STATUTE LAW REVISION: SIXTEENTH ... - Law Commission

framework for the policing of fishing vessels in the North Sea. 2 It was in
substance replaced by an updated version of the 1882 Convention in 1967 (the
Policing Convention) 3 , which was given legal effect by the Sea Fisheries Act
1968 (the 1968 Act). The sections of the 1883 Act remaining in force were
prospectively repealed as obsolete by the 1968 Act. A date has never been
appointed for the repeal. Although the Policing Convention was signed and
agreed, it has not come into force because it has not been ratified by the
requisite ten countries. Nevertheless, the 1883 Act is no longer required
because, by virtue of section 5 of the 1968 Act, as substituted by the Fishery
Limits Act 1976, Ministers have the power to make orders regulating fishing
operations within a 200 mile fishery limit without relying on this or any other
Convention. Indeed the 1882 Convention was terminated as to the United
Kingdom in 1963. The 1883 Act is therefore proposed for final repeal as
obsolete and no longer of practical utility. 4 The savings for the 1883 Act
contained in section 22(6) of the 1968 Act, which is proposed for repeal, are
continued in force by the connected provision contained in Schedule 2 to the
draft Bill. That Schedule also makes a consequential amendment to the Fisheries
Act 1891. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Scottish Office
Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department and the authorities in
Northern Ireland have been consulted on the proposals and have no objections
to them.
163 Group 3 - Sewers Support
164 Public Health Act 1875 (Support of Sewers) Amendment Act 1883
10.1 The Public Health Act 1875 (Support of Sewers) Amendment Act 1883 (the 1883
Act) was enacted following the decision of the Court of Appeal in Re Dudley
Corporation. 5 In that case it was held that, although the Public Health Act 1875
gave no express right of support for a sewer constructed on private land under
statutory authority, the right was implied; and that there was a corresponding
right of the landowner to compensation for being deprived of the power to work
subjacent mines. The 1883 Act, which incorporated the mining code in sections
18-27 of the Waterworks Clauses Act 1847 (the 1847 Act), provided a
complicated alternative system of protection under which the question of
compensation was postponed until the mine owner was about to work within a
prescribed distance of the sewer. The incorporation by the 1883 Act of the mining
code in the 1847 Act was originally applicable to local authority sanitary works,
2 Convention for Regulating the Police of the North Sea Fisheries (The Hague, 6 May 1882;
73 BFSP 39). The object of the 1882 Convention was to police the North Sea at a time
when sailing ships were the norm and general lawlessness and such practices as the
deliberate cutting of nets were prevalent. It provided a “fisheries highway code” and set a
three mile British fishery limit within which the conduct of fishing vessels could be policed.
The 1882 Convention was incorporated into UK law by section 2 of the 1883 Act.
3 Convention on the Conduct of Fishing Operations in the North Atlantic (London 1 June - 30
November 1967); Misc 11 (1968); Cmnd 3645.
4 Repeal of the 1883 Act will permit a number of consequential repeals. These repeals are of
two Orders in Council that served to apply the 1883 Act to later international Fishery
Conventions, and of provisions contained in the Fishery Limits Act 1976 and the Debtors
(Scotland) Act 1987.
5 (1881) 8 QBD 86.
107