Professor Dicey and Professor Westlake contributed to Monday's Times important
letters on the Trade Disputes Bill. They take the wise course of pointing out a few simple con- sequences which will result should what Professor Dicey calls "this astounding Bill" become law. If a motor-car owned by a Trade-Union should, by the gross negligence of the chauffeur, run over and cripple for life an innocent pedestrian, be will be able to obtain no damages from the Union. More- over, there is no remedy by injunction as the Bill has been now altered, and a Union may not only commit a tort with impunity, but continue to commit it. Again, the words "trade dispute" have been given a wide definition, and, according to Professor Dicey, will include disputes between a farmer and his labourers. It extends to Ireland, and will, in his opinion,
practically sanction boycotting. Professor Westlake in his letter points out the shallowness of the argument that the Bill merely restores the former state of the law. All that it does is to guarantee a view of the law which the Taff Vale case showed to be a false one. This is the Bill to which Mr. Balfour and the Opposition have given their long-delayed blessing, a Bill, in Professor's Dicey's words, which "sacrifices individual liberty in England in order thereby to facilitate defiance of the law in Ireland."
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