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The meaning of 'Judiciary' in light of Articles 126(1) and (5) of the 1992 Constitution

Source: Derick Adu-Gyamfi

The meaning of 'Judiciary' in light of Articles 126(1) and (5) of the 1992 Constitution
MarryRight Ghana

The venerable Lord Denning in his seminal book, the Closing Chapter, Butterworth’s, 1983 at page 93 on the legislative approach or purposive approach in the construction of statutes as:

“…..The judges ought not to go by the letter of the statute. They ought to by the spirit of it. 

As to what is meant by the spirit, Lord Denning gives this answer at page 98 of his book of the above reference.

“The Judges always say they look for the intention of the legislature. That is the same thing as looking for its purpose. They do it in this way. They go by words of the section. If they are clear and cover the situation in hand, there is no need to go further. But if they are ambiguous or doubtful the judges do not stop at the words of the section.

They will call for help in every direction open to them. They look at the statute as a whole. They look at the social conditions which gave rise to it. They look at the mischief which it was passed to remedy. They look at factual ‘matrix’. They use every legitimate aid.”
I will quote in graphic the statement by Jeremy Taylor in his book, Holy Living at page 189 as follows:

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