This document discusses various rules of statutory interpretation used in legal systems, including the literal rule, golden rule, mischief rule, and purposive rule. It provides more detail on the mischief rule, explaining that it looks at the "mischief" or wrong that a statute is intended to correct in order to discover Parliament's intention. The mischief rule was established in Heydon's Case from 1584. The document also summarizes the 1874 case Gorris v Scott, where the court used the mischief rule to determine that a statute requiring animal pens on ships was intended to prevent disease, not protect against property loss.

1. GLOBAL
CORPORATE AND
BUSINESS LAW
CHAPTER – 1
Essential elements of legal
systems

2. RULES OF
INTERPRETATION
• LITERAL RULE
• GOLDEN RULE
• MISCHIEF RULE
• PURPOSIVE RULE
• EIUSDEM GENERIS
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3. MISCHIEF RULE
• The Mischief Rule is a
certain rule that judges can apply
in statutory interpretation in
order to discover Parliament’s
intention.
• The literal and golden
rules are concerned with finding out
what Parliament SAID.The mischief rule
is applied to find
out what Parliament MEANT.

4. MISCHIEF RULE
• It looks for the
wrong: the 'mischief' which the statuteis
trying to correct. The statute is then inter
preted in light of this.
• The rule is based on the Heydon's Case
[1584] -
VERY OLD!!... in which certain steps
were identified as a way of interpretation.

8. Gorris v Scott (1874)
Facts: The Contagious Diseases
(Animals) Act 1869 provided that
any ship carrying animals should
contain them in pens. The
defendant neglected his duty, and
some of the claimant’s sheep were
washed overboard and lost.
Held: Since the purpose of the
statute was to prevent the spread
of contagious disease, and not to
guard against the danger of the
property being washed overboard,
the claim failed.

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