A Leap in the Dark / A Criticism of the Principles of Home Rule as Illustrated by the / Bill of 1893

by A. V. Dicey

It is to be presumed that the Crown, or in effect the British Cabinet, does not in the case of Ireland retain the power of 'disallowance' under which the Crown occasionally annuls colonial Acts which have received the assent of a colonial Governor. The power to disallow an Irish Act which, though not unconstitutional, has worked injustice, might be of advantage. But in truth the parliamentary methods for enforcing the Restrictions or safeguards are utterly unreal; they do not repay examination; whether there be two sham modes of enforcement, or one, must be to a sensible man a matter of indifference. As to the disallowance of Acts see Rules and Regulations published for the use of the Colonial Office, chap. iii.; Legislative Councils and Assemblies, Rules 48-54; British North America Act, 1868, sections 55-57; England's Case against Home Rule (3rd ed.), p. 33. [Compare Dicey, Law of Constitution (7th ed.), pp. 111-114.]

The appeal to the English Privy Council, both under clauses 19, 22, and 23 of the Bill, appears to be in each case an appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. [The particular provisions contained in the Home Rule Bill, 1893, as to an appeal to the Privy Council, etc., are now of little direct importance, but they are worth study as showing the extreme difficulty of providing any satisfactory body for acting as a Court called upon to decide the numerous constitutional questions, as to the legislative power of an Irish Parliament, which must be raised under any Home Rule Act whatever.]

See Bill, clause 23.

See Tocqueville, Démocratie en Amérique, i. chap. viii. pp. 231-250; Bryce, American Commonwealth, ii. (1st ed.) p. 45; ibid. i. ch. 23.

Compare England's Case against Home Rule (3rd ed.), pp. 257, 258.

Compare Bill, clauses 19, 22, pp. 206, 209, post.

Bill, clause 19, sub-clause(4).

Clause 19, sub-clause (5). The whole of the provisions as to the Exchequer Judges are extremely obscure. The jurisdiction and the powers of the Court, should it ever be formed, will need to be defined by a special Act of Parliament. There are special laws regulating the action of the Federal Judiciary both in the United States and in Switzerland. As the matter at present stands the jurisdiction of the Exchequer Judges and of the Privy Council as a Court of Appeal from them may apparently be thus described.

It extends to all legal proceedings in Ireland which

(i) are instituted at the instance of or against the Treasury or Commissioners of Customs, or any of their officers, or