The golden rule can be sued if the literal rule provides an absurd outcome. The golden rule has a narrow and broad approach. The narrow approach is when the words have more than one meaning and the judge chooses the one which provides the least absurd outcome for example in Adler v George where the word ‘vicinity’ was ambiguous. The board approach si when there is only one meaning but it provides absirdidty so the judge modifies the meaning for example in Re Sigsworth where a son kiled his mother and was entitles toinheritance.
The next rule is the mischief rule, this was established in Heydons. The aim of the mischief rule is to find what mischief parliament was trying to stop. It aims to look at what was the law before and what remedy parliament was trying to provide. An example where this was used is in Smith v Hughes where prostitutes were soliciting out of a windowrather than on the street.
The final approach is the purposive approach favoured by lord denning who said we should find parliament intention and carry it out. This looks to what the ‘spirit’ of the law is and what parliament was trying to achieve. An example where this was used is in R v Registrar ex parte smith where a killer with hatred for adoptive parents wanted his birthb cirtificate, the courts did not allow this.
Judges may also use intrinsic and extrinsic aids to interpret the law such as the preamble, schedule, marginal notes, dictionaries, other cases and hansard; the daily report of debate sin parliament.
Explain the intrinsic and extrinsic aids available to judges to interpret the law
Intrinsic and extrinsic aids are used in statutory interpretation to help judges interpret the law. They are used often along side the four rules; literal, golden, mischief and purposive.
Intrinsic aids are found inside the act itself. This can indluede the long and short title as these may help understand the purpose of the act, for example the dangerous dogs act. The marginal notes may also help as these are inserted by the draftsman during rintint with the im to help interpretation, however if there is a contradictions between statute and marginal notes, the statute should be adhered to. The preamble can also be used, this is only found on older acts. This is found on the back of an act and states parliaments intention when passing the law.
Extrinsic aids are found outside of the act. A common extirnsic aid is dictionaries, these can help with the literal rule. For old statutes dictionaries from the time the act was passed may be used, this can be seen in the case of DPP v Cheesman. Another extrinsic aid is the use of textbooks or history books to find the historical setting which the act was passed in, this can help with the mischief and purposive rule as it gives an insight to what issues were present at the time.
The largest arguably most important extirnsic aid is the use of hansard. Hansard is the daily report of debates in parliament. This was banned in Davis v Jhonson as Lord scarman stated it is too confusing and time consuming however was kater unbanned in Pepper v Hart. this is helpful as issues from th case infront of the judge may have been raised and cisussed during the passing of a law.
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