Abstract
It is not generally appreciated that since the 1940s there has been a surprisingly large number of occasions when the Constitutional Head of a Westminster system of government within the Commonwealth has been obliged to play, or at all events has chosen to play, a significant personal role in the resolution of some salient political issue, or in which the position of a particular Constitutional Head has been called in question. For the four decades between the late 1940s and the late 1980s it is possible to count upwards of 80 such occasions. This is without including a similar number of episodes at state level in India when similar matters have been in issue, and without counting the 60 and more occasions when President’s Rule has been declared there, and Governors have suddenly found themselves called upon (for the time being at least) to assume the principal executive positions in their states. Moreover, the number does not include either the many occasions, both in India and elsewhere, when a Constitutional Head has formally granted a dissolution of Parliament without significant public controversy, or when there has been a change of government or Prime Minister without the Constitutional Head’s discretion being in any way called upon. Nor does it include those rather different occasions when by coup or constitutional change the office of Constitutional Head has been transformed into an Executive Presidency, or into the halfway house, a ‘Gaullist’ one (as in Sri Lanka in 1978).
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Notes
e.g. G. Marshall, Constitutional Conventions, Oxford 1984;
V. Bogdanor, Multi-Party Politics and the Constitution, Cambridge 1983;
D. Butler, Governing Without a Majority. Dilemmas for Hung Parliaments, London 1983;
and the older book W. I. Jennings, Cabinet Government, 3rd ed, Cambridge 1959; and chapter II above.
See Chapter III above, and his Chapter 13 in D. A. Low, ed., Constitututional Heads and Political Crises. Commonwealth Episodes, 1945–85, London 1988, esp. pp. 233–4.
e.g. Sir Fred Phillips, West Indian Constitutions: Post-Independence Reform, New York 1985; and Chapter VII above.
e.g. R. N. Mishra, The President of the Indian Republic, Bombay 1965;
P. Singh, Governor’s Office in Independent India, Deoghar 1968;
J. R. Siwach, The Office of Governor, Delhi 1977;
R. Maheswari, President’s Rule in India, Delhi 1977;
M. S. Dahiya, Office of the Governor in India, Delhi 1979;
B. D. Dua, Presidential Rule in India 1950–1974, Delhi 1979;
J. R. Siwach, President’s Rule in India, Simla 1979;
P. L. Mathur, Role of Governor in Non-Congress States, Jaipur 1988.
See also G. Austin, The Indian Constitution, Oxford 1966, ch.5; and The Role of the Governor: Report of the Committee of Governors, Delhi 1971;
S Gopal, Radhakhrishnan. A Biography, Delhi 1989, chs 11–12; and chapter VI above.
Tun Mohamed Suffian bin Hashim, An Introduction to the Constitution of Malaysia, Kuala Lampur 1972;
Tun Mohamed Suffian, H. P. Lee and F. A. Trindade, eds., The Constitution of Malaysia. Its Development: 1957–1977, Kuala Lumpur 1978;
F. A. Trindade and H. P. Lee, The Constitution of Malaysia. Further Perspectives and Developments, Singapore 1986;
Tun Mohamed Suffian, ‘Role of the Monarchy’, in Aliran , Reflections on the Malaysian Constitution, Penang 1987; and chapter VIII above.
See especially the bibliography in G. Winterton, Parliament, the Executive and the Governor-General, Melbourne 1983; and chapter IV above.
Y. Ghai and J. Cottrell, Heads of State in the Pacific: A Constitutional and Legal Analysis, Suva 1990.
See also Low, Constitutional Heads, passim. (There is a comprehensive account of an office which has now been superseded in A. J. Wilson, ‘The Role of the Governor-General in Ceylon’, Modern Asian Studies, vol.II, no.3, 1968, pp. 193–220.)
R. Graham, The King-Byng Affair, Toronto 1967.
B. Foott, Dismissal of a Premier. The Philip Game Papers, Sydney 1968.
D. McMahon, ‘The Chief Justice and the Governor-General Controversy in 1932’, The Irish Jurist, XVII (N.S.), 1982, pp.145–167.
P. N. S. Mansergh, Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs. Problems of External Policy 1931–1939, Oxford 1952, ch. X.
F. MacKinnon, The Government of Prince Edward Island, Toronto 1951, pp. 155 ff.
K. Sinclair, Walter Nash, Auckland 1976, p. 204.
On Malaysia see Raza Azlan Shah, ‘The Role of Constitutional Rulers: A Malaysian Perspective for the Laity’, Journal of Malaysian and Comparative Law, 1, 1982, pp. 80–2. (In 1989 Raza Azlan Shah, Sultan of Perak, became the Yang di Pertuan Agung — the elected King — of Malaysia); ‘Sultan as Symbols’, Far Eastern Economic Review, 30 June 1983; and chapter VIII above.
On the Cook Islands see Iaveta Short, ‘The 1978 Election Petitions’, and R. and M. Crocombe, ‘The Saga of Tension’, in Tom Davis et. al., Cook Islands Politics. The Inside Story, Auckland 1879, chs. 24–5. On Turks and Caicos Islands see fn. 46 below. On Vanuatu see chapter IX above.
On Victoria see Low, Constitutional Heads, ch. 3 (Paul). On British Columbia see H. F. Angus, ‘The British Columbia Election, June 1952’, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XVII, 4, November 1952, p. 518–21.
On South Australia see J. R. Crawford and M. C. Harris, ‘“The Powers and Authorities Vested in Him”: The Discretionary Authority of State Governors and their Power of Dissolution’, Adelaide Law Review, 3, 1969, pp. 303–334. On Western Samoa see Y. Ghai, ‘The Westminster Model in the South Pacific: The Case of Western Samoa’, Public Law, 1987, pp. 598–621. On Ontario see chapter III above; and on Tasmania chapter IV. See more generally, R. Brazier, ‘Government Formation from a Hung Parliament’, Public Law, 1986, pp. 387–406.
e.g. R. Churchill, The Fight for the Tory Leadership, London 1964.
ibid., ch. 2 (Manor); K. M. de Silva & H. Wriggins, J. R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka A Political Biography Volume I: 1906–1956, London 1988, pp. 250–261.
Low, Constitutional Heads, ch. 4 (Jalal); W. I. Jennings, Constitutional Problems in Pakistan, Cambridge 1957.
Tun Mohamed Suffian bin Hashim, An Introduction to the Constitution of Malaya, 2nd. ed, Kuala Lumpur 1976, pp. 148, 228, 233–4; H. P. Lee, ‘The Constitution and the Federal Idea in Peninsula Malaysia’, Jurnal Undanga-Undang, 1984, pp. 169–177; and chapter VII above.
J. T Saywell, ‘The Lieutenant-Governors’, in D. J. Bellamy, J. H. Pammett, D. C. Rowat, The Provincial Political Systems. Comparative Essays, Toronto 1976, p. 300;
P. Neary, ‘Changing Government: The 1971–72 Newfoundland Example’, Dalhousie Law Review, V, 3, November 1979, pp. 631–57.
Low, Constitutional Heads, ch.6, and the select bibliography listed there. See additionally P. Ayres, Malcolm Fraser. A Biography, Richmond 1987, chs. 12–13. What is significant is not only Fraser’s account of Kerr’s phone call to him on the morning of 11 November, but his ‘guess’ that if Kerr had accepted Whitlam’s recommendations that morning ‘we would have ... let Supply through’, pp. 293, 299.
ibid, ch. 7 (Murray); D. J. Murray, ‘The Governor-General in Fiji’s constitutional crisis’, Politics, XII (2), November 1978, pp. 230–8.
Yash Ghai, ‘The Case of Western Samoa’, 1987, pp. 598–621.
Low, Constitutional Heads, ch. 11 (Stockwell); H. F. Rawlings, ‘The Malaysian Constitutional Crisis of 1983’, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 35, 2, 1986, pp. 237–254; H. P. Lee, ‘Postscript. The Malaysian Constitutional Crisis: King, Rulers and Royal Assent’, in Trindade and Lee, Constitution of Malaysia, pp. 237–261.
Far Eastern Economic Review 1888 to 16 March 1989 passim, esp. 26 January 1989; Tun Salah Abbas with K. Das, May Day for Justice, Kuala Lumpur 1989.
Turks and Caicos Islands, Report of the Constitutional Commission 1986 (Marshall Report), Cm 111, London 1987; Report of Commission of Inquiry into the North Creek Development Project 1986–87 (Blom-Cooper Report), Cm 195, London 1987.
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, Backgrounder, September 1984, pp 2–3.
Australian newspapers, e.g. The Canberra limes, 30 May 1989 et seq.
H. F. Angus, ‘The British Columbia Election, June 1952’, Canadian Journal of Economics and Politial Science, XVII, 4, November 1952, p. 518; and chapter III above.
P. Martin, A Very Public Life. Volume II: So Many Worlds, Toronto 1985, p. 521.
J. A. Munro & A. I. Inglis, eds., Mike. The Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. Lester B. Pearson, vol. 3 1957–1968, Toronto 1975, pp.316–323;
G. Stevens, Stanfield, Toronto 1973.
J. C. Courtney, ‘The Defeat of the Clark Government: The Dissolution of Parliament, Leadership Convention and the Calling of Elections in Canada’, Journal of Canadian Studies, XVII, 2, Summer 1982, pp. 64–84, and personal account to the author by the Rt. Hon. Ed Schreyer.
Globe and Mail, 22 January — 6 February 1982. Professor D. V. Verney kindly supplied extracts. See more generally R. Romanov, J. Whyte, H. Leeson, Canada…Notwithstanding. The Making of the Constitution 1976–1982, Toronto 1984.
There were other episodes in Tasmania in 1948, 1950 and 1959, R. P. Roulston, ‘Dismissal of Ministers of the Crown: A Tasmanian Precedent’, Tasmanian University Law Review, vol. 1, 1959, pp. 280–88; E. Campbell, ‘The Prerogative Power of Dissolution: Some Recent Tasmanian Precedents’, Public Law, 1961, pp. 165–79;
W. H. Craig, ‘The Governor’s Reserve Powers in Relation to the Dissolution of the Tasmania House of Assembly’, Tasmanian University Law Review, 1, July 1960, pp. 488–495..
J. Killen, Inside Australian Politics, North Ryde, 1985, pp. 121–2;
W. J. Hudson, Casey, Melbourne 1986, pp. 309–11.
R. G. Menzies, The Measure of the Years, Melbourne 1970, pp. 37–43.
See chapter IX above; E. Dean and S Ritova, Rabuka. No Other Way, Suva 1988;
D. Scarr, Fiji. The Politics of Illusion, Sydney 1988;
B. V. Lal, Power and Prejudice. The Making of the Fiji Crisis, Wellington 1988;
R. T. Robertson and A. Taminasau, Fiji. Shattered Coups, Canberra 1988;
C. Herder, The Guns of Lautoka, Auckland 1988;
K. Bain, Treason at 10, London 1989. ‘Statements from Buckingham Palace’ were kindly made available by the Press Office there.
See ch. IX above; S. Littlemore, Mistake of Law ? The Vanuatu Sedition Trial, Port Vila, 20 February — 7 March 1989, Sydney 1989;
and R. R. Premdas and J. S. Steeves, ‘Political and Constitutional Crisis in Vanuatu’, The Round Table, 313, January 1990, pp. 43–64..
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© 1991 David Butler and D. A. Low
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Low, A. (1991). Episodes. In: Butler, D., Low, D.A. (eds) Sovereigns and Surrogates. Cambridge Commonwealth Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11565-5_11
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