ABSTRACT
It is the special rules applicable to public authorities that this chapter deals with. However, four important preliminary points need to be made.
12-2 First, the concept of a ‘public authority’ in the law of restitution ought to be given a fairly wide connotation. The need for special rules arguably applies not simply to public bodies tout court, but to any body vested with a statutory monopoly or the right to demand compulsory payments, or saddled with specific statutory duties to supply goods or services at a given price. Thus, in South of Scotland Electricity Board v BOC Ltd,5 the House of Lords, while deciding that charges levied by a public body in breach of a statutory non-discrimination principle were recoverable, applied a series of cases dealing with the similar
1 Eg, electricity, gas and water utilities. 2 Eg, Westdeutsche Landesbank v Islington BC [1996] AC 669. 3 A random example of such a case is Sabemo v North Sydney Municipal Council (1977)
2 NSWLR 880 (building contract case where client happened to be public authority decided on orthodox private law grounds).
