Introduction
In South Africa, the courts make use of two main theories and approaches applicable for the interpretation of legislation which are the orthodox text-based approach and the text-in-context approach . The approach which will be discussed below is the orthodox text-based approach and alongside the influence of the supreme Constitution on the interpretation of legislation. The case provided for the orthodox text-based approach is the matter concerning Ngwenyama v Mayelane & another. For the influence of the supreme Constitution on the interpretation of legislation the case concerning Road Accident Fund and Another v Mdeyide will be discussed. By doing this, it makes it possible to witness and understand how legislation is interpreted
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• If often, texts seem vague, ambiguous and a strict literal interpretation of the text does not seem feasible or would lead to unwanted results the court will stray from applying the literal meaning of the text. This is known as the "golden rule" where the courts will then make use of "secondary aids" to try and interpret the actual intention of the text.
• If these "secondary aids" deem to be of no help in the interpretation of the text, the courts will make use of "tertiary aids" to determine the actual intention. These "tertiary aids" are common law provisions.
This approach is hugely influenced by English law and was adopted for four main reasons being :
1. It was accepted that the courts functions should be limited to the interpretation and application of
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Mr Mdeyide only put in a claim for the compensation of the accident in terms of the Road Accident Fund Act with the Road Accident Fund three years and three days after the accident.
Legal question:
Does the Road Accident Fund and the Minister of Transport have the right to limit access to courts and deny the right to claim for compensation?
Judgement:
The court ruled that the limitations set out within the provision provided by the Road Accident Fund is unconstitutional and that the prescribed period to claim is too inflexible and therefore cannot be justified.
Interpretation:
As stated above the Constitution is the highest law of the land therefore everything and everyone is subject to it. Any law or conduct that goes against it is seen as invalid. The influence of the constitution in this case can be seen as the Road Accident Fund Act goes against sections of the Constitution and the Prescription
Statutory interpretation is required where complication and ambiguity arises as to what the section actually provides and to whom is within the provisions. There are numerous occurrences where judges call for statues to be interpreted further in more depth; such as failure of legislation to cover a point, a broad term, drafting
The court observed that the ‘legal meaning’, i.e. meaning the legislature is taken to have intended, may not correspond to the literal or grammatical meaning. As four justices put
The court’s decision of termination of the appellants’ employment was not totally reasonable enough to terminate employment.
Not overruling and thus strengthening previous rules, promotes certainty, predictability and consistency. As stated in Lawrence v. Texas overruling can bring upon an unjustifiable result under principles of Stare Decisis and seriously weaken the court's capacity to exercise the judicial power and to function as the supreme court of a nation dedicated to the rule of law (Lawrence).
A court is a judicial branch of government that consists of one or more judicial officers. It is authorized by statute to decide upon controversial cases and disputes (Siegel, Schmalleger, & Worrall, 2011). While a court’s primary purpose is
There are ways for the courts to prevent things such as trivial matters in courts through proper interpretation. There are two ways courts can interpret matters, there is the textual and contextual approach. In this situation, the approach would be more contextual as it would focus on the use of reason to interpret the law beyond what is in the statute and more based on societal factors.8 Societal factors refer to a person’s economic, financial, educational, or a person’s background. Some people in society have a low standing in all these factors, which would put them at a disadvantage and most laws reflect those needs.
This paper will cover topics such as; what a court is and what the purpose of the court is. This paper will define the dual court system. In addition this paper will describe the role that early legal codes, the common law and the precedent played in the development of courts. And lastly this paper will identify the role of the courts in the criminal justice system today.
Statutory interpretation is process of interpreting statutes by the judges. The definition of statutes have had very specific words but indeed the judges would still need the statutory interpretation to help them. The reason of this, even how, the words in the statutes are specific but sometimes the words contains ambiguity and vagueness in words. On top of that, each word could give us different meaning. For example, we can find in the Oxford Dictionary where a word would contain at least one meaning. Hence, without the statutory interpretation, a lot of judges would have trouble in deciding their judgments in deciding a case. This essay will analyse the four rules, intrinsic aids and extrinsic aids and presumptions in the interpretation
1. When interpreting legislation, the Courts use several approaches to aid their interpretation. Describe how the literal, golden and mischief rules of interpretation operate.
Here the mischief rule is used. This rule makes use of external aids which include “ the common law, whatever new remedies the
Rigidity. Due to the lower courts having to follow decisions of higher courts, coupled with the fact that the Court of Appeal has to follow its own past decisions, it can make the law too inflexible so that bad decisions made in the past may be perpetuated. -
In this course we have been learning a lot on the topic of legal pluralism and normative orders. The paragraphs below will illustrate legal pluralism by using the case of Multani v. Commission Scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys. First of all, we will begin with defining what legal pluralism is then we will go more in depth into the case. We will be covering the essential background of the case, the decisions of the courts and schoolboard with justification and a short personal reflection on the subject.
new law is the case of R v. R [1994] 4 All ER 48 decided in the House
The English Legal System has several sources of legislation, including the precedent cases, which form
The enactment of both interim and final Constitutions ushered in a new approach to statutory interpretation. In this essay I argue that the statement made by the court in Daniels v Campbell 2003 (9) BCLR 969 ( C ) at 985 is TRUE.