Ch. 3, Ambigious Statutes Flashcards
What three principles must a court’s interpretation have to be appropriate?
justified in its plausibility: compliance with legislative text, efficacy: promotion of legislative intent, acceptability: outcome complies with accepted reasonable norms and is reasonable and just
Define the two models of statutory interpretation.
British Tradition: a statute is interpreted literally, phrases and clauses are examined in order to extract their PRECISE meanings: assumes that the law’s intent is within the language of the statute and there is no need to go beyond the wording itself
European/US/ CANADA tradition: any source that can help in determining the intent can be consulted: parliamentary/legislative debates, commission reports, and statements of those responsible for the legislation ASSUMES that the words of statute are not always sufficient to allow us to understand the meaning in sometimes unclear language
What is the purpose of a statute’s preamble?
designed to set out the purpose or gist of that legislation
Define the three rules and three grammatical principles when constructing statutes.
Rules
-Read the statute literally
-Read it in context
-Read it in accordance with its intentions
Grammer: expressie units est exclusie alterius, ejusdem genereis, and noscitur a sociis (same rules just for the grammer
Define the three rules of interpretation outside the basic reading ones.
Plain Meaning Rule: demands that the words of a statute be read in accordance with their literal, grammatical sense (not subjective to any other interpretation)
Golden Rule: words cannot always be read literally; in this case, anything repugnant (incompatible), inconsistent, or absurd must be remedied
Rule in Heydon’s Case: consider the common law before the statute, the mischief for which the common law does not provide (defect or limitation in legal control here), the remedy parliament has used to address the problem, and lastly consider the true reason of the remedy
Defining those three grammatical principles of construction.
expression of one thing is excluded from another class of things: (cats does not apply to dogs)
-one word followed by specific words define it (vehicle, motorcycle…vehicle is defined by the following criteria
-ambigous clauses/phrases will derive their meaning from the context in which they appear (garden spade among other weapons
Briefly outline the process of statute interpretation.
read statutes literally, adjust their meaning if only absolutely crucial, determine the purpose or the “mischief” at which a given statute is directed
Define an activist judiciary.
acceptability of federal and provincial legislation is assessed against a history of judicially constructed benchmarks of rights and freedoms.
Define the Latin term stare decisis.
To stand by decided things-specific reference to stand by the decisions of higher courts
Define the British method of statutory interpretation; define the European/Canadian method of statutory interpretation.
British traditions (abides by case law/natural law): statute is interpreted literally, phrases and clauses are interpreted for precise meanings; it is assumed that the statute is complete and therefore no need to go beyond the wording
Living Tree Doctrine: flourish and expand statute to encompass as many freedoms as possible
European/US Tradition/Canada (CIVIL SYSTEM/non-natural law) to determine the full intent of legislature, any source that may assist (parliamentary/legislative debates, commission reports) may be consulted: assume that words of a statute are NOT always sufficient
Define the Living Tree Doctrine.
flourish and expand statute to encompass as many freedoms as possible
Define Framer’s Intent/Originalist Position.
the intent of the document, the purpose of it, reasonable to look at its intent
Define the Test of Tolerance:
subjective objective test; seeing whether the community will tolerate something or not (and therefore decide criminal punishment)
Define the Plain Meaning Rule.
Plain Meaning Rule
Read the statute in its literal and grammatical sense
Courts may not read statutes loosely or impose their own construction (meaning) on the statute
Courts cannot assume legislatures have errors or omissions
Define the Golden Rule.
Read the statute in context
If there is some absurdity or inconsistency with the rest of the statute, the grammatical and ordinary sense of words may be modified to avoid this
The golden rule proposes that words cannot be read literally
Allows judiciary to remedy absurdity or inconsistency
