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applicable force, and directives binding States. In join-
ing the Communities he did not think it was strictly
necessary to give effect to all decisions and directives.
Professor de Smith said that Communities regulations
to be made in future would be directly applicable in the
courts of the United Kingdom and Ireland and would
prevail in Communities law over subsequent national
legislation as well as existing national legislation. In the
case of a law relating to, say, restrictive trade practices,
no national legislations could be passed on that subject
except by way of implementing Communities law.
" Parliament's future freedom of action will be bound
and bound for ever, or will it? " he asked.
Continual alterations to Community Law
He advised a look at what happened in member
States. In France the ordinary courts gave effect to
Communities laws but the
Conseil d'Etat
declined to
enforce them. In Italy the attitude was equivocal. In
West Germany, where the courts were more Communi-
ties-minded, even now the courts did not point
unabiguously to Communities law primacy. " It is not
crystal clear that a new member State must order its
affairs so as to give immediate supremacy and primacy
to Commnities law over national law."
r
The British Bill appeared to accept a fundamental
dactrine of Communities law supremacy, but the
Government spokesmen had admitted that it was not
feasible having regard to the traditional attitude of
United Kingdom courts to the sovereignty of Parlia-
ment. " In my opinion the Government has probably
gone further than necessary to make obeisances to the
fundamentalist view, and the United Kingdom will enter
the Communities on two horses, one galloping towards
Communities law supremacy, the other pulling in the
other direction."
Judges to consider primacy of Community Law
TTiey had offered an inducement to judges to acknow-
ledge the primacy of Communities law where possible,
but there were no means by which the British Govern-
ment or Parliament could effectively direct the judges
to abandon or modify judicial obedience to the last
Act of Parliament. If the Communities developed the
characteristics of a political federation, possibly a
revolution in legal thinking would occur, and the
judiciary would spontaneously shift its position on the
relation of Communities law and legislation. It was for
the judges themselves to make this fundamental re-
adjustment in attitude. The doctrine of parliamentary
sovereignty germinated in the courts, and only the
courts could eradicate it.
Lawyers will require flexibility and great capacity for
work
" The new members of the Communities are embark-
ing on a mysterious adventure, the destination of which
is veiled in uncertainty. The immediate prospect for
lawyers, administrators and students is a severe chal-
lenge. They will need flexibility, a willingness to master
new techniques and rules, and a capacity to sustain
formidable new workloads. Many of us have under-
estimated the extent of readjustment that will be needed
in order to play an effective part in our own walk of
life in organisations already shaped in outlook and
modes of procedure by years of experience in modes of
thinking more familiar to Europeans than to insular
peoples," Professor de Smith said.
Senator Professor Mary Robinson moved a vote of
thanks. The attendance included the Chief Justice.
(Irish Times,
12th May, 1972).
Rank of Q.C. under attack
Calling for the abolition of the rank of Queen's Counsel
and attacking the cost of " obtaining justice under the
present legal system,' Mr Arthur Lewis (Lab., West
Ham N.), asked: " How is it that the Government never
refers to these lawyers in the Industrial Court and never
talks to them about inflation, when they are getting
thousands of pounds. Yet the poor old railwaymen get
referred to the Industrial Court."
The Attorney-General, Sir Peter Rawlinson, rejected
a suggestion by Mr Lewis that he should recommend
the abolition of Queen's Counsel.
He also denied suggestions by Mr Lewis that legal
costs had risen disproportionately in the past ten years.
Mr Lewis had referred to a report by the Young
Solicitors Group of the Law Society, which had pro-
posed abolition of QC.
" Even some QCs in this House have expressed the
view that this might be a progressive move," he declared.
Sir Peter said: " The practice of having leading prac-
titioners with the rank of QC has worked satisfactorily,
and is a system many other countries woud like to
follow."
The rise in the cost of litigation in the past 10 years
or so was "commensurate with the rise in the cost of
living."
In 1960 a counsel's fees in specified litigation were
27 guneas. In 1971, they were 35 guineas: " If you
examine that you will see it compares with the increase
in the cost of living and, indeed, with the increase in
Parlimentary salaries."
(The Guardian,
2 May, 1972))
180