Pierre-Andre Cote's treatise, is now in its fourth edition, and this volume is a revisited translation of the book. Indeed, it was felt that over the years and the several updates and upgrades, the English translation needed to be reconsidered as a whole.
Although we are most familiar with interpretation by the courts, who devote a considerable portion of judicial energy to interpretation, all jurists regularly interpret enactments. This treatise deals with the nature of the interpretive process itself and the principles governing the interpretation of legislation in Canada, in both statute law and civil law.
Divided into two parts, the book begins with an analysis of the roles played by the structure and operation of statutes in their interpretation. The second part delves into the methods of interpretation: grammatical, systematic and logical, purposive, historical, pragmatic and interpretation by authorities.
Since it was first published in 1982, The Interpretation of Legislation in Canada has been cited numerous times by the Supreme Court of Canada. This fourth edition now benefits from the participation of two new collaborators: professor Stéphane Beaulac and professor Mathieu Devinat, both of whose views on the methodology of interpretation are reflected in the sections they have revised.
Professor Beaulac, for instance, has an interest for parliamentary materials, human rights law and the domestic role of international normativity; professor Devinat, for his part, brought a perspective from his scholarship in jurilinguistics, lexicography and civil law.
The remarkable operation of translating and harmonizing this work has been done with dedication and rigour by Steven Sacks.
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