The first ground, was the enacted and positive law. Foster J explained, “when coexistence of the men became impossible, then a condition that underlines judicial precedents and statutes ceased to exist”3 Here, Foster J is suggesting that because they were in theory locked away from society, the legislation did not apply to them. …show more content…
In this ground, we can see that the purposive approach was used for interpretation. It is saying that the man may break the latter of the law, but in some circumstances, it does not need to be sanctioned. J Foster said in regard to self-defence, “Centuries ago…killing in self-defence is excused…but in the favour of self-defence is not out of the words of the statute…”5 After analysing this quote, it suggests that that Foster J is saying that the men were acting in self-defence to avoid death by starvation. It could also be argued that it was not necessary to kill Whitmore, “But such a conclusion does not mean that we should give them a privilege of acting "out of necessity" to harm or kill someone