ABSTRACT
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was thereby divested of the character of municipal law. Consequently the Constitution is now the only text by reference to which legislation may be declared invalid by the Courts. The deciding factor in the course of events was unquestionably the failure of Proportional Representation to create the anticipated multiplicity of parties. For the existence of many parties would have led to the formation of group ministries; group ministries would have involved a weak Executive and instability of Governments; which in turn would have resulted in the success of the extern ministries. Legislation is regarded as the universal panacea. Deputies with what the American poet Walt Whitman has termed “the never-ending audacity of elected persons,” assume without careful scrutiny upon the adequacy of the remedies they provide. The external relations of the Irish Free State are in a state of transition, and no doubt in respect of its Dominion status considerable changes are to be anticipated.
