258 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

business, the victim may proceed with a civil action for breach of
contract or trespass, or a prosecution for assault according to
circumstances. There is one curious exception; since the Crown
cannot do wrong, it cannot be liable to civil or criminal proceed-
ings. For example, a man knocked down by an Army lorry may
proceed against the driver, but the driver's employer, the Crown,
is not liable to pay damages as a private employer might be. In fact,
however, the Crown is prepared to pay such damages, so no
injustice arises. If Government Departments break contracts, there
is a special procedure known as the Petition of Right, by which the
Attorney-General's consent to civil proceedings can be obtained.
Moreover, an increasing amount of public enterprise is managed
by bodies such as the B.B.C., legally separated from the Crown;
the man whose business has b^en injured by a careless comment in
a broadcast finds no special legal difficulty in obtaining redress,
provided he does not delay more than six months in bringing the
action.

The combination of the rule "no wrong without remedy" with
the Rule of Law,1 protects the citizen from unlawful imprison-
ment or other injury at the hands of officers of the Executive;
for he can proceed against them as against anyone else. Against
unlawful imprisonment, there is a special precaution, the writ of
Habeas Corpus. This writ is an order from a judge of the High
Court, requiring whoever is holding the prisoner in jail to bring
him before the court on a given date. The effect is that any
person who is in prison, except as the result of a lawful sentence
by a court, can obtain his release or trial at the earliest possible
moment. The writ is one of the oldest parts of English law, far
older than the famous Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, or the less
well-known Act of 1816. These Acts make the procedure for
obtaining the writ simple, and provide heavy penalties against
anyone who tries to prevent a prisoner from obtaining it.
Occasionally, in times of stress, Acts have been passed depriving
persons suspected of high treason of the right to a writ of Habeas

1 See Ch. II.