Legal Chalk

  expressio unius est exclusion alterius Latin maxim meaning that the expression of one thing    ....... excludes others . It is generally used as a canon of construction of statutes or other legal documents LIKE CONTRACT indicating that the express inclusion of one or more things of a particular type necessarily implies an intention to exclude others of that type.   R (Veolia ES Nottinghamshire Ltd) v Nottinghamshire County Council   AUDIT COMMISSION ACT   section 15( 3) (with its related provisions in subsections (3A), (4) and (5)) grants a specific exception TO right of inspection so far as any document ‘contains personal information’ ‘ Personal information’ is closely defined and cannot extend to commercial confidential information of the kind in issue in these proceedings. … The argument is made (based on the principle of  expressio unius exclusio alterius ) that the express exception made in favour of personal information preven...

  GENERILIA SPECILIBUS non derogant Generalia specialibus non derogant is the principle that a general statutory provision does not repeal a specific one . The rule may apply either to two separate statutes , or to provisions within the same Act. It was applied by the Supreme Court in the case of Hutch v the Governor of Wheatfield Prison . That case posed the question whether a young person between the ages of fifteen and seventeen years who had been convicted of an indictable offence tried summarily , could be sentenced for the period of detention applicable to an adult ( under the Criminal Justice Act, 1951 ), or whether the sentence was limited to three months imprisonment under the terms of the Summary Jurisdiction Over Children (Ireland) Act, 1884 . The Court held that since the 1951 Act was a general Act, and the 1884 Act had a special application , the maxim generalia specialibus non derogant applied. Therefore, the 1884 Act was not impliedly amended or repeal...

  NOSCITER A SOIICS   Noscere means to know and sociis means Association . Therefore, noscitur a sociis means to know from the Association .   When two or more words which are susceptible analogue meaning are put together , they are to be understood in their cognate sense. -CONNECTED They take their colour from each other , the meaning of more general being restricted to a sense analogous to that of the less general . A word may be known by the company it keeps . Associated words explain and limit each other . The principal helps in finding the true legislative intent and, therefore, cannot prevail where it is clear that wider words have been deliberately used. The principle of noscitur a sociis is the rule of construction. It is used by the court to interpret legislation. This means that the meaning of an unclear word or phrase must be determined by words that surround it . In other terms the meaning of word must be judged by the company that it ...

  EJUSDEM GENERIS- SAME KIND According to the Black's Law Dictionary (8th edition, 2004 ) the principle of Ejusdem Generis is where general words follow an enumeration of persons or things , by words of a particular and specific meaning, such general words are not to be construed in their widest extent, but are to be held as applying only to persons or things of the same general kind or class as those specifically mentioned .   it is a canon of statutory construction, where general words follow the enumeration of particular classes of thing s, the general words will be construed as applying only to things of the same general class as those enumerated The expression Ejusdem Generis means of the same kind . Normally, general words should be given their natural meaning like all other words unless the context requires otherwise. But when a general word follows specific words of a distinct category , the general word may be given a restricted meaning of the same ca...

  HARMONIOUS CONSTRUCTION During interpretation of statutes there is a need to interpret the provisions of the two Acts, one central and other state, harmoniously so that both are able to survive their respective fields and also able to achieve their respective objectives. If possible, a construction is to be preferred which reconciles the different sections, orders and rules without d The intention of legislature is that every provision should remain operative. But where two provisions are contradictory, it may not possible to effectuate both of them and in result, one shall be reduced to futility as against the settled basic principle of ut res magis valeat qauam pereat. Therefore, such a construction should be allowed to prevail by which existing inconsistency is removed and both the provisions remain in force, in harmony with each other. CIT v. Hindustan Bulk Carriers (2003) the supreme court laid down five principles of rule of harmonious construction: the cou...

  GOLDEN RULE The rule enunciated in that case came to be known as the 'golden rule'; a court could construe a statute by departing from the literal meaning of the words if to do would avoid consequences which are absurd. It stated that, "In construing wills, and indeed statutes and all written instruments, the grammatical and ordinary sense of the words is to be adhered to, unless that would lead to some absurdity, or some repugnance or inconsistency with the rest of the instrument, in which case the grammatical and ordinary sense of the words ay be modified so as to avoid the absurdity and inconsistency, but no further.   The golden rule is still referred to by the courts today as a means of modifying stringent application of the literal rule. It was set out by Lord Blackburn in River Wear Commissioners v, Adamson . The golden rule, he stated, enabled the courts: "to take the whole statute together, and construe it all together, giving their words their ordi...