Maxwell on the Interpretation of Statutes

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Description
Maxwell might well be sub-titled "the practitioners' armoury": it is, I trust, not taking too cynical a view of statutory interpretation in general, and this work in particular, to express the hope that counsel putting forward diverse interpretations of some statutory provision will each be able to find in Maxwell dicta and illustrations in support of his case. For this reason, this twelfth edition, like its predecessors, proceeds largely by way of examples.
Much of the content has changed since the last edition. I have eliminated all the classical allusions which have hitherto embellished Maxwell: Mahomed II's action in sawing the Venetian governor's body in two having promised to spare his head (11th ed., p. 17) is, alas, unlikely to move a court confronted with such productions of the modern draftsman as a Prices and Incomes Act. A great number of the old cases cited in previous editions have been excised, and replaced by modem decisions. Footnotes have been shortened. But the general scheme of the work remains the same, and so, with a few exceptions (e.g., removing the rules on the commencement, repeal and revival of statutes from the end of the book to the first chapter), does the order in which matters are discussed:
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Contents
Chapter 1.    Preliminary Matters
Chapter 2.    General Principles of Interpretation
Chapter 3.    Treatment of General Words
Chapter 4.    Beneficial Construction
Chapter 5.    Restrictive Construction
Chapter 6.    Construction to Prevent Evasion or Abuse
Chapter 7.    Presumptions Regarding Jurisdiction
Chapter 8.    Further Presumptions Regarding Jurisdiction
Chapter 9.    Construction to Avoid Collision with Other Provisions
Chapter 10.  Construction Most Agreeable to Justice and Reason
Chapter 11.  Exceptional Construction
Chapter 12.  Subordinate Principles
Chapter 13.  Intentions Attributed to the Legislature when it expresses none
Appendix
Index
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Author Details
Author – Sir P.B. Maxwell
Revising Author - P. St. J. Langan, Of Lincoln’s Inn, and of King’s Inns, Dublin, Barrister-at-Law
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