Eire (Confirmation of Agreements) Act 1938

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The Eire (Confirmation of Agreements) Act 1938 (182 Geo.VI, c.25) was an Act of the British Parliament passed on 17 May 1938. It was the British implementing measure for the 1938 Anglo-Irish Agreements which were signed at London on 25 April 1938 by the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom. There were three agreements in total: one for the transfer of British Admiralty property to Ireland; another for the settlement of outstanding financial claims against the Irish Government; and the third, an important trade agreement putting an end to an economic war of sorts between the two countries.

Contents 1 Ports, Name and Trade 2 Other effects 3 Repeal 4 References

[edit] Ports, Name and Trade

The Act:

• returned certain British Admiralty property, commonly known as the Treaty Ports, to Ireland.
• gave recognition to a new name in British law for what had been the Irish Free State. Under the Act the British Government decided to refer to the Irish state only as Eire (sic) and not Ireland (its name in English under the Constitution of Ireland). Effectively, the British government avoided any need to call the Irish state, in the English language, Ireland, owing to concerns over the status of Northern Ireland.^[1] Under Section 1 of that Act, it was declared that (for the purposes of United Kingdom legislation) the territory "which was ... known as Irish Free State shall be styled as...Eire".^[2]
• put into force a range of free trade provisions ending what had been an economic war between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

[edit] Other effects

One of the Act's effects was to throw into doubt whether Irish citizens were still British subjects. Legal arguments were raised that as the Constitution of Ireland decalred Ireland a sovereign independent state, the passing of the Act which recognised one of the Irish state’s constitutional names, also recognised its sovereignty. Notably, these argumentst were raised in the Murray v Parkes case, 1942.^[3]

[edit] Repeal

The Act was repealed (as having been spent) under Schedule 1, Part V of the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1981.

[edit] References

1. ^ Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan, State of the Union: Unionism and the Alternatives in the United Kingdom, 2001: 173, 181.
2. ^ Oliver, JDB, Whats in a Name, in Tiley, John, Studies in the History of Tax Law, The Chartered Institute of Taxation, 2003.
3. ^ Murray v Parkes, 1942. concerning status of citizens of Ireland (or Eire) in UK law. See also: Caselaw Concerning Citixenship and the Eire (Confirmation of Agreements Act in Annual Digest and Reports of International Law Cases, 1941 – 1942