Statutes are laws passed by legislative bodies, but may need interpretation by courts. Common law systems often require courts to interpret statutes using methods such as examining purpose and history, compliance with other laws, and canons of interpretation. Judges may also rely on ancient building codes. Canons include deference, textual, and substantive rules to guide interpretation.
Statutes are laws that have been written and passed by the legislative body within a jurisdiction. While all efforts are made during the legislative process to create clear statutes, statutory law still needs to be interpreted by the courts if a word, term or phrase is vague or open to more than one interpretation. In civil law judicial systems, courts have very little authority to interpret statutes; however, in common law legal systems, courts are often called upon to interpret or clarify statutory law. Courts use a variety of methods to do this, including the purpose and history of the legislation, as well as its compliance with other laws or agencies. Courts may also use canons of interpretation, which have been used since the time of the ancient Roman legal system.
When called upon to interpret a law, a judge will examine the purpose and history of the legislation. In most court systems, the process by which legislation is passed is a lengthy and complicated process. In most cases, there will be written minutes following the legislation from start to finish, including the debates on the legislation. A judge can use information obtained from the history of the statute to help determine what the purpose of the legislation was and apply it to the interpretation of any ambiguous terms.
In interpreting a statute, a judge will first ascribe the common and accepted meaning to the words within the statute. A judge will usually also seek to interpret statutory law in a way that does not conflict with other laws or encroach on the jurisdiction of another agency. Of course, in some cases, there is no way to interpret the statute in a way that complies with applicable law or that does not violate another agency’s jurisdiction.
A judge may also rely on ancient building codes in interpreting statutory law. Three basic categories of canons are used to interpret laws: deference, textual, and substantive. Within each category are a set of “canons,” or general rules, that guide a judge in interpreting a law. For example, one of the textual canons holds that when a list of items is specifically mentioned in a statute, anything not in the list is not included unless the list is preceded by a qualifier, such as “for example” . Another example is the canon of avoidance within the deference category, which requires choosing the interpretation that does not create constitutional problems when a law can be interpreted in more than one way.
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