675 / 736
and not having a share capital, was incorporated
in 1870. The objects were, shortly, the prepara
tion
and publication of
reports of
judicial
decisions. There was
no
statement
in
the
memorandum of what the purpose of the pre
paration and publication of reports was. While
the court could not construe the objects by refer
ence to outside evidence, in inquiring whether the
objects were or were not charitable and whether
the objects could only be carried out in a way
which was exclusively charitable, the court could
look at the historical background, the use to
which the law reports were put, and the purpose
for which they were published.
In answering the question whether the prepara
tion and publication of accurate law reports was
for "the advancement of education, in so far as
the law reports were used in the teaching of the
law to students, they were, of course, being used
for educational purposes, but when used in court
they were used to bring the judge's attention to the
case law on the particular subject so that he might
decide the case before him in accordance with
former decisions binding on him or be guided by
them to come to a correct decision. That purpose
did not come within the meaning of "the advance
ment of education."
In deciding whether the council's objects fell
within Lord MacNaghten's fourth classification,
it was necessary to answer first
the question
whether the provision of accurate law reports fell
within the classification of "trusts for other pur
poses beneficial to the community" and, if the
answer was yes, whether it came within the spirit
and intendment of the preamble. In his Lordship's
conclusion: the purpose of the publication of law
reports was
to enable judge-made law
to be
properly developed
and
administered by
the
courts, and it was no objection that in the course
of carrying out such purposes members of the
legal profession benefited, or that the council was
carrying on a business (provided any profits made
could not be distributed to the members), or that
a charge for purchase of the Law Reports was
made. The role of the Law Reports in the devel
opment and administration of judge-made law
was, in his Lord-ship's judgment, a purpose bene
ficial to the community since without them the
administration of the law would be difficult.
If, therefore, the test was to find analogous
decided cases, then there were cited cases sufficent-
ly analogous to
the present case to bring the
council's objects within the spirit of the preamble
since there was not, in his Lordship's opinion, a
great deal of difference between the provision of
a court house and the provision of law reports to
cite in that court house. If it was not necessary
to find analogous cases, but only to apply the
test of Lord Wilberforce in the Scottish Burial
Reform case [1967] A.C. 138, the council's objects
could be said to be charitable by "evolutionary
process" or more generally, might "directly be
seen to be within the preamble's spirit," and the
provision of law reports fell "naturally and in
their own right, within the spirit of the preamble."
It was incredible that the law on the subject
was still derived from the preamble to the Statute
of Elizabeth, long since repealed and out of date,
and in modern times applied by analogy upon
anology.
It was
time
it was
reconsidered,
rationalized and modernized.
His Lordship
declared
that
the Charity
Commissioners should register the council as a
charity.
(The Times,
4th December, 1970).
BOOK REVIEWS
Greig (D.W.)
International Law.
8vo. Pp. XX,
728.
London, Butterworth,
1970,
Paperback
(Limp). £3.80
Mr. Greig is Senior Lecturer in the University
of Monash, Australia, and he has produced a
massive tome in which all the up to date problems
of international law are fully discussed. He has
divided his work into 16 chapters, and seems to
have dealt comprehensively with
the
leading
topics of this intricate subject: The author has
rightly stressed that public international law can
not exist in isolation from political factors, and
depends upon its efficacy upon the general will
of the community to abide by its rules, as stressed
by Article 29 of the Irish Constitution. As a
result of the notion of agreement, the consensual
215