick decisions can be made	Disadvantages it can lead to an unfair or absurd result nor does it seem fair that someone would be guilty if they cheated by impersonating a live person but not if they impersonated a dead person 'Whitely v Chappell' it is hard to apply if words have more than one meaning the literal rule is inflexible and does not allow judges to use common sense
	Evaluation the literal rule means giving words their plain ordinary dictionary meaning - no matter how unfortunated the consequences

it can lead to an unfair or absurd result
nor does it seem fair that someone would be guilty if they cheated by impersonating a live person but not if they impersonated a dead person 'Whitely v Chappell'
it is hard to apply if words have more than one meaning
the literal rule is inflexible and does not allow judges to use common sense

the literal rule means giving words their plain ordinary dictionary meaning - no matter how unfortunated the consequences

Get Revising