England and Wales
A 1969 report of the English Law Commission proposed the English courts adopt the purposive approach. This prestigious endorsement did much to boost the profile and credibility of the approach, but several decades would nonetheless pass before purposivism would win definitive acceptance in the English courts.
The leading case, in which purposivism was definitively accepted by the House of Lords was Pepper v Hart AC 593. The law lords established the principle that when primary legislation is ambiguous, and provided that certain criteria are satisfied, courts may refer to statements made in the House of Commons or House of Lords in an attempt to interpret the meaning of the legislation. Before this ruling, such an action would have been seen as a breach of parliamentary privilege. The House of Lords held that courts could now take a purposive approach to interpreting legislation when the traditional methods of statutory construction are in doubt or result in an absurdity.
To find what Parliament intended, all sources including Hansard may be consulted. Lord Griffiths stated,
| “ | My Lords, I have long thought that the time had come to change the self-imposed judicial rule that forbade any reference to the legislative history of an enactment as an aid to its interpretation. The ever increasing volume of legislation must inevitably result in ambiguities of statutory language which are not perceived at the time the legislation is enacted. The object of the court in interpreting legislation is to give effect so far as the language permits to the intention of the legislature. If the language proves to be ambiguous I can see no sound reason not to consult Hansard to see if there is a clear statement of the meaning that the words were intended to carry. The days have long passed when the courts adopted a strict constructionist view of interpretation which required them to adopt the literal meaning of the language. The courts now adopt a purposive approach which seeks to give effect to the true purpose of legislation and are prepared to look at much extraneous material that bears upon the background against which the legislation was enacted. Why then cut ourselves off from the one source in which may be found an authoritative statement of the intention with which the legislation is placed before Parliament? | ” |
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