"Procedural Simplification" or "Protective Simplification"?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/3snjn718Keywords:
Parliamentary Enclosure, General Enclosure Act of 1801, Common RightsAbstract
The General Enclosure Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1801, consolidated the village-by-village private enclosure procedure into a standardised template, nominally aimed at reducing costs and streamlining proceedings. However, an examination of the Act’s provisions and the surrounding parliamentary debates reveals that while the standardised procedure improved administrative efficiency, it eliminated the space for case-by-case scrutiny and failed to provide effective safeguards for the rights of common-land users. At the operational level, procedural simplification amounted to the simplification of protections.
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