Talk:American rule (legal term)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Plain Meaning Rule links here and says that the American rule is the prodominant rule for statutory construction in the US. However, that makes no sense given the definition here. What is the American rule of statutory construction? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 217.132.64.177 (talk • contribs).
Prior to October 8, 2005, this article said: "The American rule is a rule of statutory construction whereby the court first look to the language of the statute (plain meaning). If the language is unclear or ambiguous, or if the result of using the plain meaning would lead to unreasonable results, the court turns to the Mischief rule, whereby the court determines the legislative intent of a statute to determine how to interpret it in the context of a particular case."
I guess this is what the link from Plain Meaning Rule was referring to. However, on the date mentioned, a user changed the article to what it is now, saying that the previous text was wrong as the American Rule was not a rule of statutory construction. It seems as if there are two "American Rules," and I propose defining both of them here (a disambiguition page would not be necessary, given the modest length of both definitions so far). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 132.180.252.57 (talk • contribs).
- Yes, there appear to be two, and for each one there is also a corresponding "British Rule" to contrast with. In particular, the "Golden" or "British" rule of plain-meaning statutory construction contrasts with the "American" rule of legislative intent, whereas the "British" rule of loser-pays attorneys' fees contrasts with the "American" rule of each-side-pays. --Delirium 12:31, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
