268 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Halsbury XIV, p. 420
For a recent treatment of the meaning of “dominions” see R v/s Crewe 1910 S. K. B. 576, 607, 622.
Halsbury IX, p. 16
The authority of the King extends over all his subjects wherever they may be, and also over all foreigners who are within the realm. The jurisdiction of English Courts of Law, however, is limited, first, by the stipulations contained in the enactments by which the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland were incorporated in the United Kingdom ; Secondly by the Charter of Justice, letters patent and statutes affecting particular colonies; and thirdly by the consideration that no English Court will decide any question where it has not the power to enforce its decree.
The jurisdiction of each particular Court is that which the King has delegated to it, and this delegation has been complete, for the King has distributed his whole power of prosecution to diverse Courts of Justice.
Development of Dominion Status
There is first the claim to unlimited sovereignty by the Imperial Parliament and Government stated in its logical perfection by Lord John Russell.
There is second the claim to colonial autonomy an effective demand that, in matters which interested them, the colonies should manage their own affairs.
There is third, the contradiction between the two. A self-governing dependency is a contradiction in terms.
Solution
On the one hand, the Imperial Parliament granted to a colony a sphere of activity in which the colonial legislature, executive and judiciary had authority to exercise governmental power. In this sphere the colony was sovereign.