Accountability for Subordinate Legislation: The Case of the Aboriginal Communal Fishing Licences Regulation [William Stanbury]

"This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 compares the process by which statutes are created (or amended) to that by which subordinate legislation is made into law. Section 3 briefly explores the role and activities of the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations. Section 4 consists of a detailed chronology of one (large) set of regulations, the Aboriginal Communal Fishing Licences Regulations (ACFLRs), focusing on their review and evaluation by the Standing Joint Committee. Thus, this paper is essentially a case study, but like other case studies, it is intended to identify lessons that have much wider application. Section 5 consists of my conclusions with respect to the accountability of ministers for their subordinate legislation based on the case of the ACFLRs. Section 6 contains further discussion and reflections on the case of the ACFLRs."