Government has faith in Hunt Act

THE GOVERNMENT believes that the Countryside Alliance‘s bid to declare the Hunting Act invalid will fail, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The paper reports that the Countryside Alliance will tell the High Court on January 25 that the “Hunting Act 2004 is not an Act of Parliament and is of no legal effect”.

It will argue that the 1949 Parliament Act, which was used to pass the Hunting Bill, did not succeed in amending the 1911 Parliament Act.

It will then claim that as the Hunting Act did not meet the requirements of the 1911 Act so it has no legal effect.

But Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, will tell the High Court that this position is wrong, reports the paper.

He will argue that there is no basis for seeking to imply limitations on the type of legislation that may be passed under the 1911 Act.

Joshua Rozenburg, the paper‘s legal editor, claims that although the alliance‘s case has the backing of leading constitutional lawyers, it takes little account of political realities.

“What, for example, do we do about the previous three Acts passed under the 1949 legislation?”

But he added that while he preferred the government‘s assertions to the alliance‘s theories, he was “unimpressed with government tactics designed to postpone implementation of the Hunting Act”.