have spoken and it would be impertinent of me to try to follow the comments of some of those who know the territories concerned far more intimately than I do.
There is, however, one matter which has not been touched upon. The Bill which is before us contains a Clause which particularly concerns and interests me. I refer to Clause 5, which deals with judicial arrangements. The reason why that Clause interests me is that I practise as a Privy Council appeal agent and since what I would call the Malayan appeal formula, which was found about six years ago, I have been involved in almost every appeal which has come from Malaya to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. I have seen how satisfactorily this formula has worked and how satisfactorily appeals from the courts in Malaya have been dealt with by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
As the House will know, in appeals from Colonial Territories the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is not a judgment, but is advice to Her Majesty. When Colonies have emerged to independence and have become Commonwealth nations and have gained administrative and legislative independence, it has been difficult for them to stomach judicial dependence in that form, coming to an appeal court which does not give a judgment, but advises Her Majesty on the Order which she should make.
Nevertheless, the Judicial Committee is held in such high regard by the Colonial and Commonwealth countries that I am sure that it would have been the desire of many of them, as they emerged to independence, to retain the services of the Judicial Committee. Some of them have done so and have found it extremely valuable in helping their own courts to take in the native judges, who have proved to be such extremely good judges for their own countries. They have welcomed the guidance and the brilliance of the Judicial Committee as an appeal court. As I say, some of the emerging countries have found this extremely useful. Others have found that it is politically impossible for them to retain the appeal jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee.
Malaya solved the problem. Petitions for leave to appeal from the Malayan courts to the Judicial Committee are petitions not to Her Majesty but to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Head of the State, and he passes the petitions to the Judicial Committee for their advice. In the same way, when the substantive appeal goes to the Judicial Committee from Malaya, the decision is given not as advice to Her Majesty but as advice to the Head of the Malayan State.
Clause 5 of this Bill is testimony to the very satisfactory way in which this has worked over the past five or six years, because under Clause 5 that system is to continue—or at least, we are providing for it to continue if Malaysia so desires, and my information is that Malaysia will desire to continue with that procedure, thereby linking some 19 races, in one form of judicial procedure, to a Commonwealth judiciary. It is a recognition of the Judicial Committee as a Commonwealth court—as the supreme Commonwealth court—and as a help to the judiciary within a Commonwealth nation which is emerging to independence. I say a help, in no way a bully. The Commonwealth courts have always known they could rely upon the Judicial Committee to uphold the prestige of the Commonwealth courts.
I want to stress that, under Clause 5 of this Bill, and as it has been for the past six years, it is the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which hears the appeals, not the Privy Council. There is a distinction there—that the Commonwealth courts are asking the advice of the Judicial Committee, not asking the advice of Her Majesty's Privy Council.
But if the Malayan formula which has proved so successful with Malaya over the past years is not universally adopted, how long can we hold this position with Malaya itself? I say "hold this position", because I am sure that all Members of the House would wish to have this important link between Commonwealth nations. It is an active, practical Commonwealth link which we ought to make every effort to maintain. We lost the opportunity of maintaining it with the emerging African nations, but we have it here, in a successful form, with Malaya in the past and with Malaysia in the future.
