[Music] [Music] hello and welcome back to the channel this is the house of law apologies for the yellow light I'm recording this in the dining area I've decided to record here because it's more spacious also apologies for the white light coming from my laptop well I've been observing and we have had a lot of loss past this year and with more laws to be enforced that presents a big problem not just for the courts but for everyone for all of us who are asked to follow and observe them you see these laws are written by lawmakers who tend to have their own language thus sometimes ambiguities are created so we are asked to interpret them now the question is is our interpretation correct because if not then we might just run afoul with the law okay so this video is about statutory construction what is that story construction what are the tools to construe and interpret a statute all these will be answered in this video so let's begin so what is statutory construction statutory construction is the process of determining what the law means so that the court may apply it accurately it is also the process by which a court interprets and applies the law but before we go to the rules of statutory construction let's first understand how this government works our government is composed of three branches you have the legislative branch the executive branch and the judicial branch these branches although seperate are co-equal now the law is initiated by the legislative branch composed of the Senate and House of this these laws are meant to be implemented and that task is in the hands of the executive department composed of the president and under him the various executive departments and the local government units now this loss can be challenged and that is when the judicial branch comes in it interprets it applies the law to the problems presented the judicial branch is composed of the Supreme Court and all other courts under it the first rule of statutory construction is the plain language rule under this rule the court is bound to apply the plain language of the statute to give effect to the intention of the legislature thus if the language is clear and unambiguous like shall not do not will not then apply it as it is the court will not engage in statutory construction however if applying the plain language of the statute leads to an absurd result or a result that is contrary to the obvious intention of the legislature then the court will use the tools of statutory construction okay to disregard the letter of the law and go into the intent of the legislature the second rule on statutory construction is using legislative history and this is very helpful when a present law is a mirror iteration of a previous law or previous loss but may be by reason of wrong choice of words or faulty amendments the present law is ambiguous or absurd so what the courts can do is to check the language of the previous laws or maybe the interpretations as well as the explanations of the legislators when they enacted the previous laws now this can guide the courts in interpreting the press floo putting it in the right context a good example would be the rules on citizenship under our Constitution now these rules have actually been developed through several constitutions starting from the 1935 Constitution thus from time to time when the citizenship of certain officials or persons is challenged before the courts the courts will take him to account the legislative history of our rules on citizenship starting from the 1935 Constitution the third rule of statutory construction is the constitutional presumption statutes are presumed to be constitutional thus if a statute admits of two interpretations one of which is that it is constitutional and the other one it is unconstitutional the courts will choose the constitutional presumption in fact under the rules of the Supreme Court when the vote on a constitutional issue is 50/50 the court will decide for its constitutionality that's how strong the presumption of constitutionality is the first rule of statutory construction is contextual reading under this rule the statute is to be read as a whole in context and if possible the court is to give effect to every word of the statute the court is to give sensible consistent and harmonious effect all parts of the statute now there have been instances in the past where the Supreme Court struck down certain provisions of a statute from being unconstitutional but leaving the rest and disturb case in point the reproductive health law where the Supreme Court declared the law constitutional but declared unconstitutional section 717 and 23 for being violative of the freedom of religion as well as for being oppressive the fifth rule of statutory construction is prospective application under this rule statutes are supposed to apply to facts and events happening after the enactment of the statute you see Congress is supposed to think of a cure for the present to change the future so it's not supposed to apply to things that already happen in the past but know that Congress may state that the law can apply back to actively and this is true in case of remedial and curative statutes such as when the statute is beneficial to the accused the sixth rule of statutory construction is that the recent ones control over the earlier ones so if there is a conflict between a statute enacted let's say in 2020 and a statute enacted a year before the later one shall control because being the more recent statute it is presumed to be a correction or a rectification of the earlier one the seventh rule of statutory construction is what I'd like to call the specific prevails over the general so if there is a conflict between a specific law and a general law the specific law prevails because the specific statement prevails over the general statement example the revised penal code which is a general law has a chapter or public officers but we also have Republic at 3:01 line or the anti-graft and crop Practices Act now since Republic at 3:01 9 is a more specific law it prevails over the revised Penal Code which is a general law now another application of this rule of statutory construction can be in the same law for example the Civil Code the Civil Code has a chapter on obligations and contracts now that is a general chapter now we also have a chapter on sales so the chapter on sales is a specific provision in the same law so the provisions on sales will control over the positions on obligations and contracts the aides rule on statutory construction is the in pari materia rule in pari materia means upon the same matter or subject so assume that a statute is ambiguous to better understand it the court can look at similar statutes meaning statutes touching on the same subject matter so that the ambiguous statute can be placed in the proper context and harmonized with its related statutes for example women's rights so we have several laws touching on women's rights we have women in nation building the Magna Carta of women so if a part of these statutes or one of these two statutes turn out to be ambiguous it can be better understood by looking at the other statute the related structures to better understand the wisdom and the intent of the legislature the nice rule of statutory construction is a loose term generous which means of the same kind class or nature let's say a statue lists certain things and at the end of the list is a general statement or a catch-all phrase the court will assume that the general statement includes only things that are similar to those items listed for example rule 138 of the rousseff court provides for the grounds for disbarment of a lawyer in the list you have received malpractice gross misconduct and other things but at the end of that list is the phrase any other violation of the oath now this general statement should mean to include only those infractions that are the same to those listed meaning to say infractions that reflect on the unfitness of the lawyer to continue in the practice of law so that's how else DeGeneres is applied the tensed rule of statutory construction and the last for this video is expression owners s exclusion of Terios which means the Express mention of one thing excludes all others so imagine a statute that has a list of things that list is deemed exclusive and the statute will apply only to those items listed and not others to give this statute an extended application we'll be committing the crime of overbreadth thus the law can be struck down as unconstitutional so that's expression good news as exclusion of terrors so that ends our video on the ten rules of statutory construction I hope you learned something valuable today I know laws are difficult to understand and it's normal to be confused but with this rules of statutory construction maybe they can help you understand better the law and make you a more law-abiding citizen so thank you very much for watching if you have some questions comments or suggestions let me know in the comment section below please don't forget to give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and please subscribe and support me if you haven't yet goodnight