The effect of the delegation of a power is that the power in question is exercisable by the delegate and no longer by the pricipal delegator.
Scott LJ discussed the rule that ignorance of the law is no excuse: The maxim that ignorance of the law does not excuse any subject represents the working hypothesis on which the rule of law rests in British democracy. That maxim applies in legal theory just as much to written as to unwritten law, i.e., to statute law as much as to common law or equity. But the very justification for that basic maxim is that the whole of our law, written or unwritten, is accessible to the public – in the sense, of course, that, at any rate, its legal advisers have access to it, at any moment, as of right’ . . ‘John Citizen’ should not be ‘in complete ignorance of what rights over him and his property have been secretly conferred by the minister’ as otherwise ‘For practical purposes, the rule of law . . breaks down because the aggrieved subject’s remedy is gravely impaired’.’
Judges:
Scott LJ
Citations:
[1948] 1 KB 349, [1948] 1 All ER 85
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Reilly and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 30-Oct-2013
The Secretary of State appealed against the decision in favour of Ms Reilly and Mr Wilson, that the 2011 Regulations, made under section 17A of the 1995 Act, did not comply with the requirements of that section, and (ii) a cross-appeal brought by . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Administrative, Agency
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.540479