The Gazette 1967/71

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