LAW 1501 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Mischief Rule, Golden Rule, Purposive Approach
7 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Melissa Sparrow (a1668063)
1
FOUNDATIONS READINGS WEEK 4
Laying Down the Law Chapter 9-
• Legislation first emerged in England prior to the sixth century and delegated
legislation emerged in the fourteenth century (p.285)
• Two forms of legislation- Statutes made by parliament and delegated legislation
made by bodies parliament has delegated law-making powers to
• Legislative rules and case law rules not the same- legislation can only solve future
issues whereas case law deals with current issues and retrospectively (p.287)
• New statutes that are inconsistent with a previous law override the old law
• When a law has been created by a subordinate body that conflicts with statutory
law, statutory law prevails (p.287)
• Legislation made by the federal parliament that is inconsistent with legislation on
the same topic made by a state parliament will prevail
• Legislation prioritised over case law
• All states except Queensland have bicameral parliaments
• Photocopy textbook pages 289-291 for legislative process
• Scrutiny of policy proposals and government expenditure- Parliamentary Budget
Office and Senate Estimates Committee (p.291)
• Critical to know when an act comes into force, not just when it is passed
• Commonwealth statutes are enforceable 28 days following assent unless it is
regarding a Constitutional amendment
• Reviving statutes- Uncommon, “when a statute that has been repealed comes into
force again for a specific period.” (p.295)
• Acts of parliament usually prospective but can be retrospective
• Acts that replace another act because of a mistake commence on the date when the
previous act commenced (p.297)
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Melissa Sparrow (a1668063)
2
• Statute Structure-
- Number
- Date
- Long Title
- Short Title
- Preamble
- Sections
- Section Headings and notes
- Chapters, Parts, Divisions and Subheadings
- Table of Contents
- Purpose
- Interpretation Sections
- Schedules
Laying Down the Law Chapter 10
• Foundation of statutory interpretation is to determine what the intent of parliament
was when the statute was made
• Common law interpretative techniques- Literal and Purposive approach
• Literal approach- “Assumes a word or phrase, read in its textual context, always
has just one meaning.” (p.344)
• Golden rule- Limitation on the literal approach
• Purposive approach- “Applied by determining the purpose of Parliament in passing
the legislation or the particular provision in question and adopting an interpretation
of the words that is consistent with that purpose.” Origins in the mischief rule.
(p.348)
• 15AA Acts Interpretation Act 1901 amendment- “In interpreting a provision of an
Act, the interpretation that would best achieve the purpose or object of the Act
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