Chapter 29
Reading Statutes
Introduction
Delving
Poring
Illustration
Introduction
Most areas of law have some statutory component while the vast majority of
areas are entirely based on statute. For this reason, knowing how to read a
statute is a skill that lawyers and law students need to know.
When reading (and especially when interpreting) a statute it is natural to
assume that a statute is set out in a logical and orderly way. It hangs together
to make a coherent picture that can be ascertained by careful inspection.
Sometimes, however, this is not the case. Sometimes because of poor drafting
or because of ill considered amendments, especially in late night sitting of the
legislature for a difficult or hotly contested statute, the statute will be put
together in a way that is not coherent. Provisions do not line up in an orderly
way like soldiers in a row. Provisions do not fit together neatly and snugly like
pieces of a jigsaw. Instead there are gaps, overlaps, and disfunctionalities.
Unfortunately there is no cure for these maladies that a reader can apply. All
that a reader can do is to do their best to disentangle the likely meaning from
the provisions and state it as best they are able. The only true remedy is a
legislative amendment.
Delving
Delvers look in a statute for specific information. General advice for delving is
to be familiar with two matters - the parts and layout of the type of statute that
is being read and any particular devices that help a reader to delve for and
retrieve specific pieces of information.
Statutes have numerous specialised parts and a moderately complicated
layout. There is some similarity between these from jurisdiction to jurisdiction
and also some variations. There are also variations in layout depending on how
the statute is published, whether, for example, it is a printed pamphlet copy,
printed in a bound annual volume or electronically published.
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