It was announced last week that the Lord Chancellor had
appointed a Committee " to consider the position of the Crown as a litigant," and to propose such amendments of the law " as may best conduce to efficiency and economy with due regard to the special necessity for safeguarding the collection of the revenue." The.Attorney-General is the chairman of the Com- mittee, which includes three Judges, the Solicitor-General, and other lawyers. The Committee may do useful work if its object is to simplify and cheapen the procedure by which the subject may obtain justice as against the Crown: There remains, however, the possibility that the Committee is designed to limit still further the legal rights• of the citizen as against the bureaucracy. It is already very difficult to enforce a contract— especially for personal service—with a department or to cheek its arbitrary extension of its powers. The De Keyser's Hotel case was a noteworthy instance of the arbitrary tendencies of the modern permanent official.
Previous page
