The Report of the Transport Advisory Council on the Square Deal Dispute
| Date | 01 October 1939 |
| Published date | 01 October 1939 |
| Author | O. Kahn‐Freund |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1939.tb00752.x |
I36
MODERN
LAW
REVIEW
Oct.,
1939
THE REPORT
OF
THE TRANSPORT
ADVISORY COUNCIL ON THE
SQUARE
DEAL DISPUTE
The law governing railway rates has been much in the public eye of
late. The economic and social significance of this branch
of
the law need
hardly be emphasised. The railway companies desire to obtain
a
larger
measure of freedom of contract with regard to the amount of their rates,
and the bulk of the existing statutory provisions is to be repealed. This
contemplated revolutionary change in the English law
of
inland transport
raises the general issue of the law’s attitude towards competition and
monopoly. The way in which
a
solution
of
the problem is now attempted
confronts the lawyer with new aspects of the method of legislation. The
recent Report of the Transport Advisory Council (T.A.C.) therefore deserves
the closest attention of those who are interested in the general trend of the
process of legislation.’
I
It
is
necessary to say something about the existing law in order to be
able to deal with the changes proposed by the Report. The existence of
railways confronted the legislator with
a
threefold task
:
The protection of
the public against possible encroachments on the part of a monopolist, the
protection of the railways themselves as institutions of public importance,
and, finally, the protection
of
those rival transport undertakings which
had been able
to
survive the advent
of
the railways in the modern
industrial community.
Most of the statute law referring to railways which has been enacted
since the ’forties and ’fifties of the last century can be understood
as
an
attempt
to
protect the trading community from harm which might be
done by
a
monopolist. In the early daysa the private Acts by which railway
companies were created and endowed with compulsory powers imposed
upon the railway companies statutory maxima of rates in order to prevent
them from exploiting consignors and consignees
at
their pleasure. Within
those maxima the railway companies were free to demand whatever
charges they liked, provided they did not infringe the rules against
inequality of charges and undue preference about which something will
have to be said below. This system of statutory maxima remained in force
until the outbreak of the Great War, although in practice legislation passed
in the early ’nineties made it wellnigh impossible for the railway companies
Transport Advisory Council.
Report
on
the Proposals
of
the Main Line
Railway Companies as
to
the Conveyance
of
Merchandise by Rail.
London, H.M.
Stationery Office,
1939.
IS.
6d.
95
pp.
The T.A.C. was created by
s.
46
of the Road and Rail Traffic Act,
1933,
“for
the
purpose
of
giving advice and assistance to the Minister of Transport in con-
nexion with the discharge by him of his functions in relation
to
means
of,
and
facilities for, transport, and their co-ordination, improvement, and development.”
The members are appointed by the Minister of Transport and include representa-
tives of local authorities in England, Wales, and Scotland,
of
users
of
mechinic-
ally propelled vehicles and horses and horse-dravn vehicles. of pedestrians and
pedal cyclists,
of
railways, canals, coastwise shipping, harbours and docks,
of
labour, and of trading interests including agriculture. The T.A.C. is thus, in
effect, a kind of Transport Parliament.
See Leslie,
The
Law
of
Transport by Railway.
Second Edition, p.
315.
To continue reading
Request your trial