Methods And Rules Of Statutory Interpretation (English legal system)

There are various methods and rules of statutory interpretation (The main focus is on the rules of statutory interpretation but It will start with the methods of statutory interpretation because without the method there won't be rule to guide the method/way of statutory interpretation) Statutory also know has Statute is a written law passed by a legislative body (Statute means Law) The Statutory interpretation is the process by which courts interpret and apply legislation. Some amount of interpretation is often necessary when a case involves a statute Sometimes the words of a statute have a plain and straightforward meaning but in many cases, there is some ambiguity or vagueness in the words of the statute that must be resolved by the judge. To find the meanings of statutes, judges use various tools and methods of statutory interpretation, in common law, the judiciary mostly apply rules of statutory interpretation to legislation enacted by the legislature >There are two major Methods/Ways in which judges can approach a statute and interpret it this includes the "Literal approach" and the "Purposive approach". *The literal approach is where the judge should take the literal meaning of the legislation and not go beyond or behind the legislation to find the meaning of that law, The literal approach does help to establish to find the true intentions of parliament as the parliament wouldn't purposely create legislation which would cause absurd outcomes within court. *The purposive approach does not limit the judge in going beyond and behind the legislation to find a meaning of that law. This is usually done to ultimately follow the main reason for that law being created. >There are three major rules of interpreting statute, the rule that guide the literal and purposive approach explained above; they are described below. Firstly, The Literal Rule is where judges take the literal meaning of statute and apply this to the case at hand. Secondly, The Golden Rule allows judges again to take the literal meaning of the statute but if the decision will lead to an absurd outcome then the judge will intervene and use their common sense to make a judgment. ~There can be two types of the Golden Rule, the wider meaning and the narrow meaning. ~The narrow meaning is used when there are two contradictory meanings to a word in the statute. If this occurs the court will take the meaning which doesn't create an absurdity. ~The wider meaning is used when the legislation only has one meaning and where applying this meaning will cause an “absurd, inconsistent and inconvenient” outcome. Thirdly, The Mischief Rule is usually used to determine what parliament actually meant by creating the act. ~There also aids available to the judiciary. There are two types of aids available intrinsic and extrinsic. ~The intrinsic aids allow the court to find the meaning within the statutes, i.e. judges can look at the detailed title and the explanatory notes of the statute. ~Extrinsic aids again allow the judiciary to find the meaning of the statute. Judges can look at things outside to understand a statute completely i.e. they can look at Dictionaries, reports from the Royal Commissions. Sometimes Hansard is used to find the meaning of a statute but not the reason for the law being created, Hansard is used very rarely. Finally,The Statutory interpretation is the process by which courts interpret and apply legislation, that is, the law passed by the legislative are interpreted by the judiciary using the methods(approaches) and rules above.