CONTRACT LAW

Modern Contract Law

Modern Contract Law

Statutory interpretation is concerned with judicial interpretation of legislation enacted by Parliament. This essay will outline the various approaches to interpretation that are used by the courts to explore the meaning of legislative provisions: the literal rule, the mischief rule and the golden rule. It will identify the problems that can be caused by use of these approaches to interpretation and it will consider whether it is appropriate for judges to make reference to Hansard when seeking the meaning of legislation.

This question is concerned with the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on statutory interpretation(Walsh, 2007). This is a wide-ranging question as the Human Rights Act 1998 requires that all legislation is interpreted in such a way that Convention rights are upheld and this can mean that the content of legislation that is incompatible with Convention rights should no longer be applied. This essay will use the cases concerning the right to freedom of expression and the use of the Public Order Act 1988 to limit this right. It will conclude by comparing how these provisions would have applied if the Human Rights Act had not been introduced.

For an organisation to be charitable, it must have a charitable purpose. This essay will explore what it means for something to have a charitable purpose. It will also assess whether the current approach to the definition of charitable purpose is satisfactory.

In this essay, author is going to define charitable purposes by looking at the approach taken in the Charities Act 2006. author will go on to consider whether this is a satisfactory approach by comparing the approach taken by the Charities Act 2006 with the position that existed before the legislation was enacted(Diakovan, 2005). This will involve looking at the wording of any relevant legislation and the decisions reached by the courts (case law). This will enable me to reach an informed conclusion about the state of the current law.

In order to explore the question, a starting definition of charitable purposes must be established. In this essay, this definition will be based upon that given in the Oxford English Dictionary where it defines charitable as 'tender-hearted; loving, kindly; well-disposed; benevolent' and purpose as 'the object for which anything is done or made, or for which it exists; the result or effect intended or sought; end, aim'. Taken in conjunction, it seems reasonable to say that charitable purposes are those which have the aim of benevolence. However, the law does not take this wide approach and, until recently, placed stringent restrictions on the activities that were deemed to have a charitable purpose.

In essence, the relief of poverty, the furtherance of education and the furtherance of religion were the only established categories of charitable purposes although there did exist a fourth general category of 'other charitable purpose'. This essay will start by arguing that this narrow approach was not a satisfactory situation as it excluded many institutions that had the aim of benevolence(De Bas, ...