ABSTRACT

For law students one of the best known rules to be used in reading an Act of Parliament is the mischief rule (or, as the law students know it, ‘the rule in Heydon’s Case’). This is a rule which is used to find the meaning of an Act when that meaning is obscure:

To do this the reader must ask four questions: 1 What was the state of the law before the Act was passed? 2 What was the mischief or defect for which the law did not provide before

the Act was passed? 3 What remedy has Parliament provided in the Act to cure the mischief or

defect? 4 What is the true reason of the remedy?3