Statute of Westminster, 1931
CHAPTER 4
OF THE
STATUTES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM 22 GEORGE V
An Act to give effect to certain resolutions
passed by Imperial Conferences
held in the years 1926 and 1930
(December 11, 1931)
WHEREAS the delegates to His Majesty's Governments in the United
Kingdom, the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the
Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State
and Newfoundland, at Imperial Conferences holden at Westminster in the
years of our Lord nineteen hundred and twenty-six and nineteen hundred
and thirty did concur in making the declarations and resolutions set
forth in the Reports of the said Conferences:
And whereas it is meet and proper to set out by way of preamble to this
Act that, inasmuch as the Crown is the symbol of the free association
of the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and as they are
united by a common allegiance to the Crown, it would be in accord with
the established constitutional position of all the members of the
Commonwealth in relation to one another that any alteration in the law
touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles
shall hereafter require the assent as well of the Parliaments of all
the Dominions as of the Parliament of the United Kingdom:
And whereas it is in accord with the established constitutional position
that no law hereafter made by the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall
extend to any of the said Dominions as part of the law of that Dominion
otherwise than at the request and with the consent of that Dominion:
And whereas it is necessary for the ratifying, confirming and
establishing of certain of the said declarations and resolutions of
the said Conferences that a law be made and enacted in due form by
authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom:
And whereas the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the
Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Irish Free
State and Newfoundland have severally requested and consented to the
submission of a measure to the Parliament of the United Kingdom for
making such provision with regard to the matters aforesaid as is
hereafter in this Act contained:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ENACTED by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by
and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and
Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of
the same, as follows:--
1. In this Act the expression "Dominion" means any of the following
Dominions, that is to say, the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth
of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South
Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland.
2. (1) The Colonial Laws Validity Act, 1865, shall not apply to any
law made after the commencement of this Act by the Parliament
of a Dominion.
(2) No law and no provision of any law made after the commencement
of this Act by the Parliament of a Dominion shall be void or
inoperative on the ground that it is repugnant to the law of
England, or to the provisions of any existing or future Act of
Parliament of the United Kingdom, or to any order, rule, or
regulation made under any such Act, and the powers of the
Parliament of a Dominion shall include the power to repeal or
amend any such Act, order, rule or regulation in so far as the
same is part of the law of the Dominion.
3. It is hereby declared and enacted that the Parliament of a Dominion
has full power to make laws having extra-territorial operation.
4. No Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed after the
commencement of this Act shall extend or be deemed to extend, to a
Dominion as part of the law of that Dominion, unless it is expressly
declared in that Act that that Dominion has requested, and consented
to, the enactment thereof.
5. Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provisions of
this Act, section seven hundred and thirty-five and seven hundred
and thirty-six of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, shall be
construed as though reference therein to the Legislature of a
British possession did not include reference to the Parliament
of a Dominion.
6. Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provisions of
this Act, section four of the Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act, 1890
(which requires certain laws to be reserved for the signification of
His Majesty's pleasure or to contain a suspending clause), and so
much of section seven of that Act as requires the approval of His
Majesty in Council to any rules of Court for regulating the practice
and procedure of a Colonial Court of Admiralty, shall cease to have
effect in any Dominion as from the commencement of this Act.
7. (1) Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to apply to the repeal,
amendment or alteration of the British North America Acts, 1867
to 1930, or any order, rule or regulation made thereunder.
(2) The provisions of section two of this Act shall extend to laws
made by any of the Provinces of Canada and to the powers of the
legislatures of such Provinces.
(3) The powers conferred by this Act upon the Parliament of Canada
or upon the legislatures of the Provinces shall be restricted
to the enactment of laws in relation to matters within the
competence of the Parliament of Canada or of any of the
legislatures of the Provinces respectively.
8. Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to confer any power to repeal or
alter the Constitution or the Constitution Act of the Commonwealth
of Australia or the Constitution Act of the Dominion of New Zealand
otherwise than in accordance with the law existing before the
commencement of this Act.
9. (1) Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to authorize the Parliament
of the Commonwealth of Australia to make laws on any matter
within the authority of the States of Australia, not being a
matter within the authority of the Parliament or Government of
the Commonwealth of Australia.
(2) Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to require the concurrence
of the Parliament or Government of the Commonwealth of
Australia, in any law made by the Parliament of the United
Kingdom with respect to any matter within the authority of the
States of Australia, not being a matter within the authority of
the Parliament or Government of the Commonwealth of Australia,
in any case where it would have been in accordance with the
constitutional practice existing before the commencement of
this Act that the Parliament of the United Kingdom should make
that law without such concurrence.
(3) In the application of this Act to the Commonwealth of Australia
the request and consent referred to in section four shall mean
the request and consent of the Parliament and government of the
Commonwealth.
10. (1) None of the following sections of this Act, that is to say,
sections two, three, four, five, and six, shall extend to a
Dominion to which this section applies as part of the law of
that Dominion unless that section is adopted by the Parliament
of the Dominion, and any Act of that Parliament adopting any
section of this Act may provide that the adoption shall have
effect either from the commencement of this Act or from such
later date as is specified in the adopting Act.
(2) The Parliament of any such Dominion as aforesaid may at any time
revoke the adoption of any section referred to in sub-section
(1) of this section.
(3) The Dominions to which this section applies are the Commonwealth
of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and Newfoundland.
11. Notwithstanding anything in the Interpretation Act, 1889, the
expression "Colony" shall not, in any Act of the Parliament of the
United Kingdom passed after the commencement of this Act, include
a Dominion or any Province or State forming part of a Dominion.
12. This Act may be cited as the Statute of Westminster, 1931.
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