Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}

|short_title=The Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865<ref>The citation of this Act by this [[short title]] was authorizedauthorised by the [[Short Titles Act 1896]], section 1, and the first schedule.  Due to the repeal of those provisions, it is now authorizedauthorised by section 19(2) of the [[Interpretation Act 1978]].</ref>

'''The Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865''' (28 & 29 Vict. c. 63) is an [[Act of Parliament|Act]] of the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]]. It'sIts [[long title]] is "An Act to remove Doubts as to the Validity of Colonial Laws".

The purpose of the Act was to remove any apparent inconsistency between local (colonial) and British ("imperial") legislation. Thus it confirmed that colonial legislation (provided it had been passed correctlyin the proper manner) was to have a full effect within the colony, limited only to the extent that it was not in contradiction with ("repugnant to") any Act of Parliament that contained powers which extended beyond the boundaries of the [[United Kingdom]] to include that colony. This had the effect of clarifying and strengthening the position of colonial legislatures, while at the same time restating their ultimate subordination to the [[Palace of Westminster|Westminster]] Parliament.

Until the passage of the Act, severala number of colonial statutes had been struck down by local judges on the grounds of repugnancy to [[English law]]s, whether or not those English laws had been intended by Parliament to be effective in the colony. This had been a particular problem for the [[Government of South Australia|government]] in [[South Australia]], where [[Benjamin Boothby|Justice Benjamin Boothby]] had struck down local statutes on numerous occasions in [[Supreme Court of South Australia|the colony's Supreme Court]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Roberts-Wray |first=Sir Kenneth |title=Commonwealth and Colonial Law |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Commonwealth_and_Colonial_Law.html?id=2WOuAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y |publisher= Stevens & Sons| date=1966 |page=396 |isbn=9780420395801 |jstor=1094286 }}</ref>

By the mid-1920s, the [[British government]] accepted that the [[British Dominions|dominions]] should have full legislative autonomy. Accordingly, the Imperialimperial Parliament passed the [[StatueStatute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]], which repealed the application of the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 to the dominions (i.e., [[Australia]], [[Canada]], the [[Irish Free State]], [[New Zealand]], [[Dominion of Newfoundland|Newfoundland]], and the [[Union of South Africa]]).

The Statute of Westminster took effect immediately in Canada, the Irish Free State, and South Africa. Australia adopted the Statute in 1942 with the passing of the [[Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942]], with retroactive effect to 3 September 1939, the start of [[World War II]]. The Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 continued to have application in individual [[States and territories of Australia|Australian states]] until the [[Australia Act 1986]] came into effect in 1986.

Elsewhere, the Colonial Laws Validity Act remains in force, and helps to define the relationship between Acts of Parliament and laws passed in self-governing British territories, as well as the legality of decisions made by territorial legislatures and governments. The power to amend the Colonial Laws Validity Act rests with the Parliament of the United StatesKingdom.