An Australian correspondent reminds us in the Times of Tuesday
that the proposal to establish an Imperial Court of Appeal will come again before the Imperial Conference this year. The Australian Government will submit "that it is desirable that the judicial functions in regard to the Dominions, now exercised by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, should be vested in an Imperial Appeal Court, which should also be the final Court of Appeal for Great Britain and Ireland." The correspondent explains that the High Court of Australia, which was formed as an Appeal Court for the different States when federation was accom- plished, has been gradually gaining in repute. If it were proposed to abolish the possibility of such appeals as are still made to the Privy Council the opposition would not be so strong as it was ten years ago. Yet there are admittedly good grounds for wishing to retain the judicial relations between Great Britain and Australia; there is sentiment, and the fact that the Australian High Court is likely to be more careful with than without a Court of Appeal over it, and there is the convenience of preserving the same common law throughout the Empire. If these consider- ations are of predominant value the time has come to remove the present causes of dissatisfaction with appeals to the Privy CounciL If this be not done the system of appeal from Australia will probably be abolished altogether in course of time. An Imperial Court of Appeal, we hold, should be estab- lished, and should be the Supreme Court of the whole Em- pire. It might, however, except on occasions of very great importance, sit in two sections, and thus distinguish between appeals from British courts and from the Dominions.
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