said as to the defence of insanity and subject also to any statutory exception... This judgment is usually referred to as the "golden thread". Sitting in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Lord Sankey gave decisions in significant Canadian constitutional law cases. Of particular note is Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General) (often referred to as the Persons Case). In his decision, Sankey affirmed that women are eligible to be appointed to the Senate of Canada. In his analysis, he set out the living tree doctrine of constitutional interpretation that has become a foundation of Canadian constitutional law. In another significant decision, the Aeronautics Reference, Sankey held that the federal government had exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over aeronautics. Sankey Declaration Sankey's name was associated with the Sankey Declaration of the Rights of Man, the product of the Sankey Committee, which was set up in 1940 by the Daily Herald and the National Peace Council, and which Sankey chaired. The most active member of the committee was H.G. Wells, who prepared the draft that the Declaration was based on. It identified eleven fundamental human rights: right to life protection of minors duty to the community right to knowledge freedom of thought and worship right to work right to personal property freedom of movement personal liberty freedom from violence right of law-making. The Sankey Declaration was widely publicised by its sponsors at the time, but has since been largely forgotten, having been overtaken by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sankey played a key role in establishing the legal framework of the newly disestablished Church in Wales. Personal life Sankey never married. He died in London on 6 February 1948, aged 81, when the peerage became extinct. He is buried in The Lower Cemetery of Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire. A house at his former school Lancing College is named after him. Arms See also Coal Industry Commission Act 1919 Lord Sankey's lower court judgments Lord Sankey's JCPC judgments List of Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases List of Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases originating in Canada References |- Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford Lord chancellors of Great Britain People educated at Lancing College 1866 births 1948 deaths Knights of Grace of the Order of St John Lords Justices of Appeal English Anglicans Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Members of London County Council Labour Party (UK) hereditary peers