The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1929.... PRIVY COUNCIL APPEALS.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1929.... PRIVY COUNCIL APPEALS.

The general tenor of *the reply that Sir Joseph Ward may be expected to make to the question, of which a member of Parliament has given notLe, respecting the attitude 6f the Government in regard to. appeals to the Privy Council, may be comidently anticipated. The question has been prompted by the recently .cabled' report of the intention of the Home 'Government to facilitate the ahplition by any Dominion of the right of appeal to the Privy Council, the impulse in this direction being apparently due to representations on the subject that have been made liy the Irish Free State. It would be .surprising, considers the Otago Times, if the Government In New Zealand had any desire to follow the lead of the Irish Free State in such a matter. The decision of the Home Government, if it lias been correctly interpreted, is merely that it will place no obstacle in the way of the severance, by any dominion that so desires, of the Imperial tie that is represented by the right of appeal to the Privy Council. The question is entirely one for the dominions to decide for. themselves. Their views re-

specting the existence' of the Judicial (Jonimiitee of the Privy Council as the final court of appeal for the Empire may not altogether coincide. In some quarters the system of appeal lias been criticised as indicative or subjection io what is called Imperial supremacy. The c.nteiKion, however, that the right of appeal is inconsistent with the autonomy of the dominions is not very convincing. The Judicial Committee is simply a. final court of resort for the whole Empire—as distinguished from Great ■ Britain, in regard to whose courts it does not sit in appeal except in certain cases—and in this respect the courts from which appeals lie all stand on an equal footing. The existence of tlie right of appeal can in no way be regarded as suggesting that the courts of the dominion are not competent. It is a privilege of which oversea litigants may make use not merely at their discretion but also with the assent of the highest judicial tribunal in their own dominion. In practice the fact that the use of this privilege does not detract one iota from the autonomy of the dominions and from their enjoyment of equal right's as members of the British ComnionweaUh seems to be too obvious to require demonstration. Canada and South Africa may lean towards the view that tneir final court of appeal should be situated within their own territory, but Australia and New Zc/•and are not likely to wish for any change in the existing system. For the operation of the system is attended with benefits of a kind that are not to be lightly regarded. The Judicial Committee of tne Privy Council has a value and a standing as on Empire Court of Appeal which would render its abolition much more a loss than a gain. All legal practitioners from this country who have had the opportunity of arguing cases before it hnve been struck by the calibre of the judges c mposing this tribunal—men mature in years, whose experience, agility of mind, and profound knowledge of the intricacies of the law have been expressed in judgments that nave been masterly in iheir examination and resolution of the complexities submitted to them for unravelment. The value of such a court to the Empire as a whole is undoubtedly very considerable. It is a really Imperial institution.! of immense prestige. Apart from this ,the tact that it necessarily exists and functions in an-atmosphere entirely free not only from bias, but from even the slightest suggestion of mean import—ln view of the nature of some of the cases which have come before it for adjudication. It has been suggested by one authority on constitutional questions that a plebiscite throughout the Empire would pronounce overwhelmingly in favour of the preservation of the right of appeal to the Judicial Committee. There is little room for doubt, at all events, that the feeling in Australia and iS’ew Zealand is strongly opposed to the' abandonment of the opportunity to submit complicated issues to the arbitrament of a tribunal that so fully merits the confidence of British people.