Law Paper 1

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What is statutory interpretation?
Where judges interpret and modify the law made by Parliament and then apply it to a case at hand using unwritten rules
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Why is it important that statutory interpretation is done correctly?
The decisions made from statutory interpretation are able to set precedent which can only be changed when a relevant case comes before a judge
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Why may statutory interpretation be needed?
drafting errors, broad terms, lists in the law, ambiguity, changes in language and technology etc
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What is the literal rule?
Narrowest rule, doesn't allow for common sense brings legal rules and morality into conflict, takes the plain and ordinary meaning of the law to apply it to cases, may manifest uncertainty and lead to absurd decisions
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What are the three cases for the literal rule support?
Whiteley v Chappell, LNER v Berriman and Cheeseman
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Advantages of the literal rule include:
- quick and easy decisions (Cheeseman)
- creates public confidence as the parties know where they stand
- respects the sovereignty of Parliament as it uses their exact same wording it writes the law in
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Limitations of the literal rule include:
manifests uncertainity and leads to absurd outcomes (Whiteley v Chappell)
- cases are based on technicalities (LNER v Berriman)
- doesnt allow for common sense to be used
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What is the golden rule?
narrow rule, modification of the literal rule where if the case manifests uncertainty the judge can make adaptations to the law, narrow approach where the judge can choose between meanings and the broad approach were judges can interpret small phrases of
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Cases involved in the golden rule include:
- R v Allen (narrow approach)
- Adler v George (broad approach)
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Advantages of the golden rule include:
respects the wording of Parliament as it only makes minor tweaks to acts
- helps to make relevant small changes to the acts without the law having to go through Parliament which is time consuming
Can help a case to avoid manifesting certainty and leading
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Limitations of the golden rule include:
unpredictability (lacks guidelines)
- uncertainty (the same judge can come to very different decisions in similar cases)
- limited in its use (can only choose meaning or interpret small phrases of the acts)
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What is the mischief rule?
Broad approach, based on the old Heydon's case, allows for the judges to look for the gap in the law and the issues that is caused then they look at what parliament wanted to achieve as a result by putting this law in place, allows use of external aids
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Cases involved in the mischief rule?
Eastbourne Borough Council v Stirling, Smith v Hughes and Royal College of Nursing v Dept Health and Social security.
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Advantages of the mischief rule:
-allows for common sense
- allows for the use of external aids
- takes into consideration Parliaments intentions
- acknowledges changes in the language and technology
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Limitations of the use of the mischief rule:
-Finding Parliaments intentions prove to be difficult
-very old fashioned and out dated case
- it is undemocratic
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What is the purposive approach?
broadest rule, used by the EU and Human rights act to interpret its own law, allows for the use of external aids, goes one step further than the mischief rule and actually looks for Parlaiments intentions when creating the law
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Cases involved in the purposive approach include:
Case of Quintaville and ex parte smith
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Advantages in the purposive approach include:
- use of external aids
-common sense
- gives rise to Parliaments intentions
- takes into consideration social and technological changes
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Disadvantages in the purposive approach include:
- finding Parliaments intentions has been proven to be difficult
- undemocratic
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What are internal aids?
Those elements found under the acts itself that judges can use to interpret the law and apply it to a case at hand
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What types of internal aids are there?
Marginal notes and headings, schedules, the interpretation section, the long title and the short title, punctuation and the preamble.
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What types of external aids are there?
Hansard (Pepper v Hart), Dictionaries (Cheeseman), Explanatory notes , Textbooks, Law reform reports and previous acts of Parliament on the same topic
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What is the effect of the EU law on statutory interpretation?
They are shown to be a higher, supreme body so the UK has to accept EU law as supreme and it is legally binding. This affected courts in two ways firstly making judges accustomed to purposive approach and interpretation the EU law in light of its meaning
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What is the effect of the Human Rights on Statutory interpretation?
s. 4 states that it should be interpreted in a way that is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (Medoza v Ghaidan)
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

The decisions made from statutory interpretation are able to set precedent which can only be changed when a relevant case comes before a judge

Back

Why is it important that statutory interpretation is done correctly?

Card 3

Front

drafting errors, broad terms, lists in the law, ambiguity, changes in language and technology etc

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Narrowest rule, doesn't allow for common sense brings legal rules and morality into conflict, takes the plain and ordinary meaning of the law to apply it to cases, may manifest uncertainty and lead to absurd decisions

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Whiteley v Chappell, LNER v Berriman and Cheeseman

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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