How Is Legislation Understood and Applied?

• Author: John Mark Keyes/Wendy Gordon
• Pages: 81-88

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How Is Legislation Understood

andApplied?

Since courts resolve disputes about the meaning and application

of legislation, the methodology they have developed for doing so

should be applied by everyone. is methodology not only ref‌lects

the functions of legislation discussed above (particularly to achieve

the policy goals of the bodies that make it and communicate its

terms to those it aects), it is also connected to the role of language

and the way legislation has been drafted.

Language

e functions of legislation are best advanced by enacting it in lan-

guages that are widely understood by both those who make the legis-

lation and those who are subject to it. In Canada, these languages

are English and French. In Nunavut, legislation is also enacted in

the Inuit language. Indigenous languages are also used in the laws of

self-governing Indigenous peoples. ese are known as natural lan-

guages and are recognized as fundamental for the social interaction

that def‌ines the linguistic communities that use them. In Re Manitoba

Language Rights, the Supreme Court of Canada noted: