The Impact Of The Judicial Committee Of Privy Council On Canadian Federalism

The Dominion of Canada came into existence with the passage of the British North America Act, 1867. As the most important constitutional document of Canada, the Act established Canadian federalism by distributing powers between federal and provincial governments. Canadian federalism was originally designed as a "quasi-federalism" under which the federal government had a comprehensive and dominant power, and in many aspects the provinces were subordinate to the federal government.From 1867 to 1949, the Judicial Committee of Privy Council of United Kingdom which acted as the highest appeal court of Canada issued final decisions for the constitutional cases related to the constitutional division of power among Canadian federal and provincial governments. Gradually restricting the broad power of the federal government and vesting extensive legislative authority in the hands of provinces, the Committee's judicial reviews changed Canadian federalism significantly. From the highly centralist document of 1867, the British North America Act was transformed into a more truly federal constitution by the incremental process of the judicial reviews of Judicial Committee, which vests extensive legislative authority in the hands of the provinces. And a "classical federalism" was established in Canada, under which the federal and provincial governments were sovereign, independent and co-ordinate in their own sphere of jurisdiction assigned by the British North America Act.The judicial reviews of the Committee have impacted the process of the development of Canadian federalism evidently and significantly. The power of the Committee to make interpretation to the British North America Act was a power of legality. It was as much a corollary of imperialism as of federalism. The Committee had developed the meaning of the clauses of the Act by applying the abstract terms of them to the concrete issues of Canadian life. The judicial reviews had answered the need of Canadian social and national development, and had facilitated the progress of Canada country. Actually, the Committee had satisfyingly performed its role as the highest appeal court of Canada Dominion in the due course.