CHAP. III] JUDICIAL APPEALS 1371 
were taken to get rid of the difficulty caused by the contra- 
dictory decisions of the High Court and the Privy Council. 
There was passed in the session of 1907 an Act, No. 8 of 1907, 
to amend the Judiciary Act of 1903. The important clause 
of the Act was the second, which provided that 
in any matters other than trials of indictable offences 
involving any question however arising as to the limits inter 
se of the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth, and 
those of any state or states, or as to the limits inter se of the 
constitutional power of any two or more states, the jurisdic- 
tion of the High Court shall be exclusive of the jurisdiction 
of the Supreme Courts of the states so far as that the Supreme 
Court of a state shall not have jurisdiction to entertain or 
determine any such matter either as a Court of First Instance 
or as a Court of Appeal from an inferior Court. 
By s. 5 it is provided that— 
when in any cause pending in the Supreme Court of a state 
there arises any question as to the limits inter se of the 
constitutional powers of the Commonwealth and those of 
any state or states, or as to the limits inter se of the constitu- 
tional powers of any two or more states, it shall be the duty 
of the Court to proceed no further on the cause, and the 
cause shall be by virtue of this Act, and without any Order 
of the High Court, removed to the High Court. 
The Act is made under s. 77 (2)! of the Constitution, 
which empowers the Parliament to define the extent to 
which the jurisdiction of any federal Court shall be exclusive 
of that which belongs to or is vested in the Courts of the 
states. It would have been impossible, in view of the decision 
in Webb v. Outtrim ® to provide by a Commonwealth Act 
either that an appeal by special leave, or an appeal without 
special leave, should not lie from the decision of a Supreme 
Court, since by the judgement of the Privy Council that 
provision would be an interference with the Constitution of 
the state, and therefore be repugnant to the Commonwealth 
of Australia Constitution Act and to the Acts (9 Geo. IV. c. 83, 
8. 15, and 7 & 8 Vict. c. 69) which define the jurisdiction of 
' It was foreseen that this could be done ; see Quick and Garran, 
op. cit., p. 755; 4 C. L. R.. at p. 1114. See Debates, 1907, pp. 487-500, 
564-85, 3749-95. 2 [19071 A. C. 81.