Losing Ireland, losing the Empire: Dominion status and the Irish Constitutions of 1922 and 1937

As a Dominion from 1922 to 1937 Ireland represents a bridge between the old Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa and the post-World War II new Dominions of India, Pakistan, and Ceylon. From a constitutional perspective, Ireland was the first Dominion to seriously push against the legal limits of Dominion status, and to grapple with the implications of the prevailing Diceyan concept of Westminster Parliamentary Sovereignty. In terms of building on the Westminster model it is notable that Ireland moved away from British Constitutionalism in two major respects: (i) by providing for constitutional judicial review via a liberal rights framework within a written constitutional document; and (ii) by entrenching the role of referendums in the constitutional amendment process. From the British perspective, the Irish transition-from a constituent part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to Dominion status and thereafter to a republic-had major consequences. The Irish Dominion signaled the end of the Empire, and influenced later negotiations over the independence of India, Pakistan and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).