Product Description

Part art, part science – that's the essence of effective statutory interpretation. And understanding that delicate balance is precisely the kind of insight you'll glean from this latest edition of the industry-leading resource, The Construction of Statutes.

This is a volume that no lawyer can afford to be without: knowing how to read and apply statutes, and to construct sound arguments regarding statutory interpretation, is a critical skill to possess, regardless of specialty or area of practice. This seventh edition offers a comprehensive and up-to-date examination of the rules and principles governing statutory interpretation, including the latest cases and developments.

Features of This Volume
Written by the premier authority on statutory interpretation in Canada, The Construction of Statutes, 7th Edition offers:

• Clear explanations of the traditional rules of interpretation, including the principles underlying the rules and numerous illustrations of their application
• Complete coverage of this vital aspect of legal practice in one source, from ordinary meanings, bilingual interpretation and purposive analysis, to crown immunity, external context and all points in between
• A consideration of the concept of entire context embodied in Driedger's modern principle and whether ambiguity has any role to play in determining what aspects of context are admissible in interpretation disputes
• Chapters on the temporal operation of legislation and the rules governing the temporal, territorial and personal application of legislation

What's New In This Edition

• An account and critical assessment of reliance on corpus linguistics by American lawyers and courts to establish the ordinary meaning of a text
• A demonstration of the discrepancy between the courts’ insistence on treating all presumptions of intent as presumptions of last resort (following the judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in Bell ExpressVu Limited Partnership v. Rex) and case law treating some as strong presumptions
• A new analysis of the justification for reliance on legislative history and of the criteria for assigning weight to legislative history
• A new analysis of the presumption against the retrospective application of legislation, taking into account some new judicial approaches to this issue
• An acknowledgement of Indigenous law as part of the Canadian hierarchy of law and of the challenges its re-emergence creates for Canadian courts
• More inclusion of provincial appellate case law
• Analysis of additional legal terms

An Invaluable Reference
Because statutory interpretation has such wide-ranging application, The Construction of Statutes, 7th Edition is relevant and useful to virtually anyone practising or studying law. Everyone from judges and government lawyers to civil litigators and administrative lawyers will benefit from the insight and expertise that Sullivan imparts through this resource.

Table of Contents

 Chapter 1 – Reading Words in Their Entire Context: An Overview of this Book
 Chapter 2 – Driedger's Modern Principle
 Chapter 3 – Ordinary Meaning
 Chapter 4 – Technical and Legal Meaning, Statutory Definitions, Interpretation Acts and    

                       Recurring Legislative Terminology
 Chapter 5 – Bilingual and Bijural Meaning
 Chapter 6 – Original Meaning
 Chapter 7 – Plausible Meaning
 Chapter 8 – Textual Analysis
 Chapter 9 – Purposive Analysis
 Chapter 10 – Consequential Analysis
 Chapter 11 – Coherence, Overlap and Conflict Resolution
 Chapter 12 – Correcting Mistakes, Filling Gaps and Defeating Avoidance
 Chapter 13 – The Act as a Whole, the Statute Book as a Whole and Related Legislation
 Chapter 14 – The Components of Legislation
 Chapter 15 – Presumed Legislative Intent
 Chapter 16 – Constitutional Law
 Chapter 17 – Common Law
 Chapter 18 – International Law
 Chapter 19 – Human Rights Legislation
 Chapter 20 – Aboriginal Treaties and Legislation
 Chapter 21 – Fiscal Legislation
 Chapter 22 – The External Context
 Chapter 23 – Extrinsic Aids
 Chapter 24 – Temporal Operation
 Chapter 25 – Temporal Application
 Chapter 26 – Territorial Application
 Chapter 27 – Crown Immunity