Entick v Carrington
(1765) 19 St Tr 1029; 2 Wils KB 275
Ratio Decidendi
The executive branch of government has no power to interfere with the property or liberty of subjects except where it can point to clear legal authority, whether by Act of Parliament or established rule of common law. A general warrant to search premises and seize papers — without naming particular documents, and not authorised by any statute or common law rule — is void. The mere assertion of state necessity or executive convenience cannot create a legal power where none exists. This case established the foundational constitutional principle of legality: the government can only do what the law permits.
حقائق
John Entick was a writer alleged by the government of Lord Halifax to have authored and published seditious pamphlets. In November 1762 the Secretary of State, the Earl of Halifax, issued a general warrant under his own name (not under judicial authority) directing King's messengers — including Robert Carrington — to apprehend Entick and seize all his books and papers. The messengers broke into Entick's house in Stepney, remained for four hours, broke open locks and boxes, and removed approximately 100 books and pamphlets. Entick brought an action in trespass against Carrington and the other messengers in the Court of Common Pleas. The Crown argued that the Secretary of State had an inherent power to issue such warrants as a matter of state necessity, and that such a practice had long existed. Entick's counsel argued that no such power existed in law.
فیصلے کا خلاصہ
Lord Camden CJ, sitting with the other judges of the Court of Common Pleas, found unanimously for Entick and awarded him £300 in damages. Lord Camden's judgment is a landmark statement of the rule of law. He methodically reviewed every alleged source of legal authority for general search warrants — statutes, common law, precedent, and executive practice — and found none sufficient. He rejected the argument from long practice, holding that a practice which has endured by acquiescence is not thereby validated: if it is illegal it is illegal still. He rejected the argument from state necessity, holding that such an argument, if accepted, would swallow all constitutional protection of private property. The judgment established the critical constitutional principle that government power must be traceable to positive law: the executive has only such powers as Parliament or common law has granted it. The case was decided in the same year as Wilkes v Wood (1763) 19 St Tr 1153, which had similarly condemned general warrants, and the two cases together effectively ended the use of general warrants in England.
اہم اقتباسات
"If it is law, it will be found in our books. If it is not to be found there, it is not law."
— Lord Camden CJ at 1066
"By the laws of England, every invasion of private property, be it ever so minute, is a trespass. No man can set his foot upon my ground without my licence, but he is liable to an action, though the damage be nothing."
— Lord Camden CJ at 1066
"Papers are the owner's goods and chattels: they are his dearest property; and are so far from enduring a seizure, that they will hardly bear an inspection; and though the eye cannot by the laws of England be guilty of a trespass, yet where private papers are removed and carried away, the secret nature of those goods will be an aggravation of the trespass."
— Lord Camden CJ at 1063
بعد کا علاج
Recognised universally as the foundation of the constitutional principle that executive action requires legal authority. Cited in virtually every constitutional law case on the extent of Crown and government powers.
Applied in Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service [1985] AC 374 (the GCHQ case), where the House of Lords confirmed that even prerogative powers are subject to legal limits.
Applied in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5, where the Supreme Court cited Entick v Carrington as foundational authority that the Crown cannot alter the law of the land without parliamentary authority.
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