f.
10
$25.
Procedural safeguards can be more elaborate. Perhaps the most elaborate was under the 1961 Southern Rhodesia Constitution (S.I. 1961/2314) and the related Zambia provisions. Attached is a copy of Chapter VII of the Constitution. The heart of the provisions is found in section 84. The Council was required to report on whether or not a bill contravened the Bill of Rights within a specified time. If it reported adversely the Governor could not consent to the bill unless affirmed
by the House by special procedures.
There was an
emergency procedure. This body was most conscientiously chaired by Sir Victor Robinson.
26.
No doubt such
local legislation,
such a body could be set up under but it would be necessary to amend Article XXVI of the Royal Instructions to provide for the reports of the Council. Emergency provisions are, as pointed out, already in the Article.
27.
It will be noted from the annexure the
Constitutional Council also considered statutory instruments and it was, indeed,
here, that its reports
had, as I remember, their greatest impact.
28.
Mak
A Constitutional Council of this sort
sort could
survive 1997 as it could be required to continue its reporting function although, unless provision was made for the reports in the Basic Law, the reports could not delay the enactment of laws. If it merely reported, it would then have something of the role of Strasbourg in the United Kingdom. Its rulings would have no legal effect but would carry considerable moral weight and
publicise any breach of the Bill - which could be a breach of international law if the Bill took the form
of enacting the Covenants.
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