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

Guides to Legislative Intention HI: Presumptions 181
contribute to human welfare. While a broadly-stated maxim is likely to have exceptions and require
qualification, the law still finds a use for this way of expressing some basic principle. Coke said: It
is holden for an inconvenience that any of the maxims of the law should be broken ... for that by
infringing of a maxim, not only a general prejudice to many, but in the end a public uncertainty
and confusion to all would follow.' (Co Lift 152b.) What is said above about the implied importation
of ancillary rules of law also applies to maxims.
Development of applied rules of law
The court will not merely treat an existing rule of law as intended to apply in the construction of an
enactment, but will if necessary go further and modify or develop the rule as it applies to that
enactment.
The House of Lords developed an applied rule in British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd v Armstrong
Patents Co Ltd [1986] AC 577. The plaintiffs alleged that in copying parts of their vehicles, and
marketing the copies as spare parts, the defendants were guilty of breaches of design copyright under
the Copyright Act 1956, s 3. It was held that Parliament could not be taken to intend that the
copyright should apply so as to enable the plaintiffs to deny purchasers of their cars the right to
have them repaired by use of spare parts, and in arriving at this result the House of Lords applied
and modified the real property principle whereby a person is not to be permitted to derogate from his
grant.
Presumption that updating construction to be applied
While it remains law, an Act is to be treated as always speaking. In its application on any date, the
language of the Act, though necessarily embedded in its own time, is nevertheless to be construed in
accordance with the need to treat it as current law. With regard to updating, Acts can be divided into
two categories: the Act that is intended to develop in meaning with developing circumstances (which
may be called an ongoing Act) and the Act that is intended to be of unchanging effect (a fixed-time
Act). Most Acts are of the former kind.
The ongoing Act
It is presumed that Parliament intends the court to apply to an ongoing Act a construction that
continuously updates its wording to allow for changes since the Act was initially framed. In particular
where, owing to developments occurring since the original passing of an enactment, a counter-mischief
comes into existence or increases, it is presumed that Parliament intends the court so to construe the