Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 1)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1896934455

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-236504

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 1

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: LI, 568 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. The executive Government

Collection:: Economics Books

cmap. 1] THE POWERS OF THE GOVERNOR 135 plified by the case of Phillips v. Eyre, which arose out of Governor Eyre’s action in putting down with needless violence the revolt of the negroes of Jamaica. The Governor pleaded in his defence the passing of an Act of Indemnity in the Colony to which he himself had assented, and the Court upheld the contention, though efforts were made to establish that he was not entitled to rely upon an Act which he himself had secured the passing of. In the case of a self-governing Colony the responsibility of the Governor for his official actions may no doubt seem anomalous. In the case of the Crown in the United Kingdom the position is simple, because it is clear that the legal maxim that the King can do no wrong results in the trans- ference of responsibility to his real advisers. The responsi- bility of the Governor might, it may be argued, be thrown apon his advisers. But the rule of law grew up at a time when the Governor of a Colony was, to all intents and pur- poses, the Executive, and when he was responsible, as he still is in a Crown Colony, for the administration. In 1869 there- fore the Government of New Zealand desired the repeal of those Acts so far as they concerned a self-governing Colony. This was then not accepted, and even now it would hardly be possible to insist on ministerial responsibility unless the doctrine of complete ministerial responsibility for all actions wereestablished asin England, and that isnot yet true, and pro- bably never can be true of a Colony so long as it remains such. There are certain difficulties about the doctrine which show themselves occasionally in practice. When, for example, the Governor of South Australia was served with a mandamus in a matter arising out of a Commonwealth election, to which reference will be made below, he was not supplied with counsel or legal advice by the Commonwealth, and had to rely on the kindness of his ministers, who hardly had any direct interest in the proceeding and who might have refused to pay, thus involving the Governor in a serious difficulty, for the Imperial Government would certainly have -4Q.B.225; 6Q.B. 1. See Parl. Pap., H. C. 307, 1869, p. 400; C. 83, pp. 33, 191.

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