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.