External aids

External aids

1. External or extrinsic aids are found outside of the Act

2. Dictionary

   • In Vaughan v Vaughan a man had been pestering his ex-wife and the court used a dictionary to define the word “molest” and decided the definition was wide enough to cover his “pestering” behaviour.
   • Another example was where the word “passengers” was defined using a dictionary in Cheeseman.

3. Case law

   • Wheatley where the court interpreted the Explosive Substances Act.

4. Hansard

   • Pepper V Hart reference can also be made to Hansard to work out Parliaments intentions

5. Explanatory notes

   • Since 1999 all government Bills will have explanatory notes which provide guidance on aspects of the Bil

6. Reports

   • Law Commission reports are also used as external aids, as are international treaties when judges are interpreting EU law.

7. Books

   • Text books have also on occasion been used to provide guidance to judges

8. Dictionaries are quick and easy as in Cheeseman and Vaughan.

   • Hansard has made things a lot easier and Lord Denning admitted to use Hansard in Davis v Johnson
   • international treaties is useful as it allows judges to make sense of EU law

9. using Hansard may make reference to what a minister had said in Parliament, as in Pepper v Hart, but it may not actually be the same as what Parliament as a whole intended.

10. There is a danger that because external aids such as dictionaries are used they may undermine the Act itself and it should be the case that the Act which is made by a supreme Parliament should be supreme.