TNAG-0833-FCO40-1041-Colonial-Regulations-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1979 — Page 45

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AUTHORITY OVER DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

there are no instructions at all except in Colonial Regulations. Governors of United Kingdom dependent territories are empowered by their Letters Patent to exercise disciplinary authority over persons in Her Majesty's service in accordance with Her Majesty's instruc- tions. No such instructions exist outside Colonial Regulations, where the procedure for dismissal and the infliction of other punishments is dealt with in detail. It is an inescapable conclusion that the reference in Letters Patent, which have statutory force, is to the Colonial Regulations and that, to this extent, they are in the nature of subordinate legislation. It follows that they have the force of law if they have mandatory effect, but there is little room for doubt that the Colonial Regulations are directory only. The fact that they are called "directions (not instructions) for general guidance indicates quite clearly that that is the intention. Many of the Regulations, by their nature or terms, exclude any notion that they are to have legally binding force.

binding force. And since, as is noted in the Regulations themselves, they may be, and have been, modified in their application to certain territories, and they have from time to time been amended generally, it is hardly possible to argue (except by special pleading) that they constitute a contract between the Crown and its employees.96 The Regulations regarding the procedure for dismissal of public officers certainly cannot have the force of law since, by Regulation 56, the right of the Crown to dismiss its servants at pleasure without formalities is expressly preserved.

AUSTRALIA

The Commonwealth of Australia has nine dependent territories 97——— seven known as external Territories, a term which does not include the two Trust Territories. With one exception, the circumstances are such that no more than a rudimentary form of government is required, and for consideration of the means by which they are administered, which has none of the complications found in United Kingdom law relating to dependent territories, they may conveniently be classified as follows:

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(1) The Territory of Papua and New Guinea. This Territory, which is an administrative union of two Territories, alone has a local government in the full sense, with an Administrator and legislative and executive bodies.

(2) Territories with unelaborate local administration: (a) Norfolk

" Tarring, p. 42; cf. p. 507, infra.

97 Notes on each appear in Appendix I. The nine do not include the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory which, constitutionally as well as geo- graphically, are part of the Commonwealth itself.

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