Parts IV–VIII explore the so-called rules of interpretation, better known as the interpretative criteria of the law. When the criteria are manifested in a particular statutory context they provide indications of meaning and are known as interpretative factors. Part IV begins with the criteria that may be manifested in the text or provision, and in the remainder of the Act concerned.

[40.1] There is a common law presumption that general words in a statute do not apply to the Crown in any capacity. The term ‘the Crown’ has a broad meaning for this purpose. It covers executive governments, government agencies and staff as well as the Sovereign and the Sovereign’s direct representatives in Australia.

The working life of educators ߝ whether in schools or universities ߝ has become dauntingly complex, with the relentless focus on standards and testing, pressure to ensure equitable outcomes, a managerialist working environments, ever-growing professional responsibilities and expectations, increasingly heterogeneous classrooms and fairly relentless media criticism, to name only a fewissues. The job requires continual self-reflection, a commitment to lifelong learning and an ongoing dedication to the profession in order to remain viable at all. Making sense of it all ߝ Making Sense of Mass Education ߝ is not an easy task. Hopefully this book can help a little.

Part II concerns those aspects of statutory interpretation that underlie all interpretative practices. Broadly, they divide into fundamental interpretative principles (chapters 4–8) and practical interpretative techniques (chapter 9).

The ethics of both corporate and government lawyers are critically important to the proper functioning of democratic societies. Both groups advise and act for powerful clients: corporations are amongst the most powerful actors in our society because of the potentially far-reaching impact of their activities; governments have ‘powers and obligations that far exceed those of the normal citizen’. In this chapter, we discuss the ethical responsibilities and challenges facing lawyers who act for these clients. We focus predominantly on corporate lawyers, but then turn our attention to lawyers working in government. While government legal work may seem a far cry from the work of corporate lawyers, in fact in-house corporate and in-house government lawyers face some similar challenges and opportunities.

Previous Parts have dealt with general principles of statutory interpretation. These principles potentially apply to all problems that may be solved by interpretation. Part VIII deals with special interpretative issues. These are issues arising in the case of particular interpretative problems.

[4.1] The fundamental object of statutory interpretation is to ascertain the ‘intention’ of Parliament, or the ‘legislative intent’, in relation to the statute being construed. Legislative intent is an objective notion, representative of the constitutional relationship between the arms of government. The phrase can be misleading as the word ‘intent’ suggests something subjective. But it is clear that legislative intent is not the collective, or individual, subjective mental states of individuals involved in the making of legislation. The so-called intent of Parliament is to be ascertained from applying the principles of statutory interpretation to a piece of legislation.

[15.1] An earlier chapter (chapter 6) established the importance of the text in statutory interpretation. The present chapter examines how particular presumptive meanings may be derived from the particular words in doubt. The primary meanings are the ‘literal’, ‘grammatical’, ‘natural’ and ‘ordinary’ meanings. Often combined, the presumptive meaning that reading a provision generates may be described, for instance, as the ‘ordinary and grammatical meaning’ and the ‘natural and ordinary meaning’.

[16.1] This chapter builds on chapter 10 where the nature of legislative drafting is discussed. It addresses the main styles of legislative drafting and their impact on interpretation. In common law jurisdictions there are three main recognised styles of drafting: traditional, plain language and general principles. Since the 1980s, Australian parliamentary counsel have largely adopted the plain language style of drafting, though other styles, notably general principles, are also used whenever appropriate.

In this introductory chapter, we first provide an overview of the whole book and discuss some global issues affecting legal practice and lawyers’ ethics. We then explore insights from general morality as an underlying framework for the four approaches to lawyers’ ethics explored in Chapter 2. This framework compensates, to some extent, for the lack of an explicit statement of values in our current rules of professional conduct. We consider the professional imperatives for ethical action (legal and cultural norms) and the ethical decision-making process, including the skills we need to put our ethics into action.

[17.1] In interpreting legislation, courts can take into account whether the provision in question comes within a ‘special category’ of legislation1 – in other words, its particular ‘character’.2 The categories most frequently mentioned are remedial, penal and taxing.