BUSN7052 Chap.2 Legislation, Precedent and Statutory Interpretation
Legislation, Precedent and Statutory Interpretation
Statutes and cases are the two primary sources of Australian law, and this chapter shows how each is made and read. It traces a bill from cabinet approval to commencement, explains delegated legislation and the ultra vires limit, and sets out the doctrine of precedent: what binds, what merely persuades, and how courts reverse, overrule or distinguish.
It then builds a working method for statutory interpretation, combining the literal, golden and mischief rules with the purposive approach in s 15AA, extrinsic material under s 15AB and the Latin maxims.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Passage of a bill and commencement in the ACT
- 02
Regulations, ordinances, by-laws and ultra vires
- 03
Ratio decidendi, obiter dicta and binding authority
- 04
Common law and equity, courts and tribunals
- 05
Purposive interpretation under s 15AA
- 06
Ejusdem generis, noscitur a sociis and expressio unius
Worked example · free
Which earlier decision binds an ACT Magistrate?
- +2The ACT Supreme Court sits directly above the Magistrates Court, because the ACT has no intermediate court, so its ratio binds.
- +1A High Court remark not necessary to its decision is obiter: persuasive, but not binding.
- +1A New South Wales decision is outside the ACT hierarchy, so it is persuasive only.
- +1The Magistrate must follow the ACT Supreme Court ratio and decide for the defendant.
Key terms
- Obiter dicta
- Remarks in a judgment not necessary to the decision, which may persuade but do not bind.
- Delegated legislation
- Rules made by a body other than Parliament under power conferred by an Act.
- Ultra vires
- Beyond the power conferred, so that the instrument or act is void.
- Purposive approach
- Reading a provision in the way that best achieves the purpose of the Act.
- Ejusdem generis
- A maxim confining general words that follow a specific list to the class of that list.
- Extrinsic material
- Material outside the Act, such as a second reading speech, used to interpret it.
Legislation, Precedent and Statutory Interpretation FAQ
What is the difference between reversing and overruling a decision?
Reversal happens when a superior court corrects the decision in the same case on appeal, without necessarily changing the law. Overruling happens when a court replaces the legal rule laid down in an earlier case, so later courts follow the new rule. Distinguishing leaves the earlier rule intact but avoids it on different facts.
When can a court look at parliamentary speeches?
Section 15AB of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 allows extrinsic material to confirm the ordinary meaning, to resolve a provision that is ambiguous or obscure, or to avoid a manifestly absurd or unreasonable result. Section 15AA, by contrast, always applies and requires the reading that best achieves the statute's purpose.
Does the ACT have an intermediate court?
No. The Week 2 slides note that the ACT, the Northern Territory and Tasmania lack an intermediate court, so ACT cases move from the Magistrates Court, which hears civil and criminal matters, to the Supreme Court, with the High Court above as the final court of appeal.
Why did Wormald v Caftor deny damages for the dog?
The claim relied on a provision compensating loss of capacity to perform domestic services for the plaintiff's household. Katzmann J used the Legislation Act 2001 (ACT) and the Attorney-General's speech to identify the provision's purpose, and held that a household for this purpose consists of human beings, not pets.
Exam move
Treat interpretation as a procedure you can run under time pressure. Write the five rungs on a card: literal meaning, context and maxims, purpose under s 15AA or s 139 of the ACT Legislation Act, extrinsic material under s 15AB, and presumptions such as the principle of legality. Practise on short invented by-laws, deliberately varying whether a list ends in general words, because that single feature decides which maxim fits.
For precedent, take one long judgment summary and mark which sentences are ratio and which are obiter, then explain to yourself why a later Magistrates Court would be bound by one but not the other. Keep a short list of the four delegated instruments and the three parliamentary controls on them, since a tutorial or exam question about a regulation usually turns on whether it exceeds its parent Act.
Learn the four steps for passing a bill only well enough to explain them; marks go to applying interpretation, not reciting procedure. Finally, connect this chapter to the rest of the course: the Civil Law (Wrongs) Act, the Sale of Goods Act and the Insurance Contracts Act all reward reading the definitions section before arguing about the facts, and the habit of citing the right Act and section begins here.
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