Dicey Trust
The Dicey Trust was a conservative organisation set up in January 1975 and named after the constitutional lawyer A. V. Dicey. The group was established to ‘encourage the rule of law’ through lectures and presentations at schools and colleges. [1] According to the Charities Commission it was established by a Deed dated 27 January 1975. [2] In March that year The Guardian said the Trust hoped to raise £100,000 and would apply for charitable status, [3] which was granted on 13 October 1975. [4] The charitable objects of the Trust were:
TO PROMOTE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC THE SCIENCE OF LAW. TO ADVANCE PUBLIC EDUCATION ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD AS TO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE RULE OF LAW AND PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY. TO CARRY OUT STUDY AND RESEARCH INTO THE ORIGINS, DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE RULE OF LAW AND TO PUBLISH THE RESULTS OF ALL SUCH STUDY AND RESEARCH[5]
It was set up by, among others, the Conservative MP Rhodes Boyson and the barrister Francis Bennion. Other members included the conservative academic Antony Flew and a merchant banker called Gerald Howarth (who would later become Shadow Defence Secretary under David Cameron).
At that time Gerald Howarth was the honorary director of Freedom Under the Law, an organisation first formed to counter the anti-apartheid movements and its boycott campaigns in particular. Francis Bennion, who was also a member of Freedom Under Law, [6] in 1972 had brought a private prosecution against the young Peter Hain for criminal conspiracy in relation to Hain's activities as chairman of the Stop the Seventy Tour Campaign.
After the launch of the Dicey Trust, Howarth told the press that he and his collaborators were ‘alarmed at the number of young people who seemed to predominate in movements which were unconstitutional.’ He referred to a ‘steady drip technique being used to threaten the rule of law’ and ‘a systematic attempt to discredit the police.’ [7] By 1980 the conservative academic Max Beloff was the Chairman of the Trust. [8]
The Trust was dissolved on 3 March 1993 and removed from the Charities Register. [9]
Notes
- ↑ ’Trust to back rule of law’, The Guardian, 11 March 1975 pg. 7
- ↑ Charities Commission, 269165 - THE DICEY TRUST (accessed 21 January 2009)
- ↑ ’Trust to back rule of law’, The Guardian, 11 March 1975 pg. 7
- ↑ Charities Commission, 269165 - THE DICEY TRUST (accessed 21 January 2009)
- ↑ Charities Commission, 269165 - THE DICEY TRUST (accessed 21 January 2009)
- ↑ ‘BENNION, Francis Alan Roscoe’, Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008
- ↑ ’Trust to back rule of law’, The Guardian, 11 March 1975 pg. 7
- ↑ 'Business appointments Management Consultants' new chairman', The Times, Wednesday, Jan 09, 1980; pg. 18; Issue 60519; col G
- ↑ Charities Commission, 269165 - THE DICEY TRUST] (accessed 21 January 2009)
