The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the west Coast Ties. THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1929.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 August 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the west Coast Ties. THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1929.

PltlVY COUNCIL AND EMPHIE. It is reported by tiie “Daily nerald,” which it should hardly be necessary to add is the British Labour organ, that the imperial Government is prepared iO allow any of the Dominions, if it so desires, to naive the right of appeal from its own Courts to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Apparently the initiative in tins direction has been taken by the Irish Free State, which has asked leave ‘‘to ferego appeals to the Privy Council as the highest legal tribunal in the Empire”; and the g.ouiul lor this dec.sion is said to be that the Government regaids all .lie Dominions as ‘'thoroughly competent to establish the highest Courts of Appeal within their own territories and under their own auspices.” The law on this question of appeal, says the Auckland Star, was Jaid down originally in the Judicial Committee Act of 1840. To pei*petuate the right of appeal to the Ciown that had always been claimed by colonial subjects complaining of ‘ defects of justice done in oversea Courts,” it was then provided that the prerogative of the Crown should be exercised through the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. But this Act has been substantially modified by subsequent, Imperial legislation. In the case of the Irish Free State, which has interested itself specially in this question, there is an appeal to the u udicial Committee only from the Supreme Court Af the State. But that Court is granted appellate jurisdiction from all the decisions of the High Court, while the High Court has jurisdiction “where the validity of the Const, tuti n ig called in question.’’ This arrangement assures to the Privy Council the right of “deciding Ultimately every constitutional issue where either party desires to have its decision.” Throughout the rest of the Empire the right of the appeal is subject to a variety of restrictions. In Canada theore-ically appeals may be permitted to the Judicial Committee from 'any of the Dominion Courts, though in practice most of the appeals come from the highest Courts only. In South Africa appeal is res I rioted to cases decided on appeal by-the Supreme Court of the Union. In Australia, though the framers’ Constitution Act of 1903 desired virtual exemption from the necessity for appealing, this concession was refused. But the Federal Act of 1907 forbade appeals from, the Supreme Courts to the Privy Ciuncil on constitutional issues ; and the High Court is therefore now “the sole arbiter of constitutional questions of the rights of the Commonweal’ll and the States.” But Britain still mamtains in effect the right.to control the Empire in purely constitulional matters, and the abolition of the necessity for this appeal may therefore well be described as “a momentous amendment to the Constitution.” The recognition of the British Crown as supreme constitutional authority is, of course, an important bond of unity for the whole Empire. But it must not be forgotten that from the standpoint of the' Dominions the necessity for carrying an appeal so far as London m,ay easily result in the infliction of injustice, or at least the creation of grievances. Over twenty years ago, when the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council reversed the findings of several of our own judges in a case of serious importance on this side of the world, the whole sys’em of appeal in its existing form was severely criticised here. One distinguished judge went so far as tp describe the Judicial Committee as “ignorant alike of our laws, our history, and our social and political conditions,” and as manifesting “all the characteristics of an alien tribunal” ; and another of our judges deplored the subordination of our public interests to the ill-instructed opinions of “a body of strangers sitting 1.4.000 miles away.” Even if ( these views were exaggerated by personal feeling, they indicate clearly enough the obvious objections to the present system; and the British Government to-dav is fully justified in its assumption that, the Dominions can safely establish their own Courts of Anneal without in anv way infringing their loyalty to Britain or imperilling the unity of the Empire.