Rules of Statutory Construction

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When an attorney or judge has to analyze the law that applies to a certain situation, they apply the rules of statutory construction.

• generally means that the laws of the legislature (code law) are given greater deference than the laws of the courts (common law)
  • If codes are in conflict with the common law, then code wins
  • a problem in analysis occurs when code is ambiguous

Process

• When reviewing a legal issue:
  • see if it can be answered by U.S. or state constitution
  • if not, look at code law
    • federal for federal issues
    • state for state issues
  • if still not, look at common law doctrine and cases
    • federal and state respectively
    • leverage precedent