AUTONOMY OF DOMINIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 890, 6 February 1930, Page 6

AUTONOMY OF DOMINIONS

COLONIAL LAWS REVIEWED

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE REPORT How far the Dominions have progressed toward complete autonomy is strikingly demonstrated in the report of an Imperial Conference held in London during October and November to deliberate upon the law's of England and their applicability to the units of the Empire. So far have the Dominions achieved independence that certain legislation under which they were bound when known as colonies is now obsolete and no more binding. The conference was held following the decision of the Imperial Conference of 192 G which declared that the United Kingdom and the Dominions alike were ‘‘autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate to one another in any aspect of their domestic or internal affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.”

The purpose of the October conference, whose report has just been made available for publication simultaneously throughout the Empire, was to discuss ‘‘the operation of Dominion legislation and merchant shipping legislation.” Questions discussed

Principal questions which the conference had to consider were (1) Present statutes governing the reservation of Dominion legislation for the assent of his Majesty and the disallowance of such legislation by his Majesty; (2) the present powers of Dominions to make their legislation operative extra-territorially; (3) the Colonial Laws Validity Act, 1865. Findings and recommendations made under the three headings were; (1) That the power of disallowing Dominion legislation has not been exercised since 1873, can no longer bo exercised constitutionally, and may properly be set aside by a Dominion. In some cases it would be necessary to have existing legislation in the United Kingdom repealed. That the Government of the United Kingdom cannot instruct a GovernorGeneral regarding the discretionary reservation of a Dominion Bill for the. Royal assent, and that in such a matter the Dominion Government concerned cr.n alone advise his Majesty. Discretionary or compulsory reservation may be abolished by a Dominion, though in some cases legislation in the United Kingdom would also have to be repealed.

POWERS OF U.K. GOVERNMENT The conference further recommended that the next Imperial Conference should affirm the principle that no law made in future by the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall extend to any Dominion except at the latter’s request, and that a provision accordingly should be Inserted in the Substitutionary Act to the Colonial Laws Act Validity Act.

That a constitutional convention should be put on record to the effect that any alteration in the law touching the succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent of the Parliaments of the United Kingdom and of all the Dominions. The report discusses various intricate questions concerning the powers of certain Dominions to alter their enstitutions, and certain special problems occurring in those Dominions having federal constitutions. It recommends that provision should be made in the suggested Act for the amendment of these powers according to the wishes of the Dominions concerned. (2) That the Parliament of the United Kingdom should pass a declaratory enactment, with the consent of the Dominions, to the effect that the Parliament of a Dominion has full power to make laws having extraterritorial operation. (3) That the Colonial Laws Validity Act, 1865, should be repealed, and that a substantive Act should be passed stating that no law thereafter made by the Parliament of a Dominion shall be void or inoperative on the ground that it is repugnant to the law of England. MERCHANT SHIPPING

The section of the report devoted to merchant shipping legislation deals with standards of safety, uniform treatment of British ocean-going ships, certificates of competency and service, courts of inquiry, naval courts in foreign ports, mutual enforcement of law, forfeiture, carriage of goods by sea, and the Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act, 1890. The conference recommends that all doubt be removed as to the full and complete power of any Dominion Parliament to make legislation regarding merchant shipping, with full power over all ships in its own territorial waters and over its own registered ships. In this regard the report adds that there was a strong presumption in favour of concerted action between members of the British Commonwealth of Nations in shipping matters, but this concerted action must, frqm its nature, result from voluntary agreement by members of the Commonwealth.