''The New Despotism'' is a book written by the

Lord Hewart Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart, (7 January 1870 – 5 May 1943) was a politician and judge in the United Kingdom. Background and education Hewart was born in Bury, Lancashire, the eldest son of Giles Hewart, a draper, and Annie Elizabeth J ...

Lord Chief Justice of England Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...

, and published in 1929 by

Ernest Benn Limited Ernest Benn Limited was a British publishing house. Sir John Benn Founded by Sir John Benn as Benn Brothers in 1880, it started as the publisher of the trade journal, ''The Cabinet Maker''. Ernest Benn After Sir John was elected to Parliamen ...

. Hewart described this "new despotism" as "to subordinate Parliament, to evade the Courts, and to render the will, or the caprice, of the Executive unfettered and supreme". The evasion of the Courts referred to increasing quasi-judicial decision-making by the civil service and the subordination of Parliament which resulted from the growth of delegated legislation.

I. The Nature of the Question
II. The Rule of Law
III. "Administrative Law"
IV. Administrative Lawlessness
V. The System at Work
VI. Departmental Legislation
VII. The Independence of the Judiciary
VIII. What is to be done?
IX. Some leading cases
X. Examples from statutes

Reaction

The book created "a constitutional and political storm". It was rumoured that Whitehall "considered an attempt to boycott it". In response the British Government appointed the Donoughmore Committee (chaired by

Lord Donoughmore Earl of Donoughmore is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It is associated with the Hely-Hutchinson family. Paternally of Gaelic Irish descent with the original name of ''Ó hÉalaighthe'', their ancestors had long lived in the County Cork area ...

) to review the powers of Ministers, however its Report (1932; Cmd. 4060) did not share Hewart's alarm. The book and the Donoughmore Report provoked a group of socialist lawyers and political scientists, notably Professor

Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...

(a member of the Donoughmore Committee) and

Ivor Jennings Sir William Ivor Jennings ( si, ශ්‍රීමත් අයිවර් ජෙනින්ග්ස්) (16 May 1903 – 19 December 1965) was a British lawyer and academic. He served as the vice chancellor of the University of Cambridge ( ...

to criticise the

Diceyan Albert Venn Dicey, (4 February 1835 – 7 April 1922), usually cited as A. V. Dicey, was a British Whig jurist and constitutional theorist. He is most widely known as the author of ''Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitutio ...

concept of the rule of law. In 1956,

Richard Crossman Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (15 December 1907 – 5 April 1974) was a British Labour Party politician. A university classics lecturer by profession, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1945 and became a significant figure among the ...

published a

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...

tract titled ''Socialism and the New Despotism'' where he hoped reform of the judiciary would make the judiciary "regain the traditional function of defending individual rights against encroachment". The book was a favourite of Margaret Thatcher's.Keith Sutherland, ''The Party's Over'' (Imprint Academic, 2004), p. 63, n. 3.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Despotism 1929 non-fiction books Ernest Benn Limited books

Contents

Reaction

Notes