ent leges inter arma, that in wartime, the law is silent. In Livesidge v. Anderson [1942], A.C. 378 (H.L.), the House of Lords held that a court could not inquire whether the Home Secretary, acting under the wartime Emergency Powers Act (1939) and regulations issued thereunder, had reasonable grounds for his belief that persons detained thereunder had hostile associations. According to Lord Wright, English liberty was:
"a regulated freedom. . . Parliament is supreme . . . In the constitution of this country there are no guaranteed or
absolute rights. The safeguard of British liberty is in the
good sense of the people and in the system of representative
and responsible government which has been evolved. If
extraordinary powers are here given, they are given
because the emergency is extraordinary and are limited to
the period of the emergency."
After a long struggle, the Irish achieved home rule in 1922. The new Irish Free State (Eire) did not, however, include Protestant Northern Ireland (Ulster), which remained a part of the United Kingdom. Between 1922 and 1939, Northern Ireland was governed under the Civil Authority (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922, 12 & 13 Geo. 5, ch. 5 (eng.), as supplemented by the Prevention of Violence (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1939, 2 & 3 Geo. 6, ch. 50 (eng.). When sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants erupted in Northern Ireland i
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