MARTIAL LAW AND THE WORLD WAR A somewhat paradoxical situation arose with the outbreak of the World War. England was at war with Germany, but there was no "state of war" in England, in other words, no internal disturbance such as would justify resort to martial law. On the other hand, it was obviously necessary that the Executive should be armed with extensive powers to secure the safety and defence of the realm, such as the power, which at common law it did not possess, to suppress the publication of information likely to be of use to the enemy, to secure the safety of communications, and a thousand other things. The difficulty was met by the enactment of the famous Defence of the Realm Acts and the regulations thereunder, the effect of which was, among other things, to intro duce a kind of statutory martial law and to abridge the common law rights of the subject in every direction. So far did this de parture go that by the Consolidation Act, Nov. 27, 1914, provision was made for trial and punishment by court-martial of any civilian, committing offences against the regulations, "as if he were a person subject to military law"—in other words a soldier—"and had committed the offence on active service." It was further
provided that if the offence were committed with the intention of assisting the enemy, "he should be punishable with sentence of death." This tremendous and unprecedented extension of military law to the civil population was severely criticized in the House of Lords, and, four months later, in March 1915, an amending act was passed restoring the right to trial by jury in the case of a British subject, while leaving the alien subject to this military jurisdiction. The mere fact that all this "Dora" legislation was necessary illustrates the strict limitations to which the assumption of despotic power, known as martial law, is subject in English law. The same may be said of the Emergency Powers Act of 192o, giving the Crown power by proclamation, subject always to the positive approval of parliament within io days, to take various measures to deal with industrial disturbances threatening the supply of the necessaries of life to the population. (See also