The Maikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Arcus. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1929. THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17805, 2 September 1929, Page 6

The Maikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Arcus. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1929. THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

The British Government, it was recently stated, has decided to amend the constitution in the direction of enabling any Dominion so desiring to abolish the right of appeal to the Privy Council. The step, it is understood, has been decided upon, at the instance of the Irish Free State, but the Home authorities intend to make the amendment apply to any Dominion though it is not anticipated that it will be generally availed of. In order that the nature of the proposed change may be easily understood, it is necessary that certain facts regarding the constitution of this, the highest judicial tribunal in the Empire, should be known. According to one authority, the constitutional position between Great Britain and the Dominions is that the Supreme Courts of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and the Irish Free State are supreme in fact. Recourse to the Privy Council is an appeal to the Sovereign, as the Supreme Tribunal, represented by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the right to which British traditional usage has vested in the subjects of the Crown. Australia and South Africa have now’ the right to limit the matters upon which appeals may be made subject to the consent of the Governor-General in each case. The constitution of the Irish Free State at present sets forth that “the decision of the Supreme Court shall be Anal and conclusive, and shall not be capable of being reviewed by any

other court, tribunal, or authority whatever,’’ but a proviso reserves to the individual the right to petition the King for special leave io appeal, which petition may be granted. Certain decisions of tlie Privy Council in appeals have not given satisfaction in the Free State. It is partly as the result of this feeling, and of the fact that other Dominions have the right of restricting the field of appeals, that the agitation has arisen for the amendment referred to in the cable message. It is probable, however, that the present situation would have developed sooner or later as the result of the greatly extended powers of autonomy granted to the Dominions at the last Imperial Conference. The late Lord Haldane, in 1923, when dealing with an Irish petition, had a prevision of this development, and recorded it in a judicial observation. “The growth of the Empire, and the growth particularly of the Dominions,” he said, ‘has led to very substantial restriction of the exercise of the prerogative by the Sovereign on the advice of the Judicial Committee. It is obviously proper that the Dominions should more and more dispose of their own cases, and in criminal cases it has been laid down so strictly that it is only in the most exceptional cases that the Sovereign is advised to intervene. In other cases, the practice which has grown up is that the Judicial Committee is to look closely into the nature of the ease, and if, in their Lordships’ opinion, the question is one that can best be determined on the spot, then the Sovereign is not, as a rule, advised to intertervene . . unless the ense is one involving some great principle, or is of some very wide public interest.” r ihe Privy Council serves certain great purposes in the unification and preservation of British ideals that are worthy of consideration. It is the supreme guardian of English common law, which in a general sense is the common law of the Empire. It is a safeguard to the citizens of the Dominions against possible injustices resulting from local legislation affecting their constitutional rights. Further, it represents the accumulated legal wisdom of the Empire. Much stronger reasons than mere occasional dissatisfaction with its decisions should bo advanced before this ancient and highly efficient institution is reduced in Imperial legal authority and prestige.