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trend of decisions ; and those relating to its present applic- 
ability in the light of newly discovered truths and changed 
social policy. 
Statutes. A complete statute contains its title, a pre- 
amble, and the body of the statute, otherwise called “pur- 
view”, which includes the enacting clause, the interpretation 
clause, the saving clauses, and the repealing clause if any. 
Interpretation. The authoritative principles derived from 
decisions are not written but are ascertained by the use of 
reason, and therefore case law is called unwritten law, tho 
found in written opinions ; but in the case of statutes the rules 
are found in the very words of the statutes, which are there- 
fore called written law. A decision is a judicial act, a statute 
a legislative act. Future decisions can be predicted much 
more surely than future statutes. Any work of the courts in 
elucidating the meaning of statutes takes the form of inter- 
pretation or construction. Statutory questions are settled, not 
by legal theory, but by verbal criticism. Hence whenever a 
statutory question is involved one should not depend upon his 
memory but should examine the very words of the statute. 
The purpose of interpretation is to ascertain the intention 
of the framers of the statutes, and to this end a number of 
rules have been evolved. First, there are rules which apply 
to all written instruments, as technical words are to be under- 
stood in their technical sense ; words with changing meaning 
are to be construed as they were understood at the time; 
words are to be construed in connection with the context; all 
words are to be given meaning if possible; doubtful words 
are to be construed so as to make sense and not nonsense, 
justice and not injustice; words are to be construed so as to 
carry out the main purpose of the statute ; clerical and gram- 
matical errors are to be ignored if the meaning can be as- 
certained notwithstanding them ; and punctuation may be ap- 
pealed to as an aid to the sense. Second, there are rules which 
apply especially to statutes, as words are to be construed so as 
to make the statute valid if possible; words are to be construed 
so as not to give retroactive effect; penal statutes are con- 
strued strictly; remedial, liberally; the words of a statute 
are to be construed in the light of pre-existing law; words in 
a series of statutes are to be construed as if the series were 
one statute; and words of a statute will be construed not to 
