Many common words like ‘business day’, ‘document’, ‘individual’, ‘land’, ‘person’ or ‘writing’ are defined in AIA s 2B. This dictionary should always be your starting point, though it is just a drafting convenience and, like the rest of the AIA, it is displaced by contrary intention in the Act it is applied to (s 2(2))1…
Prescribed forms of documents are common in tax laws. Under AIA s 25C, strict compliance with these forms isn’t necessary and substantial compliance is sufficient. This is determined by considering the purpose of the form and its contents as a whole, not by analysing its individual parts separately4. Failure to use the correct form isn’t necessarily fatal…
Like notes, examples are part of the Act but their interpretive status is unclear9. Under AIA s 15AD(a), they are ‘not exhaustive’ and can’t limit a provision’s scope. AIA s 15AD(b) used to say that a provision overrides its example if the two are inconsistent. It was rewritten in 2011 and now says ‘the example may extend …
These are governed by rules in AIA ss 7-11B. iNOW! has previously discussed the presumption against retrospectivity in s 7(2) and the cross-reference rules in s 1011. Section 7(1) also says that if a repealing Act or an Act altering the common law is itself repealed, the original law isn’t automatically revived.
Section 11B says that …
The Queen v A L [2016] VSCA 156
How do you interpret everyday words in a statute when they also have a specialised trade or technical meaning? Normally words take their ordinary meaning – particularly since parliament can define a word if it is meant to have a special meaning1. However, context, phrasing or subject matter may show …
Military Rehabilitation v May [2016] HCA 19
This case (at [52]) reminds us that when a judge explains what statutory words mean, their reformulation cannot be substituted for those words and construed as if it were the statutory text3. Unlike statutes, the meaning of judgments isn’t found by analysing the specific words used by the judge. Instead, read …
Duffy v Authority [2016] NSWSC 1062
If a provision refers to a specific thing, it may implicitly exclude other things of that type, especially if similar parts of the Act do mention those other things5. Here (at [41-42]), notice had to be given to ‘the licensee’. This meant no-one else needed to be notified, since different provisions did …
H v Commissioner of Police [2016] SADC 64
Always search for an interpretation that gives all the words of a provision some meaning and effect and doesn’t make any of them redundant10. This doesn’t mean every word has to change the provision’s scope or operation – some could have a limited effect, and Parliament may have intended others …
The purposive revolution was actually a parallel shift in both common law and statute. One week before s 15AA of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 commenced, the High Court said that ‘[t]he fundamental object of statutory construction … is to ascertain the legislative intention by reference to the language of the instrument [and] legitimate aids to construction’1.
Since …
Chapman-Davis v NSW [2015] NSWIC 10
Extrinsic materials, such as second reading speeches and explanatory memoranda, can be helpful but should be used with care. This case (at [144-148]) notes that extrinsic materials may help you find the purpose or object of a provision3, although this must also be supported by the words of the statute4. …
