On Thu, March 7, 2013 8:41 am, Michael Scott wrote:
It is the nature of the legal system to interpret law, not merely the letter of the law, but also the spirit of the law. That is why we have different levels of law, from lower courts and tribunals to higher courts.
I disagree, sure the judge will make a judgement and that judgement can become a precedent which can be used and/or abused as the case may be. If there is no higher cout in Australia to go to, there are international courts. The letter of the law counts absolutely, the spirit of the law (ala via an interpretation) is why we have so many appeals in the courts; that is, we have some appeals to over turn incorrect judgements that don't follow the letter of the law. When the law is mis-written and the defendant gets off with the loophole or other reason for the mis-written law, then it is up the the parliamentray system to correct the law so that it cannot be mis-interpretted again. Cheers A.