Art. 101.002 CONSTRUCTION OF TITLE

This rule explains how to interpret the laws in this section of the criminal code. It says that judges and lawyers should use a general set of interpretation guidelines, called the Code Construction Act, when they need to figure out what a law means or how it should be applied.

There's one exception. If a specific law in this title gives its own instructions on how it should be read or applied, those specific instructions win out. The general guidelines only fill in the gaps when a law doesn't spell out its own rules for interpretation.

In simple terms, this rule sets up a backup plan for reading the law. Most of the time, courts use the standard interpretation guidelines. But if a particular law says "here's exactly how to understand this," that specific guidance takes priority over the general rule.