CAN DO NO WRONG

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 213, 3 May 1932, Page 7

CAN DO NO WRONG

LEGAL STATUS OF THE KING . IN THE BODY POLITIC. It is no superstition that "the King can do no wrong," It is a legal fact. The principal attributes- of the Crown are sovereignty or pre-emin-ence, perfection and perpetuity, and are attached to the wearer of the Crown by the Constitution. The principal duty of the Sovereign is to govern his people accordiiig to law. ■ ' The King is under no man, yet he . is under God and the law, for the law makes the King. The King is a twofold character — . an individual, liable like any other to the accidents of mortality and its frailties; land a coi'poration. His person is by law made up of two bodies; a natural body, subject to infancy, infirmity, sickness and death; and a political body, perfect, powerful, and perpetual — these two bodies are united, so they may be distinguished, but cannot be divided. Represents People. As a eonservator of the public • peace, the Crown in any criminal proceeding represents the community at large, prosecutes for offences committed against society, and can alone pardon. As the fountain of justiee, the Sovereign cannot come under compulsory jurisdiction of . any court. An action for personal wrong will not lie against the King — :he cannot by his own writ epmmand himself to appear coram judice. As the dispenser of law and equity, he is present in all his Courts; whence it is he cannot be non-suited in an action nor does he appear by an attorney. When a person is prosecuted by the Crown and the accused instructs his attorney to brief a K.C. to defend him, the K.C. has to get special permission to appear against Rex. Never Dies. The law gives to the King in political capacity an absolute immortaiity — the Sovereign always exists ; the person only is changed. The , King does not die, politically; he- merely demises, which means that in conseauence of the disunion of his natural body from his body politic, the kingdom is transferred. The King can do no wrong. He is not above the laws, but anything amiss in public affairs is not to be imputed to him so as to rendcr him personally answerable for it to his people. He cannot, however, sanetion an act forbidden by law. Of his own free will, the King" graciously orders right to be done; that is, where a subject's lands, goods or moneys have foun^ their way into the possession of the Crown, the petition is to obtain restitution or compensation, also for the purpose of recovering moneys due under a contract, as for goods supplied to the Public Service. What the Sovereign does personally the law presumes will not be wrong; what he does by command to his servants cannot be wrong in him, for if the command be unlawful it is in law no command, and the servant is responsible for the unlawful act. Cannot Sue Army. Claims against the Government have been legislated for in New Zealand and Australia, such legislation being assented to by the King which takes the place of the Petition of Rights. Military and police are direct servants of the -King in the King's uni .form. Therefore, if you are knocked down or shot by a soldier or policeman, and afterwards are well enough to instruct a solicitor, he will no doubt advise you the King can do no wrong, and consequently his servants can't. If any action would lie, you can only sue the individual soldier or policeman, whose conduct you think is legally wrong. The King as a eeeditor has precedence over every other ereditor who had not obtained judgment before the King commenced his suit. And, finally, the King is not bound by any Act of Parliament, unless ex- ! pressly named as being so bound.