What are intrinsic aids?
Help found within the Act itself
What are three examples of intrinsic aids?
- Short titles
- Definition sections
- Marginal notes
What are Short titles?
- contain the name of the act and date it was passed
- Gives judges an idea of what the act is about, and can also help them differentiate between different Acts
- E.G there are two theft Acts (1968 and 78) that contain different bits of law
What do the dates in acts also help with?
Knowing what dictionary to use as in DPP v Cheeseman
What are definition sections?
- Sections of the Act that define key words.
- useful because parliament can sepecify what they meant by certain words if they are different to the dictionary definition.
- E.G. the definition section of property (section 4 of the Theft Act 1968) was used in Oxford v Moss to decide that information was not able to be stolen.
What are Marginal notes?
- notes written in the margin of Acts which give a summary of the section and how the Act should be used
- E.G. Montilla showed that these do not need to be used, but because they are written by the Parliamentary Counsel Office (who are answerable to the cabinet) they should be trustworthy.
What are extrinsic aids?
Aids found outside of the statute itself
What are examples of extrinsic aids?
- Hansard
- Dictionaries
- Law reform reports
- the interpretation Act
What is Hansard
- A record of Parliament’s debates which can be useful when trying to figure out Parliament’s intentions for the mischief rule/purposive approach
- E.G. Pepper v Hart allows Hansard to be used under 3 conditions: if the words of an Act are ambiguous; the minister in charge of the Act made a statement on these words; and this statement clears up the ambiguity.
What role do dictionaries play in statutory interpretation?
Help determine the meaning of key words not defined by Parliament
Judges may use the Oxford English Dictionary from the date of the Act for clarity.
In which case was a dictionary used to interpret the word ‘passenger’?
DPP v Cheeseman
The definition used was ‘passer-by or through’, leading to D’s acquittal.
What do law reform reports typically explain?
Problems with the old law
Written by the Law Commission, these reports help judges understand the mischief Parliament aimed to address.
In the case of DPP v Bull, why were male prostitutes not found guilty?
The mischief Parliament aimed to solve was only related to female prostitutes
The law reform report indicated that the issue was not with male prostitutes.
What does the Interpretation Act 1978 provide guidance on?
How to interpret other statutes
It specifies that ‘he’ includes ‘she’ and singular words include plurals.
Fill in the blank: The Interpretation Act 1978 states that any mention of the word ‘he’ should also include _______.
she
This is part of the guidance on interpreting statutes.
True or false: The literal rule is often supported by the use of dictionaries in statutory interpretation.
TRUE
Dictionaries help clarify the meanings of words in legislation.
