Weight accorded to usage and practice

• Common usage and practice under the

statute, or a course of conduct indicating a
particular undertaking of it, especially where
the usage has been acquiesced in by all the
parties concerned and has extended over a
long period of time.
• Optimus interpres rerum usus – the best
interpretation of the law is usage.
 Reenactment
• Most common act of approval.
• The re-enactment of a statute, previously given
a contemporaneous construction is persuasive
indication of the adoption by the legislature of
the prior construction.
• Re-enactment if accorded greater weight and
respect than the contemporaneous
construction of the statute before its
ratification.