Published on Linked In today:
Some ask for holiday reading whilst bronzing themselves on
foreign sands.
Those who have chosen other jurisdictions than Jersey, Guernsey
or even the Isle of Man for their congés might wish to read through
the following ancient judgments by various jurisdictions concerning
the absence of any writ running to the Crown Dependencies in feodal
matters. The issue is not so much that they are ancient, but that
they are continuous precedent for the present running back to the
Norman Conquest. Better law you cannot find, but then lawyers were
always a political inconvenience. [The Sides taken in the wars of
the Roses were apparently chosen by plucking a rose of the relevant
colour from the bushes in the Middle Temple Garden].
Horticultural issues aside, that is of considerable importance
in relation to whether any writ or writing of United Kingdom
government or Parliament can run to them, given the sovereignty
issues involved.
I am not sure whether any poor herald would be forced to eat and
swallow the Great Seal if service was attempted, but the Marcher
Lords did provide some precedent for that in tymes gonne bye
....,
Happy reading:
In the matter of the petition of Francis Godfray,
Esq., and four other Advocates of the Royal Court of the Island of
Jersey, against the confirmation of an Act passed by the States of
that Island, on the 7th of July, 1859, for opening the Bar of the
Royal Jersey,
Source acknowledged to be the Jersey Legal Information Board
legal update. Interesting that this should be brought up from off
the foreshore, at the end of a lance at the current time!
The Privy Council is clear. There is absolutely no
precedent for British feodal law to be assumed to have any sway in
the CDs. The situation might be likened to a Tug of War
in which each party's claims are held in a prescriptive
equilibrium, which the United Kingdom Government, whether by
prerogative or act has never been able to assert or pull hard
enough to move the ribbon over the line legally.
To coin an old Pirate Radio quip about towing itself outside the
five mile limit, can the UK Government tow the Channel Islands and
the Minquiers Reef out of the Baie de Mont Saint Michel?
Probably not without a slightly larger Navy. The position of
the Isle of Man closer to Eire, with probably better defined
cultural links to the Norse influenced coastal and Island areas of
Scotland is more interesting.
Leaving the CDs under the EU parasol under their current
Arrangements might actually be a very wise move, legally,
politically and economically!
Possession by hook or by crook being in this case 9 parts of the
law, then a reading of the United Kingdom's submissions in
the 1953 Minquiers and Ecrehos Case is to be
recommended: caveat lector to the extent that the
British ducal Crowns or coronets are not confused with that
of the United Kingdom.
In case anyone reads this as anything other than
light-hearted legal commentary, I would suggest having it confirmed
under the adage many a true word spoken in jest.