Splitting legal hairs

Is the law an ass?  The BBC reports:

A legal action challenging the election of Lib Dem Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael has failed.

Four constituents raised the action under the Representation of the People Act 1983, claiming he misled voters over a leaked memo before the election.

Judges said Mr Carmichael had told a "blatant lie" in a TV interview about when he had become aware of the memo.

But they ruled it had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that he had committed an "illegal practice".

...

In the ruling, Lady Paton said Mr Carmichael had told a "blatant lie" in the Channel 4 interview - but that section 106 of the Representation of the People Act did not apply to lies in general.

"It applies only to lies in relation to the personal character or conduct of a candidate made before or during an election for the purpose of affecting that candidate's return," she said.

Make sense of that, if you will ...