Ignorance of the law is no defence to a charge
of breach of the law. Everyone is supposed to know the law. But what happens when no one knows it ? That appears to be the position now in regard to the far from unimportant ques- tion whether a motorist can rely on an automatic stopping- signal (a red light in the rear) or must in all cases give a hand-signal. A Divisional Court gave, by a majority of two to one, what most people could regard as the singularly perverse decision that there must be a hand-signal. There- upon Sir Arnold Gridley introduced into the House of Commons a Bill to make it clear that (as the Highway Code always contemplated) a mechanical signal—which is much more conspicuous, particularly at night—was sufficient, but it is now announced that the Bill has been withdrawn, on the ground that the Ministry of Transport and the Law Officers of the Crown all support the mechanical signal theory. That obviously will not do. Any lower Court before which a case of this kind comes will, and should, be guided by what the Divisional Court has ruled, not by what the Law Officers are said to have said. The law must be made clear.
JANius.
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