[42.1] A statutory offence may contain, expressly or by implication, a proposition as to a state of mind. At common law the state of mind that an offence contains is known as ‘mens rea’.

[27.1] A particular construction of a statutory provision may be tested by reference to its consequences. The principle directs attention to the likely operation of a statute if that construction were preferred. In practice, cases raising the principle are more concerned with adverse consequences.

More often than not, the advent of contemporary information and communication technologies is presented as one of the great success stories of contemporary schooling, and while ICT has the potential to be a transformative force in education, the issues are complicated and the outcomes far from certain. The field is often divided into those who grew up with such technologies ߝ ‘digital natives’/students ߝ and those who have come to these technologies at a later date ߝ ‘digital immigrants’/teachers. This binary articulates a central problem within a power relation where teachers are normally expected to know more than those they teach. Furthermore, such new technologies do not simply represent mechanisms for accessing more information more quickly and in more interesting ways. By stepping outside the domain of traditional linear texts, traditional understandings of literacy start to lose their meaning. New digital technologies necessitate the adoption of the notion of ‘multiliteracies’, a plural understanding of literacy that encompasses a range of other modes of contemporary meaning-making ߝ hypertext, audio, video and so on ߝ which are integral to the digital universe.

Given that feminist arguments have been around for decades, and that there has been progress towards gender equality, many would argue that concerns over gender have been resolved ߝ a battle won. However, declaring victory in this manner seems very premature. After all, the evidence suggests that a significant number of wider questions still attract attention: just what is gender and what is the best theoretical framework for approaching it? What roles do schools play in its construction? Do we still have to go down the ‘men are to blame for everything’ route? Why should schooling have anything to do with gender identity?

This chapter will unpack the complex and changing relationship between gender and education. In order to accomplish this, it will link each of the most common myths in the area with one of the three waves of feminism that characterised the twentieth century. As with the arguments surrounding social class, it will ultimately be suggested that explanations relying upon a master discourse ߝ not ‘the economy’ again, but in this case patriarchy ߝ a unified system of male domination ߝ are outdated.Similarly, it is argued that the view of gender as a binary of man/woman based on anatomy at birth has had its day.

[37.1] The effect of non-compliance with a statutory requirement is an issue that arises in a variety of ways.

[9.1] As well as a body of legal doctrine, statutory interpretation is an area of skill and technique. To a degree these techniques can be described and modelled. With reference to actual cases, this chapter models techniques for undertaking legal analysis of an Act, identifying interpretative clues or indications of meaning (‘interpretative factors’), formulating alternative constructions (rival contentions as to the meaning of the words in question), evaluating interpretative arguments, determining the preferable construction, and presenting a legal opinion and reasons for judgment.

Context – a fundamental notion in statutory interpretation (chapter 7) – includes the wider context. Part V deals with a major component of this wider context – the legislative history of an Act. In this book the term legislative history is used to refer broadly to the materials, law and circumstances that reflect the genesis and historical development of an Act or a provision of an Act up to the version being interpreted.

This chapter examines the rather ambiguous notion of alternative education. To some, sending a child to a Catholic school constitutes an alternative education; to others, nothing short of a total rejection of the central parameters of the mass school deserves the label ߝ such as the elimination of timetables, authority relations, organised curricula, fixed learning goals, even the notion that pupils are to be schooled in any way at all. It’s a subject that often engenders no little passion in those who embrace the categorisation, and no little ridicule among those who do not. Strange though some of the alternative education options might seem, they are all worthy of serious consideration … but what exactly are they?

[33.1] Put simply, inadmissible considerations are considerations of a type that ought not be taken into account in statutory interpretation. The reason why such considerations ought not be given any weight is that they do not point to the legislative intention.

This chapter argues that educators need to have a good grasp of all the various forms of pre-adulthood we take for granted, such as ‘the child’ and ‘youth’. These categories are the focus of a range of different disciplines, most of which found their explanatory models in nature itself. As such, while the behaviour of children and youth may be deemed to require explanation, the very existence of the categories themselves does not. The issues raised in this chapter concern the degree to which childhood and youth are actually socially constructed categories serving particular social functions. Of greatest interest here are the ways in which childhood and youth are both artefacts of, and vehicles for, social governance.

[38.1] Statutory reasonableness refers to the use in legislation of the ‘reasonableness’ standard in its various forms. The concept of statutory reasonableness may be profitably examined, taking in its general characteristics and its special interpretative aspects. The importance of examining it is underlined by the fact that, for a number of compelling reasons, it is widely used in statute law.

[7.1] The aims of this chapter are to state, elaborate on and illustrate the context principle: the duty to have regard to the context of the text whose meaning is in issue. It is not the purpose of this chapter to examine each of the individual contextual aids. Later Parts (Parts IV–VIII) elaborate on the contextual aids that may be considered.