DELEGATED LEGISLATION.
MLt CECIL T. CARR'S valuable little book on Delegated Legislation (Cambridge University Press, 7s. 6d. net) deals with a question which has attracted public notice in connexion with the Defence of the Realm Act, but which has a far wider scope. It is not generally realized that many, perhaps most, of the laws annually made by Parliament depend for their interpretation and practical effect on lawsâin the shape of rules and regulationsâmade subsequently by the departments. Mr. Carr cites the Seeds Act of 1920, which was intended to prevent the sale of bad seeds. The operative clause ran thus :- " The Minister may, after consultation with representative: of the interests concerned . . . make regulations generally for the purpose of carrying this Act into effect and in particular . . . for prescribing the seeds . . . to which this Act is to apply.', As Mr. Carr says, " the Act is a kind of preliminary announce. ment of legislation. Across it there might be stamped the words : ' For Particulars see Small Handbills.' " Innumerable instances of the kind might be given. " Dora " was interpreted as giving power to prohibit dog-shows or whistling for cabs or the sale of chocolates in theatresâfor the better defence of the realmâbut many normal statutes are just as vague and confer powers that are just as comprehensive and obscure. Mr. Carr maintains that Parliament has no time nor capacity to legislate in detail, and that it must trust the. Executive to deal with specific emergencies. Dut he admits that, if we are to be saved from arbitrary government, we must look well to the safeguards provided. He puts special stress on the necessity of laying down definite limits, in any Act of Parliament, within which the delegated power is to be exercised. The courts can then be invoked if those limits are overstepped by ambitious bureaucrats in Whitehall. Under " Dora," in the case of the Newcastle Breweries an attempt was made to requisition a citizen's goods and deny him the right to have the fair market value as deter- mined judicially, but the High Court declared that a regulation authorizing such monstrous injustice was null and void. Unfor- tunately, many private citizens who have been wronged by departments cannot afford to take proceedings, when they know that the Crown will pile up costs and resort to every technical expedient to deny them justice. Mr. Carr does not take this consideration into account. He gives a technical description of the form and publication of rules and orders, and concludes with a sketch of the historical development of delegated legislation, from the ordinances and proclamations of the Tudors and Stuarts to the present day. His book deserves serious attention.
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