DOMINIONS’ RIGHTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 148, 8 June 1935, Page 3

DOMINIONS’ RIGHTS

Decision in Free State Case COMMENT BY “THE TIMES" By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright. LONDON, June 7. The fact that the British Commonwealth of Nations is a free association between partners enjoying equal rights, is made clear in the Privy Council decision (published yesterday) arising from certain actions of the Irish Free State. “The Times’’ commends the commonsense of the decision, which shows that Dominion Governments have the legal right to enact what legislation they please without any control from the Government of Great Britain. “Tho Times” says, “The judicial committee of the Privy Council for over a hundred years has been the ultimate court of appeal of 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 bo enhanced by the robust commonsense and grasp of realities shown in these two judgments, which make it clear that Dominion Governments and Parliaments have the legal right to enact what legislation they please without any control from the Government and 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. 1 “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 Common wealth 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 enable the British Government and 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, 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 Dominions to restrict or abolish it as they think fit.”