The Interpretation of Legislation in Canada: Fifth Edition

Although we are most familiar with interpretation by the courts, who devote a considerable portion of judicial energy to interpretation, all jurists regularly interpret enactments. This treatise deals with the nature of the interpretive process itself and the principles governing the interpretation of legislation in Canada, in both statute law and civil law.

Divided into two parts, the book begins with an analysis of the roles played by the structure and operation of statutes in their interpretation. The second part delves into the methods of interpretation such as grammatical, systematic and logical, purposive, historical, pragmatic, and interpretation by authorities.

Since it was first published in 1982, The Interpretation of Legislation in Canada has been cited numerous times by the Supreme Court of Canada.

This fifth edition benefits from the participation of professor Mathieu Devinat, who contributues his views on the methodology of interpretation and brought a perspective from his scholarship in jurilinguistics, lexicography, and civil law.

The remarkable operation of translating and harmonizing this work has been done with dedication and rigour by Steven Sacks.

Pierre-André Côté (Author) Pierre-André Côté is emeritus professor of law at the Faculté de droit of the Université de Montréal. From 1974 until he retired in 2005, he lectured on statutory interpretation, creating a teaching course that bears his trademark. Over these 30 years plus, he has also published extensively in the field. The first edition of his treatise Interprétation des lois was published in 1982 and the English language version appeared in 1984 under the title The Interpretation of Legislation in Canada. Professor Côté now acts as counsel for the Montreal law firm Bélanger, Sauvé.Mathieu Devinat (Author) Mathieu Devinat is a full professor at the Faculty of Law of the Université de Sherbrooke. His primary areas of research are legal theory, comparative law and jurilinguistics and he currently teaches civil law property, the construction of statutes and legal research methodology. Dr. Devinat is a member of the International Association of Legal Methodology, the editorial committee of the Private Law Dictionary/Dictionnaire de droit privé and the Akademie für Europäisches Privatrecht (Salzburg).