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Law and change: Scottish legal heroes
Law and change: Scottish legal heroes

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4.1 Statutory interpretation

Another important role played by the judiciary is that of statutory interpretation. Whilst the meaning of law in legislation (also referred to as Acts or statutes) should be clear and explicit, this is not always achieved. Many cases come before the courts because there is a dispute over the meaning of a word in legislation. Courts then have to determine the meaning of that word.

Figure 7 High Court of Justiciary, Figure 8 UK Supreme Court