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ACCA Applied Skills · Corporate and Business Law (Global) · Business, political and legal systems

A company director argues that a court should interpret a statute by giving words their plain, ordinary meaning, even if the result seems unreasonable or harsh, because the court should not look beyond the words used. Which approach to statutory interpretation is the director advocating?

The director is advocating the literal rule. Under it, a court applies the ordinary, plain meaning of the statute's words even when the result is harsh, and does not look to the statute's purpose or the mischief it was meant to remedy.

  1. AThe purposive approach
  2. BThe literal ruleCorrect
  3. CThe mischief rule

Explanation

The literal rule gives words their ordinary meaning even if the outcome is harsh or absurd. The mischief rule looks at the gap in the old law the statute aimed to remedy, and the purposive approach looks at the overall purpose of the legislation. Both of these go beyond the bare words.

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