The law of the dictionary

The Court of Appeal was recently required to consider the meaning of the word ‘teacher’.

Their Lordships were asked to do this because Parliament had failed, when they passed the Superannuation Act in 1972 & the Teachers’ Pension Regulations of 1997 (as amended in 2004), to provide any definition of who was entitled to such a pension.

So in the absence of any guidance from Parliament, they looked instead to the dictionary – referring to both Chambers the OED.

I wonder what will happen if they ever have to provide a legal definition of the word doctor. Will they revert to the Latin derivation of the word?

Link
'Teacher' wins pension appeal

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