ABSTRACT
A presumption is a mere legal device, yet it is a rule of law. It operates, in the field of the interpretation or construction of an Act of Parliament, to allow certain inferences to be drawn from available material. It is an assumption that it is legitimate to make in order to achieve a result, legal and desirable, in a given set of circumstances. The presumption of innocence, for example, is a presumption of law jealously guarded by the courts. Thus, in addition to the rules of interpretation discussed in Chapter Four, the courts have accepted certain presumptions of law which are called to aid in the interpretation or construction of an Act of Parliament.
