scholarly journals Constitutional Law: Delegation of Legislative Power: Use of State Agency Classification as Basis for Federal Law

1956 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 851
Author(s):  
James Tobin
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
State Agency ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Legislative Power

Uncertain sovereignty: Ceylon as a Dominion 1948–1972

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1258-1282
Author(s):  
Rehan Abeyratne
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Judicial Power ◽  
Privy Council ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Cautious Approach ◽  
Legislative Power ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Subject

Abstract This article, a contribution to a symposium on dominion constitutionalism, looks at sovereignty in Ceylon’s Dominion period (1948–1972). While the Ceylon Constitution has been the subject of in-depth historical and sociopolitical study, it has received less attention from legal scholars. This article hopes to fill that gap. It analyzes Ceylon Supreme Court and Privy Council judgments from this era on both rights-based and structural questions of constitutional law. In each area, sovereignty-related concerns influenced the judicial approach and case outcomes. On fundamental rights, both the Supreme Court and the Privy Council adopted a cautious approach, declining to invalidate legislation that had discriminatory effects on minority communities. This reluctance to entrench fundamental rights resulted, at least in part, from judges’ undue deference to the Ceylon Parliament, which was wrongly looked upon like its all-powerful British progenitor. On constitutional structure, the Ceylon Supreme Court deferred to Parliament even when legislation encroached into the judicial realm. The Privy Council, though, was not so passive. It upheld a separate, inviolable judicial power that Parliament could not legislate away. But by asserting itself as a check on legislative power, the Council—as a foreign judicial body intervening in Ceylonese affairs—stoked concerns that Ceylon was less than fully sovereign, which ultimately ended Dominion status.

Kennedy, William Paul McClure, (1879–12 Aug. 1963), Professor Emeritus of Law and Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of the School of Law, University of Toronto, since 1949; Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, 1949; Member of the Canadian Bar Association; Legal Adviser: to Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations, 1937–38; to Prime Minister and Attorney-Gen. of Ont. at Dominion-Provincial Conf. on Canadian Constitutional Law, 1950–51; Member Attorney-General’s Committee on BNA Act, 1935; Expert Witness before the Special Committee of the House of Commons on the revision of the BNA Act, 1935; External Examiner, Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne, 1931–32; Member of and Draughtsman to the Committee of the Govt of Canada on the Law of Nationality, 1928–29; appointed by Govt of Canada to prepare a confidential report on workings of Law of Nationality, 1930; Canadian Legal Corresp. for S. African Law Times, 1932–37; Goldwin Smith Lectr in Constitutional Law, Cornell Univ., 1926–27; Kirby Foundation Lectr on Comparative Law Lafayette Coll., 1930–31; Assoc. Prof. of Modern History and Special Lecturer on Federal Law, Univ. of Toronto, 1914–26; Prof. of Law and Dean of Faculty of Law, Univ. of Toronto, 1926–49; Member Canadian Delegation, British Commonwealth Relations Conference, Toronto, 1933; Editor (and Founder) of University of Toronto Law Journal, 1935–49; Legal Adviser to Committee which drafted the Constitution of the IFS; Emeritus Member of Soc. of Public Teachers of Law, 1949

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Expert Witness ◽  
Professor Emeritus ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Legal Adviser ◽  
External Examiner ◽  
Bar Association ◽  
British Commonwealth

Constitutional Law: Delegation of Legislative Power

1936 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 184
Author(s):  
Whitney R. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Legislative Power
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