Describing the Rules and Aids to Statute interpretation. Including Advantages and Disadvantages.

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Briefly describe the aids to interpretation used by judges.

    There are two types of aids that judges can use to interpret statutes, these are Intrinsic and Extrinsic.

    Intrinsic Aids are connected to the wording and/or punctuation within the Act itself. If using the Intrinsic Aid to interpret an Act of Parliament they will either examine the statute as a whole or study the relevant parts to see if they can define the overall purpose of the legislation. They may find that an interpretation of a certain section of the legislation would lead to an absurd result when another section is also taken into account.

    All legislations have both a shortened title and a long title. With Intrinsic Aids, they need to look at both to help resolve doubt. The long title can be examined as part of the whole context. Said by Lord Simon in the case: The Black-Clawson 1975 the long title should be read as part of the context ‘as the plainest of all the guides to the general objectives of a statute’.

    Furthermore, headings, side notes and punctuation are important as it may help the judges clarify some points of the whole Act. Preambles can also be important when considering the wording etc within an Act as they will generalise the mischief to be amended and the scope of it.

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    Extrinsic Aids, on the other hand, deal with external matters, outside of the legislation, to help explain the meaning and purpose of the Act. External Sources can include dictionaries and other literary resources for example textbooks, to define the many meanings of statutory words and gain an insight of which meaning was meant to be incorporated into the Act. Also as of the Pepper v Hart case of 1993, the general prohibition that a court cannot refer to Parliamentary materials such as Hansards– a record book of everything said in the Parliamentary Houses was relaxed. Thus meaning that ...

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Summary:A generally accurate account of aids to interpretation and two rules that help judges give a meaning to words in an Act. The explanation is well supported by case authorities. Rating: ****