Purpose Approach

The purpose approach requires an interpretation of the Disability Discrimination Act in the way intended by Parliament. This approach is itself a development of the mischief rule, which seeks
to discover the mischief that the statute was intended to rectify. This allows the proper meaning of the words used to be found. 

The classic statement of the rule was given in Heyden’s case (1584) where the court
stated that to obtain a sure and true interpretation of statutes in general, the four matters to consider are:

1)	The law before the statute was made.

2)	The mischief covered before the statute

3)	Parliament’s remedy to the mischief

4)	The true purpose of the remedy supplied by the Act 

It becomes important that Parliament must understand the mischief rule when amending the Disability Discrimination Act 

Melville Miranda 
Victoria

Date: 30-5-03