Generally speaking, it can be said that there are two different views as to how judges should interpret a statute. Using the literal approach, dominant in the English legal system, judges look primarily at the words of a law to interpret its meaning. The literal and, to a lesser extent, the golden rules look to the actual wording of the statutes. Using the more liberal purposive approach, judges look outside of, or behind the legislation in an attempt to find its meaning.
The purposive approach is similar to the mischief rule, but emphasises the intention of the law makers, instead of, as with the mischief rule, looking at the defect in the previous law.
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