Note 47 — Chapter XVI · The Interpretation of Treaties.

"It is a fundamental rule of construction, that penal statutes shall be construed strictly, and remedial statutes shall be construed liberally. It was one of the laws of the twelve tables of Rome, that whenever there was a question between liberty and slavery, the presumption should be on the side of liberty. This excellent principle our law has adopted in the construction of penal statutes: for whenever any ambiguity arises in a statute introducing a new penalty or punishment, the decision shall be on the side of lenity and mercy; or in favour of natural right and liberty: or, in other words, the decision shall be according to the strict letter in favour of the subject. And though the judges in such cases may frequently raise and solve difficulties contrary to the intention or the legislature, yet no further inconvenience can result, than that the law remains as it was before the statute, and it is more consonant to principles of liberty, that the judge should acquit whom the legislator intended to punish, than that he should punish whom the legislator intended to discharge with impunity. But remedial statutes must be construed according to the spirit: for in giving relief against fraud, or in the furtherance and extension of natural right and justice, the judge may safely go even beyond that which existed in the minds of those who framed the law."—Christian's Notes on Blackst. Comm. Introd. p. 87.