FREE AND UNFETTERED

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1935, Page 9

FREE AND UNFETTERED

STATUTE OF WESTMINSTER

riUVY COUNCIL EXILING

Uuilefl Tress Association—By Electrlo Tele

graph—Copyright.

LONDON, June 7,

Referring to the decision of the Privy Council on the uppeal of one Robert Moore in relation to the Irish Free State's fishery rights held by him under the grants of 1622 and in which the Privy Council held that the Irish Free State Legislature could, under the Statute of Westminster, now pass Acts repugnant to the Colonial Laws Validity Act, "The Times," in an editorial, says.

"The, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has for over 100 years been the ultimate court of eppeal in the Empire, exercising jurisdiction over a quarter of the world and over 400,000,000 of the King's subjects.

"Its authority and prestige can only be enhanced by the robust and com-mon-sense grasp of realities shown in these two judgments, which make it clear that the Dominion Governments and Parliaments have a.legal right to enact what legislation they please without any control from the Government or Parliament of Great Britain, and that, in the legal view, as in the political, the British Commonwealth' of Nations is a free association between partners enjoying equal rights.

"It is conceivable that some of the partners may make use of their freedom to do things injurious to themselves and the rest of the Commonwealth, but if they should desire to act foolishly and maliciously there is nothing in the legal rights discarded by the Statute of Westminster which would have enabled the British Government or Parliament to restrain them.

"So far as appeals to the King in Council are concerned, it is safe to say, after these judgments, that the right which is regarded by' most Dominions as a valuable safeguard is now in less danger of being curtailed by Dominion legislation than it was before. These judgments recognised the legal competence of the Dominions to restrict or abolish it as they think fit."

The Irish Free State Supreme Court held that the grants' were null and void. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council granted leave to ippeal. Shortly afterwards the Iris*1 Parliament passed the Constitution (Amendment No. 22) Act, 1933, which Moore petitioned to have declared no bar to the maintenance of the original appeal. The Privy Council has now ruled that the effect of the Statute ff Westminster is to remove the fetter placed upon the Irish Free State Legislature by reason of the Colonial Laws Validity Act. "hat Legislature can now pass Acts repugnant to the Imperial Act.