PRIVY COUNCIL APPEALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22320, 18 January 1936, Page 10

PRIVY COUNCIL APPEALS

QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE SOUTH AFRICAN CRITICISM [from our own correspondent] CAPETOWN, Deo. 12 That the question of South African appeals to <the British Privy Council would be raised during the next session of the Union Parliament was revealed by Colonel Deneys Reitz, Minister of Agriculture, at a meeting at Kokstad. This question was, he said, going to be used as an apple of discord during the coming session between Colonel Stallard, leader of the Dominion Party, and Dr. Malan, leader of the Republican Party. Colonel Stallard would assert that the right of appeal was a connecting link with the British Empire and Dr. Malan, for that v< ry reason, would insist on abolishing it, ' "1 wish to make it clear," Baid Colonel .Reitz, "that the right of appeal to the Privy Council has nothing to do with our connection with the British Empire. It is not a constitutional issue at all, but a mere rule of Court. It has as little to do with the British connection as has the llhodesian right of appeal to our Courts. As a matter of fact, in the Act of Union passed by the British House of Commons, the right of appeal to the Privy Council was specially abolished. All that remained was the right of appeal to , the Privy Council for the right to appeal, and this right has only been exercised five times during 25 years. "Ab a lawyer I consider it anomalous to appeal from the Roman-Dutch system to another judicial system and also that 4 it gives the wealthy corporation and companies an unfair advantage over the average citizen. An appeal to the Privy Council is enormously expensive, and the mere threat by a wealthy litigant to appeal to the Privy Council Would force the ordinary citizen to surrender. » "Lastly,*/ added Colonel Reitz, ' I consider it unsound to multiply Courts of appeal. There should be finality in litigation,'