1. Critically Examine the Principles Used by the Courts When Interpreting Acts of Parliament

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Statutes are extremely complex legal documents, drawn up by highly specialised parliamentary draftsmen. Often, they cannot anticipate every future possible situation the law might apply to, nor give a clear definition to the words they use. This is because our language is often full of natural ambiguities, as can be seen if you look up a word in a standard dictionary. As a result, judges are often called upon to interpret a word or phrase that can be crucial to the outcome of a case they are dealing with. Judges have traditionally used three rules as an aid to interpretation. The Literal Rule has been the dominant rule, whereby the ordinary, plain, literal meaning of the word is adopted. Lord Esher stated in 1892: “If the words of an Act are clear, you must follow them, even though they lead to a manifest absurdity”. This can be seen in Whitely v Chappell 1868, where the court decided that the accused was not guilty of pretending to be a person “entitled to vote”. This is because the name he used was of a person who had died, and, although still on the list, was not entitled to vote. Likewise, in Fisher v Bell 1960, a seller was found not guilty of “offering to sell” an offensive weapon as the goods on display in his shop window amounted to an invitation to treat and not an offer. The Act had to be amended the next year to include the word “display”. There are a number of disadvantages with using this rule, often referred to as the “dictionary rule”, since dictionaries may give several meanings to the same word. It also restricts judicial creativity and holds back development of the law to reflect changing social conditions. The Golden Rule is an improvement on the above, as some attempt is made to put a word into its proper context. It is basically reverting to the Literal Rule, but where a manifest absurdity results, judges

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