The Plain Meaning Rule: A Quibble about Nomenclature and a Lot More

In the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, the proper understanding of the plain meaning rule (or literal rule) of statutory interpretation remains unclear. In its most basic iteration, the rule states that, where a statute is clear and unambiguous, the words must be given their natural and ordinary signification; there is no room for interpretation. That notwithstanding, to this day, even the meaning of the rule, as opposed to its application, still sometimes sparks debate in the Commonwealth. In 2015, a judge of the Grand Court in Cayman held that once a provision in a statute is clear and unambiguous, a court does not need to read the provision in its broader context. In a subsequent case, in 2018, a court of coordinate jurisdiction disagreed. It ruled that, even where a provision appears to be clear and unambiguous, a court must still read the statute in its fuller context in order to decipher the legal meaning in that particular context. This article discusses the plain meaning rule with a view to elucidating its proper understanding while questioning the appropriateness of its continuing nomenclature especially in light of developments in recent decades.

From Paper to Webpage: Legislation during the British Regime in Palestine in the Israeli National Legislation Database*

The editorial team of the Israeli National Legislation Database endeavored to locate all the proclamations, ordinances, and ‘Orders in Council’ published from the beginning of the British military regime in Palestine to the last ‘hidden laws’ published in the waning days of the British Mandate. These documents complete the historical information on Israel state laws and shed light on the initial establishment of the legal and judicial system in Palestine, before the establishment of the State of Israel. In this paper, we describe the development of legislation under British regime, from 1917 to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. We introduce the three figures who played key roles in regulating the legislative system: Orme Bigland Clark, Norman Bentwich, and Sir Robert Harry Drayton, and describe the legislative process that was developed and the legislative procedures that prevailed at the time. The legal framework of this period, alongside the remaining Ottoman legislation, formed a solid basis for the legislative system and process for the Provisional State Council and subsequently, the Knesset.

PMLA 2002’s Gremlins: Anatomizing the Labyrinth of Recent Amendments and Precedent

Enacted to regulate the incubus of organized crime, India’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act has quickly degenerated into interpretative chaos, with conflicting judicial opinions straining its otherwise sound provisions. Instead of chastening statutory mercuriality, close to eleven amendments to the Act have only fuelled incertitude further. The most damaging feature of the PMLA’s disarray is that the interpretive conflict eclipses the most basic punitive machinery of the Act. Part 2 of the article clarifies the relationship between the offence of money laundering and its predicate offences in the realm of how the latter ought to influence property attachment and prosecution proceedings for the former. Part 3 dissects the complication of Indian Criminal Procedure’s applicability to investigations under the PMLA and proposes an inventive two-step enquiry to determine the extent of said applicability in view of the provisions of both statutes. Part 4 chronicles the peculiar acquiescence of some Indian courts in not insisting upon furnishing written grounds of arrest to a detenu and explains why that jurisprudential course deserves to be abandoned. Lastly, Part 5 addresses the topical disputation of the effect of recent amendments on the potential revival of sui generis bail conditions under the PMLA that had previously been declared unconstitutional. The article presents a syncretism of recommended interpretative paths that the judiciary must take to remedy the recognized flaws.