Control of delegated legislation
- London Butterworth 1953
- 195 p.
THIS book is a study of the doctrine of ultra vires, and is pri marily concerned with the legislative powers of the Executive Government. No account is here taken of emergency powers conferred by the legislature upon the Crown in time of war, this being a subject for separate study.
In 1901, Sir Courtenay Ilbert, in his Legislative Methods and Forms, referred to delegated legislation as an important region "as yet imperfectly explored". The last half-century has wit nessed many important developments; and the transition from parliamentary government to parliamentary bureaucracy has. continued. Delegated legislation has increased enormously, while administrative tribunals have also multiplied. But the chief. concern today is, I believe, the control over delegated legislative powers rather than the regulation of administrative tribunals. At all events, it is the control of delegated legislation through the doctrine of ultra vires which will engage the main attention of my readers in the following pages. Since the second World War public corporations have emerged, and it is now necessary to study closely the statutes which establish them, in order to determine their relationship to the Crown and the degree of control which Ministers of the Crown may impose. The peculiar character of the public corporations makes it difficult to deter mine their legal status within the administrative machinery, and this uncertainty leaves unanswered important constitutional questions relating to ministerial responsibility and parliamentary control.