PD v DPP (NSW) [2025] NSWSC 16
E117 commented on the allegedly ‘repellent’ nature of statutory language. Another view is that, with codification, the law would ‘become an object of pleasant and satisfactory study to lawyers and laymen alike’11. This is not always the experience.
The issue here was whether the Children’s Court had power to impose a particular order. Basten AJ said the statutory regime ‘is distressingly complex and completely beyond the comprehension of children without lawyers … [the] consequences of this labyrinthine process … are deeply troubling’. Comments like this are increasing, and often come where there is a collision of provisions or statutes12.
This principle is from Episode 118 of interpretation NOW!
Footnotes:
11 HLA Hart The Way to Justice (35), quoted in Bennett 9 UWALR 211 (240).
12 These collisions to be resolved by PBS principles – see editorial above.