BA 3340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 99: Law Report, Intermedio, Administrative Appeals Tribunal
Document Summary
One of the roles of the courts is to interpret legislation made by parliament. But only if legislation is unclear if it is clear, valid and unambiguous, courts must apply the legislation. If it is unclear courts can make law to clarify the legislation and that becomes part of the judge made law (common law) When the source of the law is a statutory provision: A judge who interprets the meaning of the words of the statutes also creates precedent. This may be used in future cases to determine the meaning of the same statuary words or provisions. To assist in the interpretation of statutes judges created a set of common law rules: The literal rule (or plain meaning rule): court gives effect to the literal meaning of the legislation. The golden rule: court gives effect to the literal meaning unless that leads to some absurdity or injustice (this rule is no longer used)
