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The mischief rule can be used by judges in order to discover Parliament’s intention. It allows judges to use much greater discretion — especially more than the literal rule — as it allows the judge to decide on Parliament’s intent. It asks the question: ‘When Parliament was making the law what was the reason, or “mischief”, that it was trying to deal with?’
The rule was originally set out in Heydon’s Case (1584) where it was said that there were four points to be taken into consideration when interpreting a statute:
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