Statute of Westminster
The Statute of Westminster, passed by the British Parliament on 11 December 1931 at the request and with the consent of the self-governing Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland), enacted the recommendations of the 1926 Balfour Declaration, which had proclaimed Britain and the Dominions constitutionally 'equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another.' Under the Statute, the Dominions gained the freedom to pass, amend and repeal their own laws without requiring the consent of the British Parliament, and Westminster lost the power to legislate for a Dominion or override Dominion law except at that Dominion's own request. For Canada, the Statute was described by later historians as its 'all-but-final' step to independence: it ended imperial legal supremacy while leaving the Crown as shared head of state and, crucially, leaving one gap that Canada itself chose to preserve — federal and provincial governments could not agree on a domestic formula for amending the Constitution Act (formerly the British North America Act, 1867), so at Canada's own request the British Parliament retained the narrow power to amend the Canadian constitution until Canadians could agree on their own amending formula. That final gap was not closed until the Constitution Act patriation of 1982.
- Year: 1931 CE
- Category: Political
