Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 2)

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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:: 1896935052

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-238139

Document type:: Volume

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

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 2

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: XI Seiten, Seiten 570-1100

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part IV. The federations and the union // Chapter II. The commonwealth of Australia

Collection:: Economics Books

cuap. i] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 793 assertion of the resolve of the Colonies to unite in one indis- soluble federal Commonwealth under the Crown of Great Britain, and s. 8 of the converting Act makes the Common- wealth one Colony for the purpose of the Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895, but there is little else of this sort. An interesting question arises as to the law of the Common- wealth as a whole as distinct from the laws of the several states. Is there a common law of the Commonwealth ? The answer appears clearly to be as suggested by Mr. Justice Clark,! that there is no such common law save in so far as the prerogatives of the Crown are concerned. Even without legislation, and the provisions in the Constitution, ss. 2and 61, are declaratory only, the Executive Government of the Com- monwealth would have vested in the Crown, and therefore the whole of the common law which regulates the preroga- tives of the Crown is in force in the Commonwealth. But no other part of the common law can be said so to exist in the Commonwealth. It is true that, as the expressions in the Act are all based on English law, they will be interpreted as were the provisions of the States Constitution, in the light of the English common law; but it would be a mistake to say that the common law exists in the Commonwealth as such. Tt is true, of course, that in each of the states the common law prevails, and in interpreting as a Court of Ap- peal the statutes of the states the High Court will interpret the common law, but that does not make the common law in force as a part of the common law of the Commonwealth, though within the range of the subjects committed to it it will be possible for the Commonwealth to declare that the doctrines of the common law shall apply. Tn the case of The King v. Sutton? and The Atiorney- General of New South Wales® v. Collector of Customs, there \ Australian Constitutional Law, pp. 198 seq.; cf. Harrison Moore, op. cit., p. 206 ; Quick and Garran, op. cit., pp. 785 seq., arrive at different views. The matter is mainly one of terminology : it is clear that of the cases given on pp. 809, 810, bribery of officials, voting twice at an election, &c., would be offences and punishable without any further enactment than the Constitution itself. t5C LR. 789. Ibid., 818.

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