Heydon’s Rule (also known as the Mischief Rule) is a principle of statutory interpretation used to discover the true intent of a law by looking at the problem it was designed to fix.
According to this rule, the court considers four specific factors:
The Common Law: What was the law before the Act was passed?
The Mischief: What was the specific "mischief" or defect that the law didn't cover?
The Remedy: What solution did Parliament create to fix that defect?
The Reason: What is the true reason for providing that remedy?
The judge’s job is then to interpret the statute in a way that suppresses the mischief and advances the remedy.
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