3.2 Interpretation Concerning the Subject Matter of Statute

3.2.1 Taxing StatutesThe strict construction: no tax on the taxpayer the words do not clearly impose; the ambiguity resolved for the taxpayer; no equity-and-intention extension (the "no equity in tax" lore); the charging provision's plainness required. The modern softening: the anti-avoidance provisions read effectively (the purposive tax era's cases), but the levy itself never presumed.3.2.2 Penal StatutesThe strictest construction: the offence's elements clear, the punishment within the words, the benefit of the doubt to the accused (the nullum crimen principle's interpretive face — the substantive criminal law's constitutional anchor). The rule's reasons: the liberty's stake, the fair- warning demand.3.2.3 Remedial and Beneficial StatutesThe liberal construction: the remedy's provision read to fulfil its purpose — the "benevolent" reading (the social legislation's, the consumers'-and-workers' Acts' style); the new remedy's supplementation (not the substitution) of the old; the doubt resolved for the beneficiary.3.2.4 Interpretation of Codifying Statute and Consolidating StatuteThe codifying Act (the law's restatement — the 2074 Codes' genre): construed as the complete statement — the pre-code case law's displacement (the codes' sections replacing the prior sources, the interpretive independence), the gap-filling debates (the code's completeness presumption vs the doctrine's survival). The consolidating Act (the Acts' merger): the mere combining — the prior Acts' case law survives (the consolidated text read as the old law continued).