Mar 4 • General discussion
If the Rule Is Confusing, Authority Is Accountable
CONFUSING RULES + PUNISHMENT = BAD LAW
When the government writes the rules, it carries the responsibility to make those rules clear, accessible, and understandable.
If the law is confusing or ambiguous, the courts apply two important principles:
Rule of Lenity
If a law imposing a penalty is unclear, it must be interpreted in favour of the person facing the penalty.
Contra Proferentem
If a rule drafted by an authority is ambiguous, it is interpreted against the party who wrote it.
Why?
Because the authority had the power to make the rule clear.
The High Court confirmed this in Beckwith v The Queen (1976) 135 CLR 569:
“If there is any real ambiguity in a penal provision, the ambiguity must be resolved in favour of the subject.”
Those who create the rules cannot benefit from the confusion they create.
Authority does not reduce accountability.
Authority increases it.
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If the Rule Is Confusing, Authority Is Accountable
