The Interpretation Of Legislation In Canada

Divided into two parts, the book begins with an analysis of the roles played by the structure and operation of statutes in their interpretation. The second part delves into the methods of interpretation: grammatical, systematic and logical, purposive, historical, pragmatic and interpretation by authorities.

This book offers readers concise and user-friendly tools to help articulate the most powerful arguments to identify the legislative intent found in the statute. It provides: examples and illustrations from across Canada's federal and provincial jurisdictions; detailed analysis of the key judicial decisions and a table of cases that practitioners in particular will find extremely valuable, as well as a reproduction of both the Interpretation Act (Canada) and Interpretation Act (Quebec).

Although we are most familiar with interpretation by the courts, who devote a considerable portion of judicial energy to interpretation, all jurists regularly interpret enactments. This treatise deals with the nature of the interpretive process itself and the principles governing the interpretation of legislation in Canada, in both statute law and civil law. Divided into two parts, the book begins with an analysis of the roles played by the structure and operation of statutes in their interpretation. The second part delves into the methods of interpretation such as grammatical, systematic and logical, purposive, historical, pragmatic, and interpretation by authorities. Since it was first published in 1982, The Interpretation of Legislation in Canada has been cited numerous times by the Supreme Court of Canada. This fifth edition benefits from the participation of professor Mathieu Devinat, who contributues his views on the methodology of interpretation and brought a perspective from his scholarship in jurilinguistics, lexicography, and civil law. The remarkable operation of translating and harmonizing this work has been done with dedication and rigour by Steven Sacks.

"The modern principle is the official approach to statutory interpretation in Canada and is the foundation for the structure of this text. The modern principle focuses on the language of a statutory provision in light of its purpose, intent and context, and Hutchison devotes separate chapters to each of these aspects of statutory interpretation. The Fundamentals of Statutory Interpretation also critiques the various facets of the modern principle with a view to help identify more convincing interpretations of legislative intent. In addition, it tackles complicated issues concerning both the temporal application of statutes, such as retroactivity and retrospectivity, and when legislation may interfere with "vested rights.""--Publisher's website.

This book deciphers the often confusing and contradictory rules for interpreting legal documents and explains the way these rules relate to each other. The book goes beyond the content of the rules and focuses on their strategic use in constructing arguments and justifying outcomes.

"Canadian lawyers, legal academics and particularly judges face a constant challenge when interpreting bilingual federal or, in some cases, provincial legislation. While statutes are drafted in a manner that aspires to have both versions mirror one another, in practice, dual versions are often open for different interpretations, a situation that can prove extremely problematic."--pub. desc.