Is statutory interpretation helpful to lawyers?
A courts role in applying a statute is to give effect to the legislature’s intention as described in the wording of the statute.Lawyers for the plaintiff/defendant or prosecution/accused argue their cases depending on whether their respective clients case is supported or not by the statute. For theoretical (rule of law and seperation of powers) as well as practical reasons no lawyers can go back to the legislators to ask them what they think.The rules on interpretation and construction provide a set of agreed conventions to Judge and both sets of lawyers for deciding whether a statutory provision applies to a given set of facts and if so what are consequences are .
