ABSTRACT
Most industrial countries possess some form of emergency powers which can be used when industrial action produces a shortage of goods or a threat to essential services. In this country, with the exception of Northern Ireland, there was, immediately before 1972, only the Emergency Powers Act 1920, as amended. Upon the declaration of a state of emergency, Parliament, if not in session or due to re-convene within five days, must be recalled and the proclamation communicated to it. The state of emergency may last for one month, although none of the seven so far declared has done so. The Taft-Hartley Act had, in 1947, introduced into the United States a different form of control under which the President could declare a state of emergency whenever a strike threatened the national security. Strikers could then be ordered back to work for a ninety-day ‘cooling-off’ period.
