Privy Council Research Articles

An exceptional burial in a closed churchyard: St Mary and St Eanswythe, Folkestone

On 6 December 2023, seven-year-old William Brown was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver when he was retrieving his football from the road outside his home. A Year 3 pupil at St Eanswythe's Church of England Primary School in Folkestone, he had walked through the grounds of St Mary and St Eanswythe's Church every day on his way to school and had attended services there. His parents wanted to bury him in the churchyard, but although the Vicar was willing to conduct the burial, the churchyard had been closed by Order in Council in 1857 under the provisions of the Burial Act 1855, with only one exception being made for a burial in 1898. Because the churchyard had been closed, under section 1 of that Act his burial would require an Order of the Privy Council.

PENGARUH PENERAPAN AKUNTANSI BERBASIS AKRUAL, GOOD GOVERNANCE, DAN PENGAWASAN PENGELOLAAN KEUANGAN TERHADAP PENCEGAHAN FRAUD PADA KEUANGAN DAERAH

This study aims to analyze the effect of accrual-based accounting implementation, good governance, and financial management supervision on fraud prevention in regional finances. This research method is quantitative with the type of causality research. The data collection technique used by researchers in this study was a questionnaire method. The population in this study were subjects related to the research that the authors conducted at the secretariat of the Surakarta Privy Council. The sampling criteria set are employees or structural officials of the finance department who are in the secretariat of the Surakarta Keresidenan council. The sampling technique used is purposive sampling technique. The data source used by this researcher is primary data. Data analysis techniques are measured on a Likert scale using SPSS 20 software with data quality tests, classical assumption tests, and hypothesis testing. The results of this study are that the application of accrual-based accounting has a significant effect on fraud prevention both partially and simultaneously. Good governance has a significant effect on fraud prevention. Financial management supervision has no effect on fraud prevention

A doctor for the crown princess: child mortality and women’s political agency at the Danish court, 1784–1797

ABSTRACT This article examines the entwined dynamics of gender, material bodies, and court politics at the Danish, absolutist court during what has been termed the reform reign, 1784–1797. The reform reign was inaugurated by a 1784 bloodless coup d’état, in which the crown prince took power in the royal Privy Council. During the following years, his leading advisers faced opposition from other factions at court and within the royal family, and the crown prince and his wife faced reproductive challenges, as they lost several children shortly after birth. The article explores the attempts at seeking influence made by two wives of leading advisers to the royal crown prince, Frederik (6.). Producing a male heir was imperative to the crown prince couple’s claim to power in the absolutist reign, and the advisers’ political positions therefore also hinged on the couple’s reproduction. I discuss how the advisers’ wives, the two sisters Sybille Reventlow (1753-1827) and Charlotte Schimmelmann (1757-1816), attempted to solve these issues and advance their group’s position at court. The article identifies several strategies employed by the women to help the crown prince couple’s situation, but primarily aimed at the crown princess; firstly, conversations on childrearing; secondly, the discussion of adoption; while a third strategy included traveling to the spa at Bad Pyrmont, where the advisers’ wives would engage the spa’s famous doctor Heinrich Mathias Marcard as accoucheur to the crown princess. The women’s struggles to gain influence show how those women who were not members of the royal household tried to navigate the political world of a hereditary and personal monarchy, where personal relationships and parenting experiences were also a political matter.

The diplomatic authority of William Davison

Abstract Secretary William Davison (d. 1608) is best known for his involvement in the execution of Mary, queen of Scots, in 1587. This article explores Davison’s earlier diplomatic career, specifically his mission to the Low Countries in autumn 1585. It argues, first, that Davison was an influential political actor prior to his elevation to the privy council, as he fulfilled significant diplomatic responsibilities and was highly regarded by his conciliar patrons; and second, that study of Davison’s diplomatic career casts new light on familiar debates over mid-Elizabethan diplomacy, men of business and patron-client relationships.

Историко-правовое развитие мировой юстиции на территории мордовского края во второй половине XIX — начале XX в.

The article reviews special aspects of historical and legal development of lay justice in Mordovia Territory from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th century. The paper describes the specific character of the institution of proceedings before justices of the peace, its structure, arrangement system, legislative support, staffing, content of specific cases, cooperation with government authorities outside of metropolitan areas. In describing the essence of lay justice, the article pays attention to staffing, as justices of the peace were, as a rule, representatives of the most famous and high-born noble families including Russian writer, opinion columnist, active state councilor, landlord I.V. Selivanov, guard captain P.A. Durnovo, professor of history of Russian law, active member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, senator, privy councilor N.V. Kalachev, active state councilor V.N. Glebov. The form of the Russian regional lay justice model in the pre-revolutionary and subsequent periods of its development had a great impact on the contemporary state of the judicial system.

«Поселитель» Яков Жидков и его малороссийские слободы: эпизод из истории правительственной колонизации Нижнего Поволжья 1720-х годов

Introduction. The article is a special study of the history of the Malorussian settlements founded by Yakov Zhidkov. After the completion of the Tsaritsyn line, Peter the Great allowed him to settle the lands between the Volga and Ilovlya rivers with Malorussians (Cherkasy). Methods and materials. This topic was mainly touched upon in the works of Saratov and Volgograd historians and local historians. The author of the article introduces into scientific circulation the office materials of the Census Offices of the First Audit, the Supreme Privy Council, the Governing Senate and the Astrakhan Provincial Chancellery. Analysis. It has been established that the Malorussian settlements inhabited by Zhidkov in 1722, contrary to all regulations, very quickly began to be replenished by runaway Velikоrussian peasants, which caused discontent among the landlords. As a result, Peter the Great’s successors were forced to abandon this practice. In the end of 1728 – beginning of 1729, all the settlements were destroyed, the fugitive Velikоrussian peasants were returned to their owners, and Malorussian were sent home. Results. The government colonization of the lands beyond the Tsaritsyn line by resettling the Malorussians there quickly turned into a popular colonization, which the St. Petersburg authorities had to stop. In the same year, outposts of the Cossacks of the Malorussian Sloboda regiments were temporarily placed to protect empty territories along the Volga. A few years later, the territories between the Volga and Ilovlya were settled by Cossacks transferred by the government from the Don and their families, who formed a new Volga Cossack army. The duties of the voist included the capture of robbers, fugitive peasants and soldiers, as well as countering the “thievish” raids of nomads.

An Evolving Institution: The Work of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

An Evolving Institution: The Work of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

«Фонд имени бывшего начальника Главного тюремного управления тайного советника А. М. Максимовского» (1907–1917): причины создания, деятельность, историческое значение

The purpose of this article is to study the activities of the “Foundation named after the former head of the Main prison department, privy councilor A. M. Maksimovsky”. Research objectives: to identify the reasons for the foundation’s creation, to analyze the main directions of its activities, to determine the list of persons who established this fund, to establish the historical significance of the foundation’s work. The chronological framework of the study is determined by the time of the existence of this charitable organization. The source base consists of unpublished office documents, reference sources, pre-revolutionary periodicals. Clerical documentation from two funds of the Central archive of the Nizhny Novgorod region was used: fund 386 “Nizhny Novgorod prison inspectorate” (1908–1918), fund 1952 “Balakhninsky district branch of the Prison trustee society”. The most important historical sources include reference materials on the highest and central state institutions of Russia (1801–1917), the pre-revolutionary periodical press — the journal of the Main prison administration called the “Prison bulletin”. The author came to the conclusion that “The Foundation named after the former head of the Main prison department, privy councilor A. M. Maksimovsky”, was created on the initiative of representatives of the political elite of the Russian empire. Its founders wanted not only to perpetuate the memory of A. M. Maksimovsky, who died while performing his official duty, but also, in the context of the growing revolutionary movement in Russia, to financially support the families of prison officers killed in their posts.

Historic British Royal Memes

Historic British Royal Memes

Sailors, Spies, and Sovereignty: Greenock’s Revolutionary Turmoil, 1688–1691

Despite many pamphlets and news sources declaring the Jacobites defeat in 1690, the Williamite War in Ireland carried on until June 1691. Among the more cautious observers of the situation was the Scottish Privy Council. Records indicate that coastal towns – in this case Greenock – were potential avenues for Jacobite invasion from the Irish Sea. This article situates the Privy Council’s and local action in both their environmental contexts and within the history of borders and borderlands. It traces Greenock’s place in the revolutionary narrative as a place of great strategic importance because of the bustling port and proximity to the city of Glasgow. Coastal and port security played a crucial role in shaping attitudes and action towards the western port towns connected to the Irish Sea. Ultimately, the Clyde River did not succumb to the enemy navy, but the coast and its inland waterways were an unpredictable space.

Capacity of Minor’s Contracts under the Contract Act in Pakistan: A Critical Appraisal

According to Section 10 of the Contract Act, 1872 (CA), an agreement concluded by the parties is only enforceable where the consent of the parties is free with their competence. Section 11 indicates that minors lack the legal competence to enter into contracts. CA specifically highlight the effects if the contract is entered into by the vitiating factor provided under sections 19, 19A and 20 but does not suggest any inference about the contracts of minors. In this regard the Privy Council (PC) in its verdict of Mohori Bibee v. Dharmodas Ghose answer this proposition and interpreted the CA and declared that contracts by the minors are ab initio void neither the contracts are void nor voidable. As to this interpretation contracts of minors cannot be enforced against them and nobody can claim restitution under section 64 as voidable contract and under section 65 as void contract. Since the courts accepted the above interpreted rule in stricto meaning as unquestionable. This article suggests that the PC’s interpretation in the Mohori Bibee (MB) case of CA is problematic, and its creation of new type of contract as void ab initio is not supported by CA. Embargo on the minors to contract or seek remedy need urgent judicial reinterpretation or reforms in legislation in Pakistan. In this paper doctrinal methodology is applied.

“Free Passage” for the “King's True Liegemen”: The Meaning of Free Trade in a Corporate Age, 1555–1624

Abstract Scholars of late have come to reevaluate and appreciate the achievements of merchant companies that fostered commercial networks and established new global trade routes. This research would seem to lend support to historians who have characterized early seventeenth-century calls for “free trade” as mere sloganeering driven by provincial merchants suspicious of the London-dominated corporations. This article challenges this view and argues that free trade ideas had deep roots in early modern political culture. It traces the origins of these ideas to protests in the sixteenth century and shows how a broad coalition of interests drew upon ideas of property rights and the ancient constitution to challenge the new companies. So compelling were free trade arguments that they became a commonplace in the economic debates of an emerging public sphere. A reconsideration of the free trade campaign that is attentive to interactions and negotiations between the Privy Council, Parliament, and the public highlights the ability of the early modern state before the 1630s to readjust the political economy of the commonwealth.

Controverted Elections, Electoral Controversy and the Scottish Privy Council, 1689–1708*

AbstractBoth the privy council and elections in early modern Scotland are understudied. The council itself has largely been described as a tool for crown management of elections. But it was fundamentally a court and standing committee charged with government administration, which was often supplicated to deal with cases of electoral impropriety and controversy. As elections became increasingly contested throughout the later 17th century, so the council's role developed into a form of elections committee which adjudicated over controverted elections. This, in some ways, reflected the business conducted by parliament's own elections committee, although the council was largely concerned with elections in the royal burghs while it also dealt with other electoral issues. This article explores the privy council's engagement in a complex range of electoral business between the Revolution of 1689 and its abolition in 1708.

‘To Help Him Recover from His Losses’: Royal Begging Licences in the Austrian Netherlands, 1760s-1780s

ABSTRACT This article explores a collection of circa 400 applications for ‘begging letters’ conserved in the archives of the Privy Council of the Austrian Netherlands from the late 1760s to the early 1780s. Such Lettres de Quête were issued in the name of the Habsburg monarch to subjects who had lost their possessions to fire or other natural disasters, and allowed their bearers to travel around begging. By means of a qualitative reading of the materials, the article uncovers underlying administrative procedures while throwing light on the social selectivity, practices and gains associated with this little-known phenomenon. By demonstrating that such ‘begging letters’ were customary policy practice, as they probably were in neighbouring countries, it signals their importance as an early modern mode of disaster relief and highlights their ambiguous role as a policy paradox in the context of increasing criminalisation of begging and vagrancy.

THE PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE INTELLIGENCE ANALYST COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE: MISSION, VISION, ROLE, AND PRIORITIES

On November 17, 2023, Dr. Hugh Henry presented The Privy Council Office Intelligence Analyst Community of Practice: Mission, Vision, Role and Priorities for this year’s West Coast Security Conference. The presentation was followed by a question-and-answer period with questions from the audience and CASIS Vancouver executives. The key points discussed were the composition and goals of the Intelligence Analyst Community of Practice (IACOP); the four pillars of IACOP: training and tradecraft, excellence, human resources and career development, and equity, diversity and inclusion; and the next steps of IACOP to address these pillars through the development and implementation of programs and initiatives.
 
 Received: 01-16-2024
 Revised: 01-29-2024

The Select Council of Philip I: A Spanish Institution in Tudor England, 1555–1558

Abstract Traditional interpretations of the reign of Philip and Mary in England and Ireland (1554–58) have tended to investigate this short-lived episode from a strongly Anglocentric perspective. Such an approach has often hindered interpretations of crucial aspects of the reign that have wider implications for the study of Britain, Spain and Europe in an increasingly globalised world. Philip’s creation of a new consultative body in 1555, the select council (consejo escogido), is a case in point. Conventionally viewed as a superfluous body that only worsened the alleged ungovernability of Mary’s privy council—from which, it was claimed, it was never truly separate—it has been assumed that the select council was allowed to function nominally for a while to sustain Philip’s ego. In fact, the creation of the select council responded to the deeply rooted conciliar traditions of Spain and England (based on Aristotelian notions of ‘political friendship’) and its actual level of activity disproves previous assumptions about its role and viability. The diplomatic negotiations undertaken by the English select councillors and their Spanish and Flemish counterparts place England firmly within the conciliar framework of the Spanish Monarchy and provide an invaluable window from which to explore the role of England as a fully integrated member of a composite monarchy extending from Naples and Oran to Lima and Mexico City.

«Теория официальной народности» С. С. Уварова как проекция консервативной доктрины российского государства

The search for a unifying principle to strengthen modern Russian society forces us to turn to the historical foundations of the formation of a national ideology. For the Russian Empire, since the XIX century, such a unifying beginning has been the conservative doctrine, reflected in the so-called “theory of official nationality”, proclaimed by a prominent Russian statesman, senator, Minister of Public Education, real privy councilor of the Russian Empire, Sergei Semenovich Uvarov. Uvarov believed that the government of the country should “be carried out in the united spirit of Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality”. Contemporaries called these three elements the triune beginning of the historical existence of the Russian Empire. The love of faith, as S.S. Uvarov believed, is characteristic of the Russian people since ancient times. And to deprive him of this faith would be to tear out his heart. Autocracy is an integral component of the political existence of the Russian state. Nationality according to Uvarov is an indicator of the individuality and originality of Russia, a magnitude that is not subject to any progressive changes. In general, the Minister of Public Education calls these constants national principles, emphasizing that following these constants is the only way to the civilizational maturity of the Russian state. Many researchers still consider the “theory of official nationality” to be the source of a viable ideology of modern Russia. Thus, despite the fact that the “theory of official nationality” is still perceived as a model of reactionary views developed by S.S. Uvarov constants can still be useful to Russian society today in the formation of a unified national idea, the formulation of new geopolitical tasks of the country.

«Нелегкая вечность своя»: Дополнения к биографии Владимира Щировского

The article reconstructs details of the biography of the poet Vladimir Yevgenievich Schirovsky (1909‒1941) based on archival sources. Until today, only the memoirs of his sister-in-law, Aleksandra Dorrer, served as the source of his life’s details. The facts presented in her memoirs had undergone only partial documentary verification. The article establishes Vladimir Schirovsky’s exact date of birth, clarifies the dates and the crucial milestones in the lives of his father, Yevgeny Schirovsky (1850‒1918), and his maternal grandfather Erast Yezhov (1842 – after 1887) using historical records from the Moscow University archives and identifies Schirovsky’s family ties with the noble families of the Yezhovs, Savitskys, Vasilkovskys, and Akaro. Yevgeny Schirovsky, assigned to the lower class of the meschane (urban petit bourgeois) as an illegitimate child of a noble, built an exceptional career as a civil servant. At the peak of his career between 1897 and 1906, he successively held a provincial governorship of the Łomża Governorate, the Kielce Governorate, and the Radom Governorate of the Congress Poland, having risen to the rank of the Privy Councilor (but not to the rank of a senator, as incorrectly thought before based on Aleksandra Dorrer’s account). Yevgeny Schirovsky’s father, Aleksey Kozmich Schirovsky (1805 – after 1869), and grandfather Kozma Alekseyevich Schirovsky (1771‒1849), both physicians who worked at the Mariinsky Hospital for the poor in Moscow alongside Mikhail Andreyevich Dostoevsky, the father of Fyodor Dostoevsky, belonged to the closest circle of friends of the Dostoyevsky family.

Военно-медицинскому журналу Министерства обороны Российской Федерации – 200 лет!

January 2023 marked the 200th anniversary of the publication of the first issue of the Military Medical Journal, the oldest Russian periodical devoted to the consecration of medical issues related to both public health in general and military medicine in particular. The author of the idea and the active initiator of the foundation and publication of the «Military Medical Journal» was a military doctor, life surgeon of the Russian Imperial Court, organizer of military medical affairs in the Russian army, President of the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy, Chief Military Medical Inspector of the Russian Army, acting privy Councilor, Baronet Yakov Vasilyevich Willie.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, constitutional interpretation, and the right to same-sex marriage

Abstract The recent judgments of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in Day and Another v. Government of the Cayman Islands, and Attorney General for Bermuda v. Ferguson and Others, upholding the constitutionality of laws limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, respectively, have disrupted a consensus that had been emerging amongst constitutional courts in the common law world that such laws were unconstitutional. This article critiques the JCPC’s justifications for distancing itself from this consensus and instead aligning itself with the much-criticized jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on the issue of same-sex marriage. It will be argued that the JCPC’s decisions were based on a narrowly textual interpretation of the respective constitutions and failed to take account of the impact of the ban on same-sex marriage on the gay and lesbian communities in each jurisdiction. It will further be argued that the JCPC relied too heavily on the jurisprudence of the ECtHR and UNHRC at the expense of foundational principles such as liberty and equality. The article also considers the consequences of these decisions for the other countries over which the JCPC continues to exercise jurisdiction and which prohibit same-sex marriage, as well as for the other countries whose courts continue to be influenced by the jurisprudence of the JCPC even though it is no longer their final appellate court.