INTRODUCTION
This conference commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the report of the Renton Committee on The Preparation of Legislation in 1975. The Renton report came at a time of growing dissatisfaction with the prevailing approach to statutory interpretation, both within the United Kingdom and in other common law jurisdictions. A few years before, in 1969, the Law Commissions of England & Wales and Scotland conducted a joint review of the interpretation of statutes and criticised the literal manner in which the courts interpreted legislation. Their report argued the courts’ literalist approach assumed an ‘unattainable perfection in draftsmanship’ and reflected an outdated conception of the predominance of the common law over statute. To remedy this problem, the report recommended the enactment of a statutory provision requiring courts to interpret legislation so as to promote its general legislative purpose …
Lord Sales, The Significance of Purpose in Purposive Construction of Legislation, The Renton Lecture, Statute Law Society Conference, 6 June 2025.
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