page_title: Commonwealth realm
section_title: Statute of Westminster
hierarchical_section_title: Commonwealth realm / Historical development / Interwar period / Statute of Westminster
caption_attribution_description: Daily Herald Archive at the National Media Museum King Edward VIII (1894-1972) reigned from 20 January to 11 December 1936. Just a few months into his sovereignty he caused controversy by proposing to American socialite Wallis Simpson (1896-1986), who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The Prime Minister opposed the marriage and, had he remained King, it would have compromised Edward’s position as head of the Church of England. Edward abdicated the throne and was never crowned. This photograph has been selected from the Daily Herald Archive, a collection of over three million photographs. The archive holds work of international, national and local importance by both staff and agency photographers. We're happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of The Commons. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions of the original physical version of apply though; if you're unsure please visit the National Media Museum website. For obtaining reproductions of selected images please go to the Science and Society Picture Library.
context_page_description: A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state which has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. Each realm functions as an independent co-equal kingdom from the other realms.
  In 1952, Elizabeth II was the monarch and head of state of seven independent states—the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon. Since then, new realms have been created through independence of former colonies and dependencies and some realms have become republics. As of 2020, there are 16 Commonwealth realms: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom. All are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, an intergovernmental organisation of 54 independent member states. All Commonwealth members are independent sovereign states, whether they are Commonwealth realms or not.
context_section_description: These new developments were explicitly codified in 1931 with the passage of the Statute of Westminster, through which Canada, the Union of South Africa, and the Irish Free State all immediately obtained formal legislative independence from the UK, while in the other dominions adoption of the statute was subject to ratification by the dominion's parliament. Australia and New Zealand did so in 1942 and 1947, respectively, with the former's ratification back-dated to 1939, while Newfoundland never ratified the bill and reverted to direct British rule in 1934. As a result, the parliament at Westminster was unable to legislate for any Dominion unless requested to do so, although the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was left available as the last court of appeal for some Dominions. Specific attention was given in the statute's preamble to royal succession, outlining that no changes to that line could be made by the parliament of the United Kingdom or that of any dominion without the assent of all the other parliaments of the UK and dominions, an arrangement a justice of the Ontario Superior Court in 2003 likened to "a treaty among the Commonwealth countries to share the monarchy under the existing rules and not to change the rules without the agreement of all signatories."
  This was all met with only minor trepidation, either before or at the time, and the government of Ireland was confident that the relationship of these independent countries under the Crown would function as a personal union, akin to that which had earlier existed between the United Kingdom and Hanover (1801 to 1837), or between England and Scotland (1603 to 1707). Its first test came, though, with the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936, for which it was necessary to gain the consent of the governments of all the dominions and the request and consent of the Canadian government, as well as separate legislation in South Africa and the Irish Free State, before the resignation could take place across the Commonwealth.
  The civil division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales later found in 1982 that the British parliament could have legislated for a dominion simply by including in any new law a clause claiming the dominion cabinet had requested and approved of the act, whether that was true or not. Further, the British parliament was not obliged to fulfil a dominion's request for legislative change. Regardless, in 1935 the British parliament refused to consider the result of the Western Australian secession referendum of 1933 without the approval of the Australian federal government or parliament. In 1937, the Appeal Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa ruled unanimously that a repeal of the Statute of Westminster in the United Kingdom would have no effect in South Africa, stating: "We cannot take this argument seriously. Freedom once conferred cannot be revoked." Others in Canada upheld the same position.
caption: Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in 1936. His proposal to marry her led to his abdication, an act that required the consent of the dominions.
exif: {"Image Make": "Hasselblad", "Image Model": "Hasselblad H3DII-39", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2012:04:11 09:11:39", "Image Artist": "Thompson Paul", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Copyright": "Copyrighted", "Image ExifOffset": "282", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/5", "EXIF FNumber": "18", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:04:10 08:28:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:04:10 08:28:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "9297/4004", "EXIF ApertureValue": "31141/3734", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "120", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4201", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "5568"}