New Dominion constitutionalism at the twilight of the British Empire: An introduction

Abstract

Abstract This introduction to the symposium on New Dominion constitutionalism sketches the legal configuration of New Dominion status and the intellectual context from which it emerged. Dominionhood originally represented a halfway house between colonial dependence and postcolonial independence, as developed in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. By contrast, New Dominion constitutionalism refers to the transitional constitutional form developed after World War I in Ireland (1922–1937)—the “Bridge Dominion”—and the post-World War II “New” Dominions of India (1947–1950), Pakistan (1947–1956), and Ceylon (later Sri Lanka, 1948–1972). New Dominion constitutionalism represents the first model designed to manage political transitions on a global scale. Both transitional and transnational, New Dominion constitutions served as a provisional frame of government and the juridical basis for the independent constitution. Although the notion of Dominion fell into disuse, it reemerged as the concept of Commonwealth Realm through which the majority of the remaining British colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean acquired independence.