Odger's English Common Law

Chapter XI.
SUBORDINATE LEGISLATION.
Every law is made by the State, either directly or indirectly.
It legislates indirectly in many different ways and by means
of many different officers or bodies. A judge may be said to
legislate indirectly when he recognises a mercantile custom
and gives it judicial sanction. Again, Parliament frequently
confers on inferior bodies the power to make orders, rules
and regulations which have the force of law. It is practically
compelled to do this by lack of time, caused mainly by its
cumbrous and antiquated procedure.
During the reign of Queen Victoria our domestic legislation
increased enormously, and Parliament could not grapple with
it without assistance. The Private Bill Committees could
not possibly deal with all the applications made to them by
municipal corporations, harbour boards, railway companies,
improvement commissioners, and every other kind of local
authority ; and yet such matters could only be disposed of by
Act of Parliament. It was necessary, therefore, for the
Legislature to delegate its authority to some of the great
Government departments, at the same time keeping the final
decision on each matter in its own hands. And so the
" Provisional Order " was invented. Power is given to some
department or other body in which Parliament has confidence
—generally on the application of some local authority—to
hold, if necessary, a local investigation into the circumstances,
and then, if it thinks proper, to prepare a detailed scheme,
which is embodied in an order. This order subsequently
appears, with several others, in the schedule to a " Provisional
Order Confirmation Bill," introduced by the Government
department which has charge of such matters. It is, of course, _
still open to any body or person concerned or aggrieved
(subject to the parliamentary rules as to locus standi) to