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7th Day.] Impeeial Appeal Court. [12 June, 1911. The PRESIDENT : It might require an Act of Parliament. The LORD CHANCELLOR : It might, perhaps, require an Act of Parliament. I think the King's consent is necessary, because it is the King's decision in theory, of course. You will remember the form in which we put it. We advise the Crown to do so-and-so and so-and-so. Viscount HALDANE : The rule is that anybody who does not agree and lets it out to the public that he has dissented gets into trouble. I remember Sir Fitzroy Kelly did. The PRESIDENT : It is a breach of his oath. The LORD CHANCELLOR : The theory is that the King's permission must be given for any disclosure by the Privy Council. The PRESIDENT : We had a great deal of agitation in England some years ago about some ecclesiastical judgments which were supposed to have been arrived at by a narrow majority, with very active dissent on the part of various judges, and there was only one written judgment. I think there was a great deal of force in that contention. Mr. FISHER : If we are to disturb the present arrangement, we are talking about having one court, and not about the form of it. The PRESIDENT : But these incidental points have come up, you see, as we went along. The LORD CHANCELLOR : I was rather looking at the substance of it— that you should get the same judges with any additions that were needed from the Dominions. Mr. FISHER : I was rather looking at the discipline of it. The LORD CHANCELLOR : Of course, there is this to be borne in mind, that the conditions of approaching the Court of Appeal are quite different in different parts of the British Empire. The method of appealing to the House of Lords in England is a well-known method ; there is a petition, and there is a case stated, and so forth. In the different Dominions there are different methods and different conditions. In some cases you cannot appeal unless the amount at stake is 5001., in others it may be 3001. Mr. FISHER : That is important. The LORD CHANCELLOR : Or In some cases, as in Australia, there is concurrent jurisdiction with the High Court, you will remember, by the statute ; in some cases you may appeal direct from the State courts to the Privy Council. Mr. FISHER : I think our High Court can take a case if there is a principle involved, even with a very small amount. The LORD CHANCELLOR : Yes. Those conditions are different in Canada and different in South Africa. In South Africa, I think, it is only by leave that there may be an appeal, but I have forgotten. General BOTHA : Only by leave.