to Government on the
changes required. In the meantime the present system will continue,
subject to the principles and plan of the Constitution, which is the law
fundamental to the later Act, and therefore at once of effect in respect
of its general principles and plan.

According to that plan the entire system of courts and titles that derive
from ancient feudal practice is abolished. A new and simple system comes
into existence, comprising a number of courts, civil or criminal, of
original instance and a Court of Final Appeal. The Court of Final Appeal
is to be known as the Supreme Court, and the chief of the courts of first
instance as the High Court. In these courts all cases are entered, and the
Civil Authority of the Nation is made paramount in all circumstances. "The
jurisdiction of Courts Martial," says Article 69, "shall not be extended
to or exercised over the civil population save in time of war, and for
acts committed in time of war, and in accordance with the regulations to
be preserved by law. Such jurisdiction shall not be exercised in any area
in which the civil courts are open or capable of being held, and no person
shall be removed from one area to another for the purpose of creating such
jurisdiction." Moreover, soldiers themselves are relieved from Courts
Martial, unless they are on active service, except for purely military
offences. For Article 70 reads: "A member of the armed forces of the Irish
Free State not on active service shall not be tried by any Court Martial
for an offence cognisable by the Civil Courts."

It may be asked, however, how safeguards such as these, together with the
qualities of sovereignty declared in the Constitution to be the
Fundamental Rights of the people, shall be protected. For it is a
temptation to all governments to find an easy way out of difficulties by
riding roughshod over rights and safeguards, however earnestly they may be
declared. There is only one answer. In the making of constitutions there
can be only one answer. It is that the Judiciary is the People's
Judiciary, and the third part of the organic whole of Government which the
people create. Article 64, therefore, reads that "the judicial power of
the High Court"--with appeal to the Supreme Court--"shall extend to the
question of the validity of any law having regard to the provisions of the
Constitution." The Judiciary is the interpreter of laws. It is therefore
the interpreter of the Fundamental Law. A