Oireachtas of the Irish Free State no relation international law
Background and provisions of the Act
Under the Constitution of the Irish Free State as originally enacted, the executive authority of the Irish Free State was declared to be vested in the King and declared to be exercisable by the Governor-General as representative of the Crown. But the 1932 Irish general election was won by Fianna Fáil, led by Éamon de Valera and other republicans who had opposed the monarchial elements in the constitution, and part of their programme aimed to reduce the role and visibility of the monarch in Irish political life.
In the aftermath of King Edward VIII's signing of an Instrument of Abdication on 10 December 1936, the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State enacted the Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936 abolishing the office of the Governor-General so that thereafter the powers of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, insofar as internal matters were concerned, ceased to be exercised in the name of the King. While the Crown was thus abolished for the purposes of internal government, article 51 of the amendment allowed the Executive Council to, for the purposes of foreign relations, make use of "any organ used as a constitutional organ for the like purposes by [other nations of the Commonwealth]."
The Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936 was enacted the following day to implement that provision. It provided that the diplomatic and consular representatives of the Irish Free State in other countries should be appointed, and that the Irish Free State's international agreements should be concluded, by the King acting on the advice of the Executive Council (as. 1–2). Thus the Act preserved the Crown to a limited extent in the sphere of external relations.More particularly, the Act stipulated (s. 3(1)) that:
no relation