Principles

AFP v Vo [2015] NSWSC 1523

This ancient rule still exerts an influence in modern times.  In this proceeds of crime case, it was held (at [17]) that an interpretation which allows a person to take advantage of their own wrong must be resisted. 

The principle reflects public policy and illustrates an impact of practical consequences on interpretation.  It applies …

SCC Plenty v Construction [2015] VSC 631

This case on adjudication mechanisms in building industry laws makes the point (at [98]) that ‘laws must not command the impossible’.  Unless flexibility was applied, said the judge, the legislation ‘could not be made to work’. 

The notion of impossibility driving interpretation is another aspect of taking practical implications into account¹².  …

Plaintiff M68 v Minister [2016] HCA 1

In the offshore detention case, the High Court held the Republic of Nauru to be a ‘person or body’ under regional processing amendments⁴.  Section 2C(1) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 presumes that expressions used to denote persons generally ‘include a body politic or corporate as well as an individual’.  Provisions …

ACCC v P T Garuda Indonesia [2016] FCAFC 42

Geography is often important in the application of legislation, especially where ‘Australia’ is used.  This case was about whether an air cargo market existed ‘in Australia’.  There is a general definition of ‘Australia’ in s 2B of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, but many federal statutes have their own definitions…

Endeavour v Precision [2015] NSWCA 169

What happens when a statutory provision cross-refers to a provision in another Act and the latter is amended?  In this case, the second provision was amended after an accident to increase the liability cap.  The court held (at [76]) that the first provision picked up the second as amended from time to time.  Crucially, …

Roden v Bandora Holdings [2015] NSWLEC 191

Pearce & Geddes (at [6.64]) say that using ‘means and includes’ in definitions ‘ought to be eschewed by drafters’.  This case shows why.  The issue was whether wedding venues were ‘tourist facilities’, in turn defined in the ‘means X and includes Y’ form with no reference to weddings whatsoever.

Two general problems may …

R v Host [2015] WASCA 23

When different statutes of the same legislature form a ‘legislative scheme’, courts will try to construe them ‘to produce a sensible, efficient and just operation’⁶.  Driven by the need for a ‘rational integration of the legislation’, this is exactly what the court did in this sentencing case (at [111]). 

As Pearce & …

Australian Building Systems [2015] HCA 48

When interpreting statutes, we are to start and finish with the statutory words⁸, not to substitute what a minister may say for those words⁹.  In the ABS case (at [227]), Gordon J observed that judicial decisions ‘are not substitutes for the text of legislation’ either, something that follows from the …

QBE Insurance v Mordue [2015] NSWCA 380

This case (at [92]) makes the point that delegated legislation gives way to the statute under which it is made where the two are ‘irreconcilably incompatible or inconsistent’¹².  Delegated legislation includes regulations, rules, by-laws, determinations and instruments made under an Act. 

Regulations cannot control what an Act means, but they may …

DPP v Walters [2015] VSCA 303

Legislation in Victoria had introduced ‘baseline sentencing’ but was ‘wholly silent’ on the means by which it was to be implemented.  The majority said (at [57]) that extrinsic materials could not be used to fill the gap¹⁵, and that any judicial action in this regard ‘would be to legislate, not interpret’. 

The …