Definitions, Deeming, and Clear Labels

Part of CRLP Guidance and Training for Drafters

Definitions do more than help the reader. They allocate legal meaning.

Means and includes do different legal work

An exhaustive definition tells the reader what counts as the defined term and closes the set.

An enlarging definition brings listed things within the term without necessarily closing the set.

That is the practical contrast between means and includes. It is not just a drafting preference. It is a difference in legal effect.

If a definition says that “agriculture includes aquaculture”, it tells the reader that aquaculture falls within the term, while leaving open that other things may also do so. If it says that “aquaculture means fish-farming and shellfish-farming”, it identifies the term as exhausted by that content.

Deeming provisions belong in the same family

Provisions stating that something is to be treated as something else, or that one thing counts as another, are also constitutive devices.

They assign legal meaning or legal status. They are not merely descriptive.

That is why definitions, deeming provisions, and similar clauses should be analysed as operative structures within the law.

Definitions can appear outside a definition section

Some provisions perform definitional work even though they are not set out as stand-alone definitions.

Examples include:

• “A person who drives (a ‘driver’) …”
• “For the purposes of this Part, a farmer is a person who works in agriculture.”

The same questions still apply. Is the effect exhaustive? Is it enlarging? Is it deeming? The drafting location has changed, but the legal task has not.

Labels improve analysis when they mark real distinctions

Naming matters because it helps the drafter notice what kind of thing is under discussion.

The difference between a provision, an enactment, an instrument, a paragraph, a definition, and a condition is not empty terminology. Those labels help the drafter avoid running unlike things together.

The same is true inside clauses. Seeing that includes is performing definitional work is useful because it changes how the sentence should be understood.

Definitions are not harmless ornament

A definition can widen, narrow, or redirect the whole operation of an Act. A deeming provision can fix a legal result that would not otherwise follow. A label can expose whether the drafter is dealing with a rule of conduct, a rule of law, or a linked procedural device.

That is why these clauses should be drafted with the same care as any operative provision.