Page images
PDF
EPUB

Tx B3662 ed 2

OCT 9 1909

( )

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

My hope that the First Edition might be of service to members of the legal profession and others has been realized, and a Second Edition is required. Since its first publication I have collected further materials, and the arrangement is in the main the same as before. Considerable additions and some alterations have been made involving an increase in the size of the book. I have, amongst other things, added an Introduction to this Edition, justifying, I trust, this my further endeavour to reduce legal interpretation to an art, and also explaining my arrangement of the subject-matter and the broad issues of legal interpretation.

My best thanks are due to my friend Mr. ERNEST A. C. LLOYD, of the Middle Temple, for his careful revision of the proof sheets, and for assisting me in making the very very numerous quotations word perfect.

5, PAPER BUILDINGS,

TEMPLE,

July, 1908.

E. B.

PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

I KNOW of no attempt having been made to collect and arrange in one volume the Cardinal Rules of the legal interpretation of all instruments. Scattered as such rules are in reports and statutes, they are inaccessible to most persons. It is in the hope that this collection and arrangement may be of service to members of the legal profession, students of law and lay persons, whether at home or in the colonies, whose business it is to be conversant with the canons and principles of legal interpretation, that I have ventured to print this book. I trust that the legal profession will deem this, my endeavour to reduce legal interpretation to an art, not unworthy to take a place, as a helpmeet, beside the well-known elaborate and excellent treatises on the interpretation of deeds, statutes, and wills.

As authority, I give the reported words of the Court or Judge, without burdening the work with the facts of the particular cases in which the rules were laid down. I deem it better, and more useful, to give the very words of the Court or Judge, as reported, than to attempt to paraphrase such important language.

The rules printed in italics are not intended to be exhaustive, but are merely introductory to the quotations that follow. When dealing with rules relating to any particular subject, I quote from decisions on that subject only. The plan of the book has necessitated a certain amount of repetition, which, however, conduces to clearness, and may, I hope, be regarded with indulgence.

Cases referred to are in their chronological order, and have their dates given. Where two references are given, the quotation is from the first-mentioned report.

The Interpretation Act, 1889, and also the now repealed Act, commonly known as Lord Brougham's Act, 1850, are printedthe latter in italics-for reference in the Appendix.

My best thanks are due to my friend Mr. JAMES WEIR, M.A., of Lincoln's Inn, for his careful revision of the proof sheets and for valuable suggestions while the book was passing through the press.

5, PAPER BUILDINGS,

TEMPLE,

July, 1896.

E. B.

« PreviousContinue »