Chapter 11
Effects
Introduction
Direct Effects
Indirect Effects
[W]e believe that in a substantial majority of the cases to which [a] rule is
applied its application will advance a desired objective.
307
Introduction
Step 1 of the model for legal reasoning is to identify the options before the
legislature or the court. These options possess two parts. One part consists of
the various versions of a statute or a common law rule that is to be made, or
the meanings of a provision that is to be interpreted. The other part consists of
the effects that a statute, a common law rule or a meaning will cause if they
become law. This chapter discussed these effects. Any statute will cause an
effect
if a legislature enacts it, any common law rule will cause an effect if a
court makes it, and any meaning of an ambiguous provision will cause an
effect if a court pronounces it as the legally correct meaning. To commence
discussion let us set out these options in full before focusing on effects.
Statutes
Options for making a statute are set out in the following table:
Statutes
Effects
Statute 0
Effect 0
Statute 1
Effect 1
Statute 2
Effect 2
Statute n
Effect n
Figure 11.1 Statutes and Effects
The left hand column sets out the range of statutes before a legislature. The
right hand column sets out the effect of each statute. Statute 1 causes or
produces Effect 1, Statute 2 produces Effect 2 and so on. Statute 0 produces
the null effect, Effect 0. The legislature does nothing when it enacts Statute 0,
so nothing more happens. Things stay as they are.
Now each statute is composed of rules and each rule has an effect. If Statute
X is the statute in question, the rules that it contains are Rules X.1-X.n, and
307
Gillette (1997) p 1415
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