Lord Sales speaks on role of purpose in legislative interpretation

Article summary

Lord Sales has delivered a presentation on the role of purpose in legislative interpretation at Oxford University and the University of Notre Dame seminar. In the speech, Lord Sales speaks about the four key issues that arise when identifying legislative purpose in statutory interpretation. These include evidence that can be used to determine purpose, how far courts can assume Parliament considered constitutional or human rights goals, how courts should handle conflicting purposes and, lastly, what happens when conflicting purposes are intentionally obscured or compromised.