Dumbing Down Of Statutory Interpretation †Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Dumbing Down Of Statutory Interpretation? Answer: Introducation During the last few years the high court of Australia has endorsed without any dispute a few principles which are required to properly give meaning to legislation. Among such principles the most important is that in case the law which is applicable is expressly provided in the legislation the appropriate point to start the analysis of the law is the text of the legislation and not any common law or elaborations of the provisions by courts. In addition it has been provided by the court that for the purpose of giving meaning and bringing out the intention of the parliament in relation to a provision it would not be a correct steps towards only considering status dirty words separately. For the purpose of adopting a proper approach the meaning of the words in relation to the legislation have to be analyzed based on the fact that how search words appear in the context of the legislation. Therefore at the very least the judges must examine the total sentence along with the paragraphs and more appropriately the provisions immediately surrounding the rule for the purpose of properly giving meaning to the words of legislation[1]. In the famous case of Carr v The State of Western Australia[2] the courts not only considered the text or the legislation but also the purpose at the overall context where the text fits in the registration. This approach by the court leads to an appropriate interpretation of the legislation[3]. The judge has a fundamentally textual task of interpretative constitutional statutory of subordinate legislation. Judge should not stay very far from the text show the consideration of policy or context. The fundamental for the financial task on the task of a citizen or a lawyer with respect to the interpretation of legislation is the text. Constitutional Foundation exists in relation to the text obedience. Therefore at most relevance should be given to the text to provide meaning to the statue[4]. As per the traditional approach there are three basic rules of statutory interpretation which are divided into Golden Rule, Literal Rule and Mischief Rule. According to the interpretation act 1979 section 6A provision of an Act has to be constructed with respect to purpose of the Act and must not be exceed the powers which have been provided by the act[5]. According to the Literal rule of interpretation the words and phrases of a legislation is to be given the ordinary or dictionary meaning to bring out the intention of the parliament. According to the golden rule of Interpretation unless there is ambiguity the natural and ordinary meaning is given to statue. According to the Mischief Rule of statutory Interpretation, giving meaning to ambiguous phrase or word with respect to the legislation is done by giving relevance to the defect or mischief which the provisions seeks to rectify[6] The objective of the Act is to prevent dangerous and offensive behavior by unit and apartment residents. The Act through section 2 provides that a resident is a person who owns leases or is in-charge or the apartment. Further a business activity is defined as any action in relation to operating a commercial enterprise or activities related to customers. Section 3 of the Act states that a resident must not indulge in an action which causes offensive odors, undue noise or any annoyance to the other residents of the apartment after 10pm and before 6am and the breach of the section attracts a penalty of $400. Section 4 of the Act states that a resident should not conduct a business activity in relation to an apartment at any time, breach of the section results in a penalty of $2400. Application In this given scenario the new legislation has been brought to promote harmony between the residences along with their well being as the density of people residing in the area has increased over the last 5 years. The Act defines commercial activities as any activity which is related to customers what is in the course of business. It is specifically provided by the act that no person at any time living in the apartment is allowed to carry on a business activity. In relation to Section 4 it can be said that the words defining a business activity is not clear and ambiguous and thus the golden rule of interpretation can be used in this case. In this case it can be provided that the Legislature would not consider teaching as a commercial activity as in the society it is most of the time is a community development activity. Using the golden rule it can be stated that Kate was only teaching and having a discussion with Karam and therefore it should not be treated as a commercial activity given that the purpose of the act is to promote harmony and not unnecessary punishment for the residents. The act clearly provides that the residents must not cause undue orders after 10 p.m. before 6 A.M which would annoy The Other Apartment residence. The meaning of what can be regarded as undue has not been provided by the Act. In the given situation smoking cannot be regarded as undue odours because the smell generated from it is not so harsh that it would annoy resident living in another apartment. In addition the police only found the Astra which was overflowing but there was no proof that they have smoke all the cigarettes after 10 pm to cause the inconvenience claimed by the other resident. Conclusion Therefore considering the text, purpose and the position of the text in the context of the legislation it can be provided that Kate and Karam is not liable to be prosecuted under section 3 and 4 of the Act. References Brodie v Singleton Shire Council (2001) 206 CLR 512 Carr v The State of Western Australia [2007] HCA 47 Kelly v The Queen (2004) 218 CLR 216 Kirby M, Statutory Interpretation: The Meaning of Management [2011] Melbourne University Law Review 3; (2011) 35(1) Melbourne University Law Review 113 Nygh P and Butt P, Butterworths Concise Australian Legal Dictionary (Butterworths, 6th ed, 2011). Staszewski, Glen. "The Dumbing Down of Statutory Interpretation." (2015) [1] Kirby M, Statutory Interpretation: The Meaning of Meaning [2011] Melbourne University Law Review 3; (2011) 35(1) Melbourne University Law Review 113 [2] [2007] HCA 47 [3] Kelly v The Queen (2004) 218 CLR 216 [4] Brodie v Singleton Shire Council (2001) 206 marketing 512 [5] Staszewski, Glen. "The Dumbing Down of Statutory Interpretation." (2015). [6] Nygh P and Butt P, Butterworths Concise Australian Legal Dictionary (Butterworths, 6th ed, 2011).