The Dominions and their Mother Country

Extract

When Blackstone, a hundred and sixty years ago, made the first modern summary of the laws of England, the constitutional relations of Great Britain to the rest of the Empire were perfectly clear and perfectly simple. The King in Parliament was supreme. “Ireland”, Blackstone writes, “is a dependent subordinate Kingdom” (I. 98); “Our American plantations are dependent dominions; they are subject to the control of the Parliament (though like Ireland … they are not bound by any Acts of Parliament unless particularly mentioned)”. In thus writing, Blackstone correctly expressed not only the legal doctrine as accepted in forensic theory by all jurists, but also the constitutional doctrine, as accepted in working practice by all statesmen.