Book Review: Manual of the Law of Income Tax in Australia
| Author | James O'Donovan |
| DOI | 10.1177/0067205X7600800109 |
| Published date | 01 March 1976 |
| Date | 01 March 1976 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
108 Federal
Law
Review
[VOLUME
8
echo (cf. Holmes' 1905 Lochner crack:
"The
Fourteenth Amendment
does not enact
Mr
Herbert Spencer's Social Statics") of Sawer's treat-
ment, in the first edition, of the 1948-1949 Banking judgments will be
remembered:
The 1949 Privy Council decision in Bank Nationalisation finally
adopted the individualist approach which had then recently
become the dominant one in the High Court; it
is
aconstruction
allowing only such power of regulation and taxation of interstate
commerce
as
is
permitted by Herbert Spencer's conception of the
scope of government
generally-the
minimum consistent with the
continued existence of trade in an ordered society
....
In
the new edition before us, Sawer notes that since his work first
appeared there have been some High Court nibblings away
at
these
Dixonian concepts.
But
he finally comes back to his 1968 conclusion:
It
remains generally true that, whereas in the U.S.A. the common
market
is
apurpose of federalism giving rise to awide centre
competence, in Australia it
is
treated more like aBill of Rights
guarantee to the individual trader.
Over pages 68-75 the author leaves little doubt about the mess and
confusion into which federalism of
our
sort and in our circumstances
leads the governance of the country and ordering of its services,
production and distribution.
In
his new preface the author pays your reviewer amuch appreciated
compliment.
In
return your reviewer expresses the hope that we shall
soon see athird edition, if only
so
that two original dates and anew
one may be corrected: 1946 for 1947 (page
32);
1930 for 1931
(page
128);
and 1974 for 1975 (page
70).
L. F.
CRISP*
Manual
of
the Law
of
Income
Tax
in Australia by
K.
W.
RYAN,
B.A.,
LL.B.
(Old),
PH.D.
(Cantab.);
Barrister-at-Law, Professor of Law,
University of Queensland. (The Law Book Co. Ltd, 1976,
4th
edition),
pp. i-xxi, 1-289. Cloth, recommended retail price $14.50 (ISBN:
o455 19454
8);
Paperback, recommended retail price $11.50 (ISBN:
o455 19452
1).
Case Companion to Ryan's Income
Tax
Manual by H. H.
MASON,
B.A.,
LL.B. (Syd.),
LL.M.
(Ade!.), PH.D.
(Qld);
Barrister-at-Law of the
Supreme Court of New South Wales, Reader in Commercial Law,
Department of Commerce, University of Queensland, J.
DIXON,
B.Ee.
(Adel.),
LL.B.
(Syd.), F.A.S.A.; Barrister-at-Law of the Supreme Court
of Queensland, Senior Lecturer in Law, Department of Law, University
of Queensland and L. G.
PRIDDLE,
LL.B.
(Qld);
Solicitor of the
*M.A. (Adel. and Oxon.); Professor
of
Political Science, Australian National
Univirsity.
To continue reading
Request your trial