Statutory Interpretation by Michelle Sanson 2nd ed (LAWS314 reading) summary

About These Notes

These notes summarises the 406 pages long ‘Statutory Interpretation’ book by Michelle Sanson. This is a assigned reading for Statutory Interpretation (LAWS314) course at the ACU (Australian Catholic University). These notes cover the following chapters:

1. An introduction to statutory interpretation (history, role of the court etc)
2. Creation of legislation
3. Interpretation legislation
4. Context and purpose
5. Intention and interpretive techniques
6. Intrinsic materials – Statute Components
7. Intrinsic Materials – The Text
8. Extrinsic materials
9. Traditional common law approaches to statutory interpretation
10. Statutory presumptions
11. Fundamental human rights
12. International law in statutory interpretation
13. Interpreting specific instruments

Chapter 14 – A Synthesis: Practical Skills and Exercises is not included in these notes as it has been designed as a consolidating chapter to which readers will repeatedly refer and contains a Statutory Interpretation Index (SII2) synthesising the books rules of statutory interpretation, then embeds these in a set of four practical exercises.