Statutory Interpretation In Constitutional Law

Introduction of statutes

Statute is the main source of south African constitutional law.this is not in any way to deny or detract from the vital importance of both English and Roman-Dutch common-law sources. The statutory sources are legion, and it is not easy to task which constitutional statutes are of sufficient importance to justify their inclusion in a compilation of laws in relation to this topic. It was decided, in the end to keep basic statutes and largely to omit those dealing with specialised aspects of constitutional law. Statutes are arranged in their chronological order.

Definition of a statute: Interpretation Act 33 0f 1957

Statutory interpretation is the process by which courts interpret and apply legislation. Some amount

(2004).Statutory interpretation: An introduction for students. Pretoria, Juta And Company LTD. Interpretation of statutes is the juridical understanding of legislation, deals with the body of rules and principles used to construct the correct meaning of legislative meaning to be applied in practical situations. Du Plessis explain it as follows:

“Statutory interpretation is about construing enacted law-text with reference to and reliance on other law-texts, concretising the text to be construed so as to cater for the exigencies of an actual or hypothesised concrete situation’’

Rules/ theories of statutory interpretation INTRODUCTION The interpretation of statutes, more precisely, the juridical understanding of legal texts. Legislation, in other words, deals with the body of rules and principles which are used to construct the correct meaning of legislative provisions to be applied in practical situations. The use of these principles/rules is necessary for the following reasons: the written and spoken words are imperfect renderings of human thoughts in the case of legislation, the courts are obliged to use specific rules of interpretation to construe its meaning. .

The orthodox text-based

The legislative function is a purposive activity. In terms of the text in text approach the legislative meaning, purpose or object is taken into account. The context of the legislation, including social and political policy direction s, is also taken into account to establish the purpose of the legislation.

Jaga v donges 1950 (4) SA 653

Facts:

Jaga was caught selling unwrought gold and was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment suspended for3 years. The Minister declared Jaga an undesirable inhabitant of the Union and a warrant for his deportation to India was issued .Jaga challenged his deportation on the basis that he hadn’t been sentenced to imprisonment and the Minister argued that a suspended sentence of imprisonment is still a sentence of “imprisonment” within the ordinary meaning of the provision Jaga argued that “imprisonment” meant actual (as opposed to merely potential)imprisonment and he wasn’t actually and physically held in prison.

Legal issue:

How should the phrase “sentenced to imprisonment” be interpreted?