Internal aids

Internal aids

1. Internal or intrinsic aids are found within the Act itself and may help make its meaning clearer.

2. The long title and the short title of the Act

   • RCN v DHSS where the judges made a decision about nurses carrying out abortions

3. Detailed preamble

   • Outlines the purpose of the Act, and newer Acts will have a purposes section and these can be used by judges to help them have a clearer view of Parliament’s intentions.

4. Marginal notes

   • A marginal note was referred to in R v Tivnan in order to clarify whether it was Parliaments intention to determine which assets could be confiscated from drugs dealers.

5. Interpretation section

   • Explains the meaning of key words used in the Act
   • For example the Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996 provides that the defendant can be guilty of a fatal offence where the death follows a year and a day after the attack.

6. Schedule

   • For instance the Hunting Act 2004 states that “Hunting is exempt if it is within a class specified in schedule 1”.

7. Advantages

   • Designed to provide definitions and explanations, for example the Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996 provides that the defendant can be guilty of a fatal offence where the death follows a year and a day after the attack.
   • The preamble is useful and Schedules can provide clarity as to what the Act intended as was the case in the Hunting Act 2004 where the schedule contained the exemptions.
   • Marginal notes have also been known to provide quick and easy guidance. A marginal note was referred to in R v Tivnan in order to clarify whether it was Parliaments intention to determine which assets could be confiscated from drugs dealers

8. Disadvantages

   • internal aids do have limitations, such as the fact that most problems with wording are not likely to be solved by looking elsewhere in the Act, especially if the words are ambiguous as in Allen or just wrong as in Whitely v Chappell.