Maunsell v Olins [1975] AC 373 House of Lords

The House of Lords had to determine whether a farm cottage attached to farmhouse constituted ‘premises’ for the purposes of the Rent Act. Lord Simon set out the two tier test to be taken under the purposive approach.

Lord Simon:

‘The first task of a court of construction is to put itself in the shoes of the draftsman – to consider what knowledge he had and, importantly, what statutory objective he had …being thus placed…the court proceeds to ascertain the meaning of the statutory language.’

 

Back to lecture outline on the purposive approach to statutory interpretation