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

148 Part II — Statutory Interpretation
penalisation. The interference may take many forms. All kinds of taxation involve detriment to
property rights. So do many criminal and other penalties, such as fines, compensation orders and
costs orders. Compulsory purchase, trade regulation and restrictions, import controls, forced
redistribution on divorce or death, and maintenance orders are further categories. It must be
stressed however that, as so often in statutory interpretation, there are other criteria operating in
favour of all these and the result must be a balancing exercise.
Perhaps the most severe interference with property rights is expropriation. Buckley LJ said that:
... in an Act such as the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, which, although it is not a confiscatory Act is
certainly a disproprietory Act, if there is any doubt as to the way in which language should be construed, it
should be construed in favour of the party who is to be dispropriated rather than otherwise. (Methuen-Campbell v
Walters [1979] QB 525, 542).
Property rights include the right of a person who is sui juris to manage and control his own
property. Nourse J referred to 'the general principle in our law that the rights of a person whom it
regards as having the status to deal with them on his own behalf will not ... be overridden' (Re
Savoy Hotel Ltd [1981] Ch 351, 365).
The tendency is for the conferring of property rights to be by common law, and for their abridgement
to be by statute. The courts, having created the common law, are jealous of attempts to deprive the
citizen of its benefits (eg Turton v Turnbull [1934] 2 KB 197, 199; Newtons of Wembley Ltd v
Williams [1965] 1 QB 560, 574). Where property rights given at common law are curtailed by statute,
the statutory conditions must be strictly complied with. Thus Davies LJ said of the Landlord and
Tenant Act 1954: 'The statute, as we all know, is an invasion of the landlord's right, for perfectly
proper and sound reasons; but it must be construed strictly in accordance with its terms' (Stile Hall
Properties Ltd v Gooch [1980] 1 WLR 62, 65).
On taxation the modern attitude of the courts is that the revenue from taxation is essential to the
running of the state, and that the duty of the judiciary is to aid its collection while remaining fair
to the subject, eg IRC v Berrill [1981] 1 WLR 1449 (construction rejected which would have made it
impossible for Inland Revenue to raise an assessment).
Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights says that every natural or legal person is
entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one is to be deprived of his possessions except
in the public interest and by due process of law.
Detriment to status or reputation Under the principle against doubtful penalisation it is
accepted that by the exercise of state