LAW

Principle Powers of Courts in Interpreting and Application of Statutory Law



Principle Powers of Courts in Interpreting and Application of Statutory Law

Introduction

Courts have the designated authority to interpret and derive meaning of statutory law. One should understand that courts do not have the authority to make law. The laws are made by the elected representatives of the peoples. Before going on further let's define what we mean by statutory law, by definition statutory law is basically the law that is written and codified.

Discussion

The Supreme Court itself has defined "judicial power" as "that power vested in courts to enable them to administer justice is according to law." The role of our nation's courts in seeing that the laws are interpreted correctly in providing justice to the citizens of the nation remains a key element of our legal heritage. In the following section, I would be describing what the principle powers of the court are and how the judicial principle of statutory interpretation does engages with interpretive powers of the court

Principle Powers of the Court & Judicial Principle

The judges are bound by existing law even when its application to particular cases presents questions of interpretation, whose proper resolution may be controversial. The ideal of the rule of law would seem to be seriously compromised if, in doubtful cases, judges were free to usurp the legislative function and create new law according to their own perceptions of justice or public policy (James et.al, www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com).

The power of the court of law has the power to review the actions of legislatives. Although the judicial review is usually linked only with the US. Supreme Court. In US the judiciary has the ultimate authority to interpret and even reverse different legislative decisions. But UK has some exceptions, as the contemporary significance of constitutionalism can be traced to the common law tradition that was revitalized in seventeenth-century England and to its reception in North America and France. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word constitutionalism appeared for the first time in the English language in 1832.

Arguably the United Kingdom does not have a strong sense of constitutionalism due to four main obstacles (Le Sueur, ed., www.oup.com/uk). First, the UK constitution is not “written.” Second, the organs of state are not clearly separated. Third, no Act of Parliament can have special constitutional status. Third, judicial review is “supervisory” only and does not ensure constitutional compliance of ordinary statutes with higher constitutional law (Allen , www.rep.routledge.com).

The courts in UK can review and even amend the decisions of the executives, if the court feels that the decision is not made in accordance with the law and does not help the principle of rule of law to prosper. Similarly, Court can also withhold the decisions and directives of the executives if it becomes evident that the decision violates the fundamental right principle. Another very interesting fact is that courts do have a power even to reject any statutory law if they feel that the law is not in accordance with the ...