| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to provide for the Constitution of the Irish Free State. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 13 Geo. 5 Sess. 2. c. 1 |
| Territorial extent | Ireland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 5 December 1922 |
| Commencement | 6 December 1922 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | UK:Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1989 RoI:Statute Law Revision Act 2007 |
Status: Repealed | |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
TheIrish Free State Constitution Act 1922 (Session 2)[1] was an act of theParliament of the United Kingdom, passed in 1922 to enact in UK law theConstitution of the Irish Free State, and to ratify the 1921Anglo-Irish Treaty formally.
As originally enacted, the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 consisted of a preamble, five sections (three of which were very brief), and a schedule. The schedule was the text of theConstitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922, which had been passed in Ireland by theThird Dáil sitting as aconstituent assembly and provisional parliament for the nascent Free State.[2] This Irish Act itself had two schedules, the first being the actual text of the Constitution, and the second the text of the 1921 Treaty (formally, theArticles of Agreement for a treaty between Great Britain and Ireland). The UK Act'spreamble quotes section 2 of the Irish Act:
if any provision of the said Constitution or of any amendment thereof or of any law made there under is in any respect repugnant to any of the provisions of the Scheduled Treaty [the Anglo-Irish Treaty], it shall, to the extent only of such repugnancy be absolutely void and inoperative and theParliament and theExecutive Council of the Irish Free State shall respectively pass such further legislation and do such other things as may be necessary to implement the Scheduled Treaty.
Parliament had implicitly accepted the treaty by votes on theKing's Speech in December 1921, and most of its provisions had been effected in March 1922 by theIrish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922. However, neither of these events was held to have formally ratified the treaty. This was because Article 12 of the treaty accorded toNorthern Ireland the right to secede from the new Free State and rejoin the United Kingdom, giving its parliament a month in which to decide. This so-called Ulster Month would begin as soon as the treaty had been ratified, and some felt that the opt-out should not be exercised until after the Free State had come into being. Section 5 of the Irish Free State Constitution Act therefore declared the Act to be the ratification of the treaty for the purposes of the Ulster Month.
The Irish Act had been approved by the Irish constituent assembly on 25 October 1922.[3] The bill for the UK Act was introduced by the Prime MinisterBonar Law into theParliament of the United Kingdom in November 1922. The bill's third reading in theHouse of Commons was on 30 November.[4]
The New York Times reported on the passing of the Act on 5 December 1922 as follows:
At 6 o’clock this evening an event of great historic interest and of international importance took place in theHouse of Lords. A few minutes before that hour the Irish Free State Constitution bills had passed the final stage in theHouse of Commons by formal acceptance of the Lords’ amendments. It was brought back, beribboned and sealed, by theClerk of the Commons himself, and handed to theClerk of the Parliament to receive theRoyal assent. This was conferred, as usual, by theRoyal Commission, the members of which wereLord Cave,Lord Novar andLord Somerleyton …King George will make a special journey fromSandringham tomorrow to hold aprivy council inBuckingham Palace, at which he will sign a proclamation declaring the adoption of the Irish Constitution by the British and Irish Parliaments. The Constitution willcome into operation immediately on the issue of the proclamation.[5]
The New York Times also reported that in Parliament a group of Communists singing "The Red Flag" caused a minor disturbance as the formalities relating to the Act's passage were underway.
On 7 December 1922, the day after the establishment of the Irish Free State, theParliament of Northern Ireland addressed the King requesting its secession from Irish Free State.[6] The address was unanimous, with theabstentionistNationalist andSinn Féin members absent. The King replied shortly thereafter to say that he had caused his Ministers and the Government of the Irish Free State to be informed that Northern Ireland was to do so.[7]
After theStatute of Westminster 1931, the UK government recognised the right of the Irish government to amend or repeal the UK act, but in fact the Irish government did not do so until it was formally repealed asspent by theStatute Law Revision Act 2007.[8] The Irish government amended the Irish act in 1933,[9] and the1937 constitution repealed the entire Free State constitution.[10] The UKJudicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled in 1935 that the 1933 act had implicitly amended the UK act with respect to the jurisdiction of the Free State.[11][12] TheIrish Supreme Court has taken the view that the Free State constitution was enacted by the Irish act, not by the subsequent UK act. This reflects the view ofpopular sovereignty rather thanparliamentary sovereignty, with the constitution's legitimacy ultimately springing from the1922 Irish election.[13][14]
