The Gazette 1971

out of 101 were uncontested, in 1918 only 25 out

of 103 remained uncontested. An expert analysis

is made of each of the Documents presented to the

First Dail in May 1919—The Constitution, the

Declaration of Independence, the message to the

Free Nations of the World, and the controversial

Democratic Programme. It is stressed that the Dail

Eireann Courts effectively replaced the British

Civil Courts. The First Dail was undoubtedly the

necessary instrument by which a formal Constitu-

tion for the new State was created.

Mr. Farrell has given us a very able and learned

analysis of the leading events in those works. The

publishers are to be congratulated on the excellence of

the printing.

C.G.D.

Restrictive Covenants Affecting Freehold Land.

Fifth edition, 1971; Preston & Newsom; Sweet &

Maxwell; £8.50.

It is unfortunate that the very circumstances which

render necessary the publication this year of the 5th

edition of this work, the only standard text book on

the subject, at the same time tend to render it less

useful to the Irish Lawyer than its predecessors. The

greater part of the work now relates specifically to

English Law and practice and the present edition is

brought about largely by the passing of the Law of

Property Act 1969, which came into force on 1st

January 1971.

As an aside, it is interesting to observe from the

prefaces to the present and earlier editions of this work

that Mr. Newsom has himself been responsible for many

of the recent English modifications of the Law relating

to restrictive covenants—an instructive illustration of

the value to the community of a man who takes the

trouble first, to acquire the necessary expertise; second,

to codify his knowledge in text-book form; and, third,

to predicate the solution to the various anomalies in the

subject as he finds it.

Nowadays, the principal value of restrictive coven-

ants lies probably in the area of the planning, develop-

ment and preservation of residential building estates.

In this context, it is reassuring to find one's own ex-

pectations confirmed; following the passing in England

of the Town and County Planning Act 1947, it was

widely predicted that restrictive covenants had had

their day and that in future the interests of the com-

munity at large would be safeguarded by the local

planning authorities. This prediction has, predictably,

proved completely wrong, as is witnessed by the very

large number of restrictive covenants which have been

reported over the past twenty years in the English

Courts and Lands Tribunal. Indeed, it is clear that,

whereas, in the past, restrictive covenants tended to be

regarded as a dead letter, the attitude of the Courts has,

in Mr. Newsom's words, "undergone a drastic change".

In the three cases on the subject before the English

Courts during 1970 the restrictions were held enforce-

able, in contrast to the usual fate of restrictive coven-

ants during the previous four decades.

Mr. Newsom also observes, by way of pointing the

foregoing, that the standards privately imposed by

means of restrictive covenants have consistently proved

higher than those publicly imposed under the planning

law.

Mr. Newsom quotes Mr. Stuart Daniel Q.C.,

sitting as the Lands Tribunal, as stating in

Re Hornsby's

Application

[(1968) 20 P. & C.R. 495]: "Vigilant

insistence on the covenants has preserved the character

and amenity of (the) estate to a standard which planning

control would lamentably have failed to achieve," and

he held in the case in question that the restrictions

ought not to be deemed absolute.

It is unnecessary to labour the glaring inadequacies,

not to say misconceptions, contained in the Local

Government (Planning and Development) Act 1963 and

the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act 1967

and, in the interests of the preservation or enhance-

ment of communal amenity, it is surely up to Lawyers

(as the group of persons best placed to appreciate those

inadequacies and misconceptions) to lead whatever

action is necessary to secure a more enlightened official

approach to the whole problem.

This reviewer has long held the view that the general

state of preservation of Dublin and its environs would

by now be very much worse were it not for the (albeit

haphazard) ministrations over the past hundred years

of that much maligned watchdog, the Pembroke Estate!

To the Irish practitioner, the most useful section of

the present edition will probably be Chapter 4, which

deals with the drafting of restrictive covenants. The

author takes us through a standard form of covenant,

phrase by phrase and, although a great deal of the

drafting is based on current English Legislation, the

standard covenant discussed could be adapted to Irish

use without much modification. Care must, of course,

be exercised in adapting any English precedent which

relies upon the statutory imputation of certain meanings

to certain words or phrases. Section 4 of Chapter 4 treats

specifically of the drafting of the necessary restrictive

covenants for a building estate and appears to be un-

altered from the previous edition.

Chapter 3 of the present edition, which, Mr. Newsom

tells us, is practically unchanged since the first edition,

discusses the Burden of restrictive covenants and exam-

ines at some length the doctrine of

Tulk

Moxhay.

Chapter 2, on the other hand, on the Benefit of re-

strictive covenants, has been substantially re-written

and goes a great deal further than the previous editions

in its examination of the Rule in Miles v Easter and

contains references to several important recent decisions.

It is questionable whether this is a work without

which no Lawyer's library can be said to be complete,

but it is certainly true that the Irish practitioner should

remember that it is (or will be) available in the Library

of the Incorporated Law Society.

Charles Meredith.

Revenue Law by Barry Pinson,

L.LB

. of Gray's Inn,

Barrister at Law; 5th edition; Sweet & Maxwell Ltd.;

London; paperback;

£3.90.

This book is an introduction to the Revenue law of

England for students and for the practising lawyer or

accountant, not otherwise an expert in this field, who

wishes to have at least a sufficient working knowledge

of the principles of taxation to sense when a problem

•>

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