Statutory Interpretation The Technique of Statutory ... - Francis Bennion

120 Part II — Statutory Interpretation
been described in chapters 3 and 4. It is a rule of law (which may be called the functional
construction rule) that in construing an enactment the significance to be attached to each type of
component of the Act or other instrument containing it must be assessed in conformity with its
legislative function and juridical nature as a component of that type.
Knowledge of the relevant parliamentary procedure (including royal assent procedure) will assist the
interpreter to give correct weight to each component of an Act, judged as an aid to construction. Some
components, although part of the Act, carry little if any weight for this purpose: they are intended as
nothing more than quick guides to content. Other components (for example the long title) owe their
presence in the Act wholly or mainly to the procedural rules applicable to parliamentary Bills, and
are to be regarded in that light.
Are there 'second class' components?
Any suggestion that certain components of an Act are to be treated, for reasons connected with their
parliamentary nature or history, as not being part of the Act is unsound and contrary to principle.
As Scrutton LJ said in relation to the short title:
... I do not understand on what principle of construction I am not to look at the words of the Act itself to
help me understand its scope in order to interpret the words Parliament has used in the circumstances in
which they were legislating. (In re the Vexatious Actions Act 1886—In re Bernard Boaler [1915] 1 KB 21, 40).
To suppose, as some judges have done, that the components of a Bill which are subject to printing
corrections by parliamentary clerks (such as punctuation, sidenotes and headings) cannot be looked at
in interpretation of the ensuing Act is to treat them as in some way 'unreliable'. Dicta to this effect in
cases such as R v Schildkamp [1971] AC 1 ignore two major considerations. One is that the entire
product is put out by Parliament as its Act and the courts have no authority to question this (Bill
of Rights 1688, art 9) and the other is that by virtue of the Interpretation Act 1978, s 19(1) a
reference to an Act is a reference to it as officially published and this includes all components.
Such dicta transgress the principle of law expressed in the maxim omnia praesumuntur rite et
solemniter esse acta donee probetur in contrarium (all things are presumed to be rightly and duly
performed unless the contrary is proved). They are also open to objection as introducing an unjustified
distinction between the interpretation of Acts and that of statutory instruments. A statutory instrument
is not subject to the making of printing corrections by parliamentary clerks. The headings, marginal
notes and punctuation of a statutory instrument must necessarily therefore be treated as being as
much part of the instrument as any other