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

*** Page 158 - Chapter Eleven
Guides to Legislative Intention III: Presumptions
Derived from the Nature of Legislation
The present chapter deals with the ten presumptions derived from the nature of legislation, which
are that:
1 the text is the primary indication of intended meaning
2 the text is prima facie to be given a literal construction
3 the court is to apply the remedy provided for the 'mischief
4 an enactment is to be given a purposive construction
5 regard is to be had to the consequences of a particular construction
6 an 'absurd' result is not intended
7 errors in the legislation are to be rectified
8 evasion of the legislation is not to be allowed
9 the legislation is intended to be construed by the light of ancillary rules of law and legal
maxims
10 an updating construction is to be applied wherever requisite.
Nature of legislative presumptions A presumption affords guidance, arising from the nature of legislation
in a parliamentary democracy, as to the legislator's prima facie intention regarding the working of
the enactment. It looks in particular to the effective implementation of what the legislator has enacted.
Presumption that text to be primary indication of intention
In construing an enactment, the text of the enactment, in its setting within the Act or instrument
containing it, is to be regarded as the pre-eminent indication of the legislator's intention. British
courts, towards the end of the twentieth century, regard the text of Acts of the United Kingdom
Parliament with great respect. When called upon to construe an Act, the court takes its primary duty
as being to look at the text and say what, in itself, it means: 'The safer and more correct course of
dealing with a question of construction is to take the words themselves and arrive if possible at their
meaning without, in the first instance, reference to cases' (Barrel! v Fordree [1932] AC 676, 682).
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