Interpretational Problems: Public Service and Charitable Purpose

This chapter examines the deep-rooted problems of interpretation that have obscured and sometimes obstructed a clear and more precise application of legal function to charitable purpose. It draws from the international experience examined in Part III to explore and assess how this most basic social policy issue is variously managed.

The chapter then reflects on the experience of the countries examined in Part III and considers how core interpretational problems have played out in those jurisdictions, again giving particular attention to the interface between government and charity in public benefit provision. Consideration is also given to the fact that while the interpretation of ‘charity’ and ‘charitable purpose’ have retained a common currency in the jurisdictions studied, at least prior to the variable impact of national charity law reforms, the same cannot be said of the regulatory infrastructure. The legal functions approach adopted in this book reveals the nature and extent of change that has occurred over time to the role of the High Court, Attorney General, Charity Commissioner, Inland Revenue, trustees etc. There is now considerable jurisdictional variation in the interpretation given to the responsibilities of these institutions and their inter-relationship which needs to be understood and taken into account in any cross-jurisdiction comparative analysis.