The law is an occupation that deals primarily with language.
Words have both an ordinary meaning, and a legal meaning. Lawyers
and parties to litigation will often ask the courts to define the
legal meaning of words, when the ordinary meaning is plainly
obvious. While this may seem a waste of the court's time and
resources, this can sometimes be critical for the interpretation of
legislation, as well as contractual arrangements.
In a blog a couple of years ago, my colleague Brian Powles
looked at the legal meaning
of the word 'because' in relation to Part 3-1 of the
Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).
The Federal Court of Australia was again recently asked to
define another very 'ordinary' word. What is a
'day', in relation to paid personal/carer's leave under
the National Employment Standards (the NES).
