Handbook on Statutory Interpretation - General Methodology, Canadian Charter and International Law

Taking the Complexity Out of Canadian Statutory Interpretation

The interpretation of statutes in Canada has very broad applications in both the academic and practical arenas. As essential as the need for understanding how legislation is constructed, practitioners are often left wanting simple solutions that can be employed efficiently. Those seeking brief and sensible answers to basic queries or quick solutions to interpretation problems have few places to turn, especially when grappling with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and, even more so, with international law - two areas that are rapidly becoming indispensable when dealing with statutory interpretation in Canada.

Author Stephane Beaulac, with his wealth of expertise in both statutory interpretation and international law, tackles these challenges head on in his new book Handbook on Statutory Interpretation - General Methodology, Canadian Charter and International Law.

Features and Benefits

This human rights law book offers readers concise and user-friendly tools to help articulate the most powerful arguments to identify the legislative intent found in the statute. It provides:

• Expert commentary - provides more context for statutes by explaining the interpretative roles of both the Canadian Charter and international law
• Practical advice - examples and illustrations from across Canada's federal and provincial jurisdictions truly make this a nationally-focused publication
• Case law - detailed analysis of the key judicial decisions and a table of cases that practitioners in particular will find extremely valuable
• Research tools - an in-depth bibliography steering those seeking more background material to the appropriate sources
• Relevant legislation - complete reproduction of both the Interpretation Act (Canada) and Interpretation Act (Quebec)

Bringing Clarity to a Complex Issue

Handbook on Statutory Interpretation - General Methodology, Canadian Charter and International Law fills the gap in statutory interpretation texts by arming the reader with an understanding of:

• Both the official theory of legislative interpretation and Driedger's "modern principle"
• The three formal methods of statutory interpretation - textual arguments, contextual arguments and purposive arguments
• The use of complementary methods of statutory interpretation, such as historical and pragmatic arguments

A Must-Own Guide For

• Practitioners - who are faced with the challenge of interpreting a statute
• Government legal advisors - who need to understand statutory interpretation as part of the legislative drafting or policy development processes
• Academics - who are seeking a more succinct method for teaching classes which have a section on statutory interpretation