Rules in Law?

Question

What is the Golden rule in a court of law?
What is the literal rule?
and how does the use of these two help or disadvantage the legal system?

Answer 1

Where the meaning of words in a statute, if strictly applied, would lead to an absurdity, the golden rule is that the courts are entitled to assume that Parliament did not intend such absurdity, and they will construe the Act to give it the meaning which Parliament intended.

The literal rule is the primary rule which takes precedence over the others.
Words and phrases should be construed by the courts in their ordinary sense, and the ordinary rules of grammar and punctuation should be applied.
If, applying this rule, a clear meaning appears, then this must be applied, and the courts will not inquire whether what the statute says represents the intention of the legislature: ‘The intention of Parliament is not to be judged by what is in its mind, but by the expression of that mind in the statute itself’.

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Answer 2

In the US and British systems, the Golden rule is that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty.

This forces the prosecution to prove every part of a case to the satisfaction of the jury.