Countless are the cases where a court or tribunal sets out the basics of our ‘modern approach’ to statutory interpretation by reference to High Court authority. One recent case is novel in this regard1. For guidance on interpretation, Lindsay J quotes French CJ from his foreword to the 2014 edition of Pearce & Geddes2. The main point made by the judge is that context extends beyond the text into extrinsic materials, as statutes ‘are not enacted in a legal and normative vacuum’. French CJ in turn quotes a 1994 case – ‘The true meaning of a legal text almost always depends on a background of concepts, principles, practices, facts, rights and duties which the authors of the text took for granted or understood, without conscious advertence, by reason of their common language and culture’3. History and practice increasingly confirm the importance of context in our system.
Gordon Brysland – Tax Counsel Network gordon.brysland@ato.gov.au 0417 605 338
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Footnotes:
1 KLH v Northern NSW Local Health District [2026] NSWSC 590 [28].
2 8th edition (2014), the latest edition is the 10th (2024) by Pearce alone.
3 Theophanous (1994) 182 CLR 104 (196), cf Zentai [2012] HCA 28 [31].