The Gazette 1973

European Communities (Crystal Glass) Regulations 1972—S.I. No. 312/1972 These Regulations are made to give full effect to the European Communities Council Directive (69/493/ EEC) of 15 December 1969 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to crystal glass (OJ No. L326/29 December 1969). Marriages Act, 1972 (Commencement) Order, 1973— S.I. No. 12/1973 This Order provides that Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17, and 19 of the Marriages Act, 1972, shall come into force on 1 February 1973. The Order also provides that Sections 10, 13, 14 and 15 of the same Act will come into force on 1 April 1973. Copies of this Order may be obtained for l£p plus postage. bination took place. But it said a true "abuse" would take place only if a firm so dominated a market that all other companies producing the same items depended on it. In its ruling, however, the Court admitted that the legal basis of the Commission's position was justified. The Court ruled in favour of Continental Can and its European subsidiary, Europemballage, because of uncer- tainties and contradictions in the Commission's position. The five-judge Court ordered the Commission to pay the costs of the case. The case is of special importance because it is the first time the Commission has used its powers to try to stop a takeover. As the earlier hearings had been dealt with by judges from the six original E.E.G. member States only, the judges from Britain, Ireland and Denmark did not take part in the final deliberations which led to yesterday's judgment. There was no immediate comment on the Court's decision at the Brussels headquarters of Euro- pemballage. The Irish Times (22 February 1973) the liberty of the subject" and "a gross invasion of privacy". The Judge refused to grant Mr. Clinch a declaration that he was not bound to comply with the demand. He gave judgment with costs, for the Commissioners of Inland Revenue who, he said, had "extensive powers of making roving inquiries". He commented : "The so-called 'right of silence' cur- rently alleged with such emphasis and fervour by many lawyers as going to the very root of British notions of justice seems to find no place in the field of tax avoid- ace, all the more so where tax evasion is concerned." "If it is an essential part of our principles of juris- prudence that silence should be sanctified, I pause only to wonder why, when it comes to the detection of deceptions practised upon the Commissioners of Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise, those principles have no application." He held, however, that the Inland Revenue had power under the Income and Corporation Taxes Act, 1970, to demand the information. The Guardian (14 February 1972) 85

European Communities (Names and Labelling of Tex- tile Products) Regulations, 1973—S.I. No. 43/1973 These Regulations have been made to give effect to the European Communities Council Directive No. 71/ 307/EEC of 26 July 1971 (OJ No. L185/16-25 August 1971) (as adapted by the Treaty of Accession of Ireland to the Communities) relating to the names and labelling of textile products. European Communities (National Catalogue of Agri- cultural Plant Varieties) Regulations 1972—S.I. 339/1972. The Order provides that the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries shall maintain a National Catalogue of varieties of agricultural seeds which shall be eligible for certification and sale under EEC conditions.

EEC loses decision in Court The European Common Market's anti-monopoly cam- paign suffered a major defeat yesterday when the Euro- pean Court of Justice rejected the Common Market's case against an American firm, Continental Can.

The Common Market's Commission had accused Continental Can of "acquiring an abusively dominant position" in the Common Market through its purchase of several Dutch and German can manufacturing com- panies. Europemballage, Continental Can's European subsidiary, was accused of supplying more than four- fifths of all cans sold in the northern nations of the Market. The Commission did not accuse Continental Can of buying up companies to force up prices or to establish an outright monopoly. But it said the firm's over- whelming share of the market amounted to an abuse in itself. The Court's 65-page judgment indicated that it rcjectcd the Commission's case on a technicality. It said there were "uncertainties" in the Commission's charge and complained that it had not clearly defined the market area in which Continental Can's alleged com-

ABUSES OF POWER WORRY JUDGE Mr. Justice Ackner spoke in the High Court yesterday of the growing importance of protecting citizens from abuse of power by officials "as governmental interference increases". He asked why a suspected person's "right of silence"—so jealously guarded by lawyers in the face of recent suggestions that silence in a criminal case could be indicative of guilt—did not apply in tax evasion cases.

Giving judgment in a dispute about whether a bank had a duty to supply information about customers to the Inland Revenue, the Judge said that to provide protection was "one of the vital functions of the courts". He ruled, however, that Mr. G. B. Clinch, managing director of N. T. Butterfield & Son (Bermuda), must comply with an Inland Revenue demand for informa- tion about customers' affairs. These include dealings in Bermuda, where profits tax, income tax, capital gains tax, and estate duty do not exist. Sir Elwyn Jones, SC, for Mr. Clinch, said the Inland Revenue's demand was an "intolerable interference with