| Type: | Act |
| Short Title: | Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 (Session 2) |
| Parliament: | Parliament of the United Kingdom |
| Long Title: | An Act to provide for the Constitution of the Irish Free State. |
| Year: | 1922 |
| Citation: | 13 Geo. 5 Sess. 2. c. 1 |
| Territorial Extent: | Ireland |
| Royal Assent: | 5 December 1922 |
| Commencement: | 6 December 1922 |
| Repealing Legislation: | UK |
| Status: | Repealed |
The Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 (Session 2)[1] was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed in 1922 to enact in UK law the Constitution of the Irish Free State, and to ratify the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty formally.
As originally enacted, the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 consisted of a preamble, five sections (three of which were very brief), and a schedule. The schedule was the text of the Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922, which had been passed in Ireland by the Third Dáil sitting as a constituent assembly and provisional parliament for the nascent Free State.[2] This Irish Act itself had two schedules, the first being the actual text of the Constitution, and the second the text of the 1921 Treaty (formally, the Articles of Agreement for a treaty between Great Britain and Ireland). The UK Act's preamble quotes section 2 of the Irish Act:
See main article: Constitution of the Irish Free State.
The Irish Act had been approved by the Irish constituent assembly on 25 October 1922.[3] The bill for the UK Act was introduced by the Prime Minister Bonar Law into the Parliament of the United Kingdom in November 1922. The bill's third reading in the House of Commons was on 30 November.[4]
The New York Times reported on the passing of the Act on 5 December 1922 as follows:
The New York Times also reported that in Parliament a group of Communists singing "The Red Flag" caused a minor disturbance as the formalities relating to the Act's passage were underway.
See main article: History of Northern Ireland and Partition of Ireland.
On 7 December 1922, the day after the establishment of the Irish Free State, the Parliament of Northern Ireland addressed the King requesting its secession from Irish Free State.[5] The address was unanimous, with the abstentionist Nationalist and Sinn Féin members absent. The King replied shortly thereafter to say that he had caused his Ministers and the Government of the Irish Free State to be informed that Northern Ireland was to do so.[6]
After the Statute of Westminster 1931, the UK government recognised the right of the Irish government to amend or repeal the UK act, but in fact the Irish government did not do so until it was formally repealed as spent by the Statute Law Revision Act 2007.[7] The Irish government amended the Irish act in 1933,[8] and the 1937 constitution repealed the entire Free State constitution.[9] The UK Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled in 1935 that the 1933 Act had implicitly amended the UK Act with respect to the jurisdiction of the Free State.[10] [11] The Irish Supreme Court has taken the view that the Free State constitution was enacted by the Irish Act, not by the subsequent UK Act. This reflects the view of popular sovereignty rather than parliamentary sovereignty, with the constitution's legitimacy ultimately springing from the 1922 Irish election.[12] [13]