A
..
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14.
The only exception to the general proposition that the entrenchment of, and supremacy of, the Bill of Rights, requires United Kingdom legislation, is to be found in section 5 of the Colonial laws Validity Act
which reads
15.
"15.
;every Representative Legislature shall,
in respect to the Colony under its Jurisdiction have, and be deemed at all Times
to have had, full Power to make Laws
respecting the Constitution, Powers, and Procedure of such Legislature; provided that such Laws shall have been passed
passed in such Manner and Form as may from Time to Time be required by any Act of
of Parliament, Letters
Patent, Order in Council, or Colonial Law for
the Time being in force in the said Colony.
PT
This procedure, however, is only available co a Representative Legislature i.e. one with half (and by inference more than half) of its representatives elected by the inhabitants of the Colony. While this provision is not relevant at the moment, it may become so and, if relevant, would enable special procedures to be introduced (e.g. a two thirds majority) for bills in contravention of, or amending, the Bill of Rights and for protecting those special procedures. The case of Attorney General for New South Wales v Trethowan & Ors. [1932] AC 526 (P.C), the headnote of which is attached,
indicates that entrenchment By a representative legislature is possible at any rate if still subject (unlike Canada) to the 1865 Act.
16.
Bill is
It is,
of course, necessary to ensure, if the enforced, it is justiceable by the courts. This, in fact, flows in Common Law countries from its
status as a statute, but most "Colonial
Office"
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