Royal Commissions
| DOI | 10.1093/slr/3.1.40 |
| Pages | 40-50 |
| Date | 01 March 1982 |
| Year | 1982 |
| Published By | Oxford University Press |
Royal Commissions
By Philip A. Thomas, LLM. (Wales),
LLM.
(Michigan)*
Traditional studies of royal commissions have focused on the major issues of
public policy undertaken by these bodies. It
is
the particular issue
and
not the
institution itself which is investigated. That analysis is based upon the belief
that the royal commission represents democratic pluralism at work.1 This
paper challenges the position that die Royal Commission is the apotheosis of
that political theory. Instead, I view it as a mechanism to encourage people's
belief in die existence and effectiveness of democratic pluralism which is based
on die assumption of the neutral state safeguarded by just legal rules and
serviced by impartial, open institutions such as royal commissions. I offer an
alternative explanation of the
role
of me Royal
Commission:
diat
it can
be used
not only to defuse and delay embarrassing situations
but can
also be employed
as a device for social control.
The membership of a royal commission is selected incrementally and
edectically from expert and lay personnel who request the general public and
pressure
groups to
present information and opinion on
die
subject
in
hand.
The
commissioners consider these views, arrive at their conclusions, and thereafter
advise the government through a series of recommendations.2 Perplexing and
contentious issues have traditionally been referred to a royal commission by
monarchs and governments. Its development has been chequered and its
employment has ranged from die compilation of die
Doomsday
Book,
com-
missioned by William L,3 dirough the Tudor and Stuart times when it was
used to oversee die extension of monarchical authority and into die first half of
the nineteenth century when it became a celebrated mode of inquiry for fact
finding and policy making.4 The contemporary royal commission remains a
significant institution.5 Between die general elections of
1964
and 1979 succes-
sive prime ministers established
19
such bodies despite concern, articulated at
* Senior Lecturer in Law, University College,
Cardiff,
Wales.
1 "No other country hat produced anything comparable in effectiveness to the Royal Com-
mission in Britain as an agency to which an appeal can be made lor a definitive determina-
tion of controversial (acts and lor a trustworthy Judgment on a complex public problem."
a J. Hanser,
G*U*
t» Dtdtion: Tht Rp»l
Commission
(1965), p. 221.
* For detailed description of the establishment, role and (Unction of a royal commission and
its distinction from a departmental committee see T. J. Cartwright, Royal
CtnrnissJttu
ead
Dtpartmtmltd
Cmwrittm (1975) which U the leading book on Royal Commissions.
1 H. M. Clokie and J. W. Robinson, Royal OmaitHtm tfEuphy (1937), Appendix A. See
Cartwright,
op.
dL Chap. 3. A useful account is found in F. Burton and P. Carien, Official
Dismast:
On
Distemt
Amfjutt,
Got*r*wumtP*hlk*tiev,Idalexrax{tfuStaU(\979),Chap. 1.
4 They touched with
one
hand the ancient machinery of
forensic
inquiry with the other hand
the new methods oTiixfactive and experimental science." W. Carf,A
G*idt
to MoJtn English
History Pan II (1882), p. 366.
* In the twentieth century 1,600 Royal Commissions and Departmental Committees have
been appointed—Lord McGregor has computed that there have been 567 royal com-
missions since the early 1930s.
40
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