ASIC v Rent 2 Own Cars [2020] FCA 1312
From time to time, courts set out comprehensively and in one place key principles which apply to the interpretation of statutes14. This national credit code case, from Greenwood J, provides an easy-access refresher course (at [150-151]) on the basics15.
Things start with an explanation of legislative intention …
It’s not only the High Court which provides key guidance on interpretation principles. All courts high and low make their contribution, but the NSW Court of Appeal stands out as an engine of scholarship. From the time of Project Blue Sky until retirement in 2011, Spigelman CJ progressed evolution and explanation of the ‘modern approach’. In the first Spigelman Public …
Cottle v Commissioner of Police [2020] NSWCA 159
Question – Could the Industrial Relations Commission hear a police dismissal case despite a negative High Court decision on a related issue?4 Yes, held the court. The case is significant, not so much for the technical issue it decides, but for the approach to be taken to prior cases on …
Singh bhnf Kanwar v Lynch [2020] NSWCA 152
Singh was injured in a race fall and sued another jockey. He lost because the harm resulted from obvious risks of a dangerous recreational activity7. He said that the ‘recreational activity’ definition was influenced by the ordinary meaning of ‘recreational’.
Rejecting this, Leeming JA (at [98-131]) considered in-depth the High …
Michael Brown PS v WSC [2020] NSWCA 137
Use and abuse of dictionaries is a regular topic for judicial comment12. This case involved planning consent given on the basis that the development (flats) ‘is compatible with the flood hazard of the land’13. Was ‘is’ used here merely to indicate present compliance, or did it cover things …
Forrest v DPP [2020] NSWCA 162
The bedrock requirement to consider context in the widest sense and up-front includes an obligation to consult the legislative history of provisions. Forrest was about stating cases on questions of law, an issue on which Leeming JA had ruled in an earlier decision.
On reading Basten JA’s legislative history in the present case, however, …
iNOW! turned 60 back in May. What started as a little in-house ATO experiment to boost awareness of basic interpretation principle now has its own website, 400–odd subscribers and a fat kudos file. It was expected that, after a few years, there would be little new to write about and we could go home. Precisely the opposite turned out to …
Binsaris v Northern Territory [2020] HCA 22
When officers at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre used tear gas on young detainees after a ‘serious disturbance’ causing property damage, the detainees sued for damages asserting these actions were in breach of legislation & unlawful1. All judges agreed.
One judge (at [25]) emphasised the principle that statutory authority to …
Australian Rail v Dollisson [2020] NSWCA 58
This case involved the meaning of ‘compensation’ in Victorian legislation4, and whether an old rule of linguistic logic5 could be applied to what Bell ACJ (at [47]) called a ‘patchwork statute’. Modern statutes are often subject to patchwork amendment where there may be little debate and much compromise.
Rejecting the …
Pickett v Western Australia [2020] HCA 20
A man was stabbed to death when 8 males attacked him at a railway station. The act of killing was likely done by a child, who was not responsible due to his age. Accordingly, the rest argued they could not be charged. Each of them was convicted of murder.
The issue was how …
