Report No. 60

1.9. The tide has now turned again.

In any modern society with an aspiration for the improvement of the conditions of the life of the people, legislation is par excellence the source of law. Therefore, importance of the General Clauses Act, having regard to the growing importance of legislation in society, is obvious.

Maine put the matter lucidly when he stated1:

"The capital fact in the mechanism of modern states is the energy of legislatures." As the development of law goes on, the function of the judges is confined within growing limits; the main source of modifications in legal relation comes to be more and more exclusively the legislature.2

We are making these observations in order to emphasise the importance of the General Clauses Act.

1. Maine Early History of Institutions, Lect. xiii, cited by Pound Common Law & Legislation, (1907-1908) 21 Harvard Law Review 383, 402.

2. Sidgwick Elements of Politics, 2 ed.