Under Washington State canons of statutory construction, what is the canon expressio unius est exclusio alterius? Here’s my point of view.
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CANONS OF CONSTRUCTION
A canon of construction is “[a] rule used in construing legal instruments, esp. contracts and statutes.” Black’s Law Dictionary 219 (8th ed. 2004) (emphasis added).
NOTE: “A frequent criticism of the canons [of construction], made forcefully by Professor Llewellyn many years ago, is that for every canon one might bring to bear on a point there is an equal and opposite canon. This is an exaggeration; but what is true is that there is a canon to support every possible result.” Id. (citing Richard A. Posner, The Federal Courts: Crisis and Reform 276 (1985)) (internal quotation marks omitted).
The Canon Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius
According to the canon expressio unius est exclusio alterius:
[W]here a statute specifically designates the things or classes of things upon which it operates, an inference arises in law that all things or classes of things omitted from it were intentionally omitted by the legislature.
Magney v. Pham, 195 Wash.2d 795, 803, 466 P.3d 1077 (Wash. 2020) (citing Wash. Nat. Gas Co. v. Pub. Util. Dist. No. 1 of Snohomish County, 77 Wash.2d 94, 98, 459 P.2d 633 (1969)).
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