Judicial interpretation Quotes

“We can judge of the intent of the parties only by their words.”

“Words having a distinct meaning must bear their primary legal import.”

“As a Judge sitting here to interpret the rule, I must take it exactly as it is.”

“An enactment for the favour and liberty of the subject ought to have a liberal construction.”

“Wherever a law is productive of tyranny, I shall ever give my consent to narrow the construction.”

“I should regret to place a narrowing construction upon rules intended to remove expense and delay.”

“When a person undertakes to explain his own meaning, we are not to extend the same by construction.”

“Definition, founded upon etymology, is not satisfactory, etymology being often in itself unsettled.”

“A casus omissus can in no case be supplied by a Court of law, for that would be to make laws.”

“We should not be too strict in construing instruments or contracts generally drawn up on the spur of the moment.”

“In questions of difficulty and nicety, Lord Coke says that arguments ab inconvenienti ought to have great weight.”

“It is the duty of Courts of Justice to give that construction which most fairly carries out the manifest purpose.”

“One would wonder, when a word was in use two hundred years ago, that there should remain now any doubt what it is.”

“Expressions used in particular cases are to be understood with relation to the subject-matter then before the Court.”

“Wikipedia: Judicial interpretation”

“The words of a deed are to be construed like those of any other writing, according to the ordinary use and application of them.”

“But surely it is a rule, both in law and equity, so to construe the whole deed or will, as that every clause should have its effect.”

“It is very mischievous for a Court to propound views of the law different from those taken by another Court of co-ordinate jurisdiction.”

“Nothing can be more mischievous than the attempt to wrest words from their proper and legal meaning only because those words are superfluous.”

“The Court will always incline to lean against niceties in matters of variance. But where it is in the description of a statute or record, it is fatal.”