Eleventh and Final Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the Organization and Rules of Trades Unions and Other Associations

The Minority Report was preferred by the Liberal Government, and this led to the Trade Union Act 1871.

The Majority Report recommended that trade union internal affairs should be regulated in a manner ‘resembling in some degree that of Corporations.’[1] But little else.

Elcho and Herman Merivale dissented in part on the question of whether prosecutions for breach of contract should be allowed.

It recommended they be given sufficient legal status to have immunity from criminal and restraint of trade laws, and to enable protection of their funds.

It wanted rule registration, but no control for the Registrar, except where incomplete or fraudulent, and no legal process over union internal affairs.