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

A statute states that 'no vehicle may enter the public park'. A cyclist rides a bicycle into the park, and the court must decide whether a bicycle is a 'vehicle'. The court looks at the ordinary everyday meaning of the words and applies it, even though the result may seem harsh. Which approach to statutory interpretation is the court using?

The court is using the literal rule. It applies the ordinary, everyday meaning of the words in the statute and accepts the outcome even if it seems harsh. The golden rule would only modify that meaning to avoid absurdity, and the mischief rule looks to the problem Parliament intended to cure.

  1. AThe literal ruleCorrect
  2. BThe golden rule
  3. CThe mischief rule

Explanation

The literal rule gives words their plain, ordinary meaning even if the result is harsh. The golden rule departs from the literal meaning only to avoid an absurd result. The mischief rule looks at the gap in the old law that the statute was meant to remedy.

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