Construction and Interpretation of the Laws (With a Chapter on the Interpretation of Judical Decisions and the Doctrine Precedents)

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Description
The following pages contain a condensed statement and exposition of the accepted canons and rules for the construction and interpretation of the written, whether constitutional or statutory. In accordance with the general plan of the Hornbook Series, these rules have been formulated somewhat after the manner of a code, expressed in brief black-letter paragraphs numbered consecutively throughout the book, and explained, developed, and illustrated in the subsidiary text. The cases cited, it is believed, will serve ufficiently to explain and enforce the doctrines set forth, and guide the inquirer to the whole body of the existing case-law. attempt has been made to refer to each one of the numerous decisions wherein the various questions of constitutional and statutory interpretation have been discussed. The author has been satisfied with citing the more important and leading authorities, and those which have furnished the most forcible or striking illustrations of the application of the rules of construction in actual practice. But no Although the author hac had constant recourse to the extant literature of the subject (and it is not small), and has derived many valuable suggestions from the writings of his predecessors, yet the present book is not founded upon any pre-existing work. It has been built up solely from the primary sources, the decided cases. In dealing with these authorities, it has been impossible to overlook the great change which has come over the disposition of the courts with reference to their office as interpreters of the law. It is no longer assumed to be the province of the judiciary either to quibble away or to evade the mandates of the legislature. On the contrary, the modern authorities recognize only one rule as absolutely varying, namely, to seek out and enforce the actual meaning and will of the law-making power. Thus the doctrine of "equitable" interpretation has become obsolete, the sanctity of the common law is no longer so jealously insisted upon, and the difference between CONSTRUC. LAWS.
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Contents
Chapter 1 : Nature and Office of Interpretation
Chapter 2 : Construction of Constitutions
Chapter 3 : General Principles of Statutory Construction
Chapter 4 : Statutory Construction; Presumptions
Chapter 5 : Statutory Construction, Words and Phrases
Chapter 6 : Intrinsic Aids in Statutory Construction
Chapter 7 : Extrinsic Aids in Statutory Construction
Chapter 8 : Interpretation with Reference to Common Law
Chapter 9 : Retrospective Interpretation
Chapter 10 : Construction of Provisions, Exceptions, and Saving Clauses
Chapter 11 : Strict and Liberal Construction
Chapter 12 : Mandatory and Directory Provisions
Chapter 13 : Amendatory and Amended Acts
Chapter 14 : Construction of Codes and Revised Statutes
Chapter 15 : Declaratory Statutes
Chapter 16 : The Rule of State as Applied to Statutory Construction
Chapter 17 : Interpretation of Judicial Decisions and the Doctrine of Precedents
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Author Details
Henry Campbell Black, M.A., Author of "Black's Law Dictionary" and of Treatise on Judgement,
Tax Titles, Constitutional Law, Etc.