Understanding Legislation: A Practical Guide to Statutory Interpretation

✍ Scribed by David Lowe; Charlie Potter

• Publisher: Hart Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 335
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Understanding Legislation provides a practical, accessible guide to interpreting both English and European legislation of all kinds. This book can be used as a first port of call for practitioners and students on all matters of statutory construction. It is designed to serve as a succinct and authoritative point of reference for questions concerning sources of legislation, the anatomy and structure of differing instruments and matters of interpretation. As well as considering how to read statutory language, and the key principles and presumptions that the courts will apply, the book addresses how other legislation and materials can influence the interpretive exercise and in what way. To this end, it discusses the interpretive significance of the different components of legislation, the various external aids to construction that may exist, and the role of international law, the European Convention on Human Rights (through the Human Rights Act 1998) and EU law in interpreting domestic law. While the primary focus is on English law, the treatment of EU and international law will also serve as concise freestanding guidance as to the sources of EU law, the construction of EU legislation and the construction of treaties.

✦ Table of Contents

Foreword
Authors
Contents
Table of Cases
Table of Legislation
Introduction
What is Statutory Interpretation and Why is it so Important?
The Purpose of this Book
Structure and Approach
A Word of Thanks
1. Introduction to Domestic Legislation: Statutes and Subordinate Legislation
Primary Legislation: Acts of Parliament
Subordinate Legislation: Statutory Instruments
2. Anatomy and Structure of Domestic Legislation
Constituent Components of an Act
Constituent Components of Statutory Instruments
3. Core Principles and Approach
The Central Objective and Overall Approach
Reading the Statutory Language
The Role of Context and Purpose
Judicial Correction of Obvious Errors in Statutory Drafting
Contextual Construction: The Presumption that Parliament Knows the Law and Endorses Certain Judicial Decisions
The Role of Subsequent Practice in Interpretation
4. General Presumptions as to the Intended Effect of Legislation
The Presumption that Legislation Accords with ‘Common Sense’
The Presumption of Reasonableness: Presumption against an Absurd, Irrational, Futile or Unreasonable Result
The Presumption that Penal Provisions Should be Strictly Construed
The Presumption against Changes in the Common Law
The Presumption that Legislation is Not Contrary to Fundamental Rights or Basic Tenets of the Common Law: The Principle of Legality
The Presumption of Fairness
The Presumption of Mens Rea in Statutory Offences
The Presumption against the Exclusion of Judicial Review: Presumption that Ouster Clauses are to be Strictly Construed
The Presumption that Parliament Does Not Authorise a Tort
The Presumption that Legislation Does Not Bind the Crown
The Presumption against Retrospectivity
The Presumption of Compatibility or Conformity with International Law
Territoriality: Presumptions as to Extent and Application
The Presumption of Regularity
5. Interaction of Legislation
Amendment, Repeal and Consolidation
Construction by Reference to Other Legislation: General Rules
Construction by Reference to Other Legislation: Specific Instances
6. Internal Aids to Interpretation
Interpretive Effect of Ancillary Components
Interpretation Provisions
Deeming Provisions
Provisos and Savings
7. External Aids to Interpretation
The Rationale for Recourse to External Aids
Specific Kinds of External Aids and their Use
Parliamentary Statements
Explanatory Notes
Explanatory Memoranda
Pre-legislative Materials
Post-legislative Materials
General Principles for the Use of External Aids
8. The Interpretation Act 1978
Scope of Application of the 1978 Act
Key Provisions
9. The Effect of International Law on Domestic Legislation
Sources of International Law
Interpretation of Domestic Legislation in the Light of Treaties
Interpretation of Treaties
Interpretation of Domestic Legislation in the Light of Customary International Law
10. Impact of the Human Rights Act 1998: Sections 3 and 4
Section 3
Section 4: Declarations of Incompatibility
11. Sources of EU Law and the Nature, Anatomy and Structure of EU Legislation
History and Development of the EU Treaties
Sources of EU Law
Legislative Procedure
The Anatomy and Structure of EU Legislation
12. Interpretation of EU Law and its Effect on Domestic Legislation
The Legal Basis for Application of EU Law in the UK
The Effect of EU Law on Domestic Law: Duties of Disapplication and Conforming Interpretation
Interpretation of EU Law
13. Research Tools and Works of Reference
Finding Legislation and Related Commentaries and Materials
Finding the Meaning of Words and Phrases
14. Checklist: Practical Considerations
Application of Legislation
Relevance of Other Legislation and Aids to Interpretation
Interpretive Considerations
Index