Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

equity-of-the-statute rule

In statutory construction, the principle that a statute should be interpreted according to the legislators' purpose and intent, even if this interpretation goes beyond the literal meaning of the text. a Under this little-used rule, for example, if a statute defines jury-tampering to include a party's "giving a juror food or drink," the giving of cigars to a juror would also fall within that definition. Cf. GOLDEN RULE; MISCHIEF RULE; PLAIN-MEANING RULE.