1 October 1993
2
3
4 STATUTE OF WESTMINSTER, 1931
5
6 22 George V, Chapter 4
7
8
9 A.D. 1931. <+AN ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS+>
10
11
12 Section
13
14 1. Meaning of "Dominion" in this Act.
15
16 2. Validity of laws made by Parliament of a
17 Dominion.
18
19 3. Power of Parliament of Dominion to legislate
20 extra-territorially.
21
22 4. Parliament of United Kingdom not to legislate
23 for Dominion except by consent.
24
25 5. Powers of Dominion Parliaments in relation to
26 merchant shipping.
27
28 6. Powers of Dominion Parliaments in relation to
29 Courts of Admiralty.
30
31 7. Saving for British North America Acts and
32 applications of the Act to Canada.
33
34 8. Saving for Constitution Acts of Australia and
35 New Zealand.
36
37 9. Saving with respect to States of Australia.
38
39 10. Certain sections of Act not to apply to
40 Australia, New Zealand or Newfoundland unless
41 adopted.
42
43 11. Meaning of "Colony" in future Acts.
44
45 12. Short title.
46 =========================
47
48 STATUTE OF WESTMINSTER, 1931
49
50 22 George V, Chapter 4
51
52 <+An Act to give effect to certain resolutions passed by Imperial
53 Conferences held in the years 1926 and 1930+> A.D. 1931
54
55 [11th December, 1931.]
56
57 Whereas the delegates to His Majesty's Governments in the
58 United Kingdom, the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of
59 Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South
60 Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland, at Imperial
61 Conferences holden at Westminster in the years of our Lord
62 nineteen hundred and twenty-six and nineteen hundred and thirty
63 did concur in making the declarations and resolutions set forth
64 in the Reports of the said Conference:
65
66 And whereas it is meet and proper to set out by way of
67 preamble to this Act that, inasmuch as the Crown is the symbol
68 to the free association of the members of the British
69 Commonwealth of Nations, and as they are united by a common
70 allegiance to the Crown, it would be in accord with the
71 established constitutional position of all the members of the
72 Commonwealth in relation to one another that any alteration in
73 the law touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal
74 Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent as well of
75 the Parliaments of all the Dominions as of the Parliament of
76 the United Kingdom:
77
78 And whereas it is in accord with the established
79 constitutional position that no law hereafter made by the
80 Parliament of the United Kingdom shall extend to any of the said
81 Dominions as part of the law of that Dominion otherwise than at
82 the request and with the consent of that Dominion.
83
84 And whereas it is necessary for the ratifying, confirming
85 and establishing of certain of the said declarations and
86 resolutions of the said Conferences that a law be made and
87 enacted in due form by authority of the Parliament of the United
88 Kingdom:
89
90 And whereas the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of
91 Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South
92 Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland have severally
93 requested and consented to the submission of a measure to the
94 Parliament of the United Kingdom for making such provision with
95 regard to the matters aforesaid as is hereafter in this Act
96 contained:
97
98 Now, therefore, be in enacted by the King's Most Excellent
99 Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords
100 Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament
101 assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
102
103 1. In this Act the expression "Dominion" means any of the
104 following Dominions, that is to say, the Dominion of Canada,
105 the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the
106 Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland.
107
108 2. (1) The Colonial Laws Validity Act, 1865, shall not
109 apply to any law made after the commencement of this Act by the
110 Parliament of a Dominion.
111
112 (2) No law and no provision of any law made after the
113 commencement of this Act by the Parliament of a Dominion shall
114 be void or inoperative on the ground that it is repugnant to
115 the law of England, or to the provisions of any existing or
116 future Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, or to any
117 order, rule, or regulation made under any such Act, and the
118 powers of the Parliament of a Dominion shall include the power
119 to repeal or amend any such Act, order, rule or regulation in
120 so far as the same is part of the law of the Dominion.
121
122 3. It is hereby declared and enacted that the Parliament
123 of a Dominion has full power to make laws having
124 extra-territorial operation.
125
126 4. No Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed after
127 the commencement of this Act shall extend or be deemed to
128 extend, to a Dominion as part of the law of that Dominion, unless
129 it is expressly declared in that Act that that Dominion has
130 requested, and consented to, the enactment thereof.
131
132 5. Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing
133 provisions of this Act, sections seven hundred and thirty-five
134 and seven hundred and thirty-six of the Merchant Shipping Act,
135 1894, shall be construed as though reference therein to the
136 Legislature of a British possession did not include reference
137 to the Parliament of a Dominion.
138
139 6. Without prejudice to a generality of the foregoing
140 provisions of this Act, section four of the Colonial Courts of
141 Admiralty Act, 1890 (which requires certain laws to be reserved
142 for the signification of His Majesty's pleasure or to contain a
143 suspending clause), and so much of section seven of that Act as
144 requires the approval of His Majesty in Council to any rules of
145 Court for regulating the practice and procedure of a Colonial
146 Court of Admiralty, shall cease to have effect in any Dominion
147 as from the commencement of this Act.
148
149 7. (1) Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to apply to
150 the repeal, amendment or alteration of the British North
151 America Acts, 1867 to 1930, or any order, rule or regulation
152 made thereunder.
153
154 (2) The provisions of section two of this Act shall
155 extend to laws made by any of the Provinces of Canada and to
156 the powers o the legislatures of such Provinces.
157
158 (3) The powers conferred by this Act upon the Parliament of
159 Canada or upon the legislatures of the Provinces shall be
160 restricted to the enactment of laws in the relation to matters
161 within the competence of the Parliament of Canada or of any of
162 the legislatures of the Provinces respectively.
163
164 8. Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to confer any power
165 to repeal or alter the Constitution or the Constitution Act of
166 the Commonwealth of Australia or the Constitution Act of the
167 Dominion of New Zealand otherwise than in accordance with the
168 law existing before the commencement of this Act.
169
170 9. (1) Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to authorize
171 the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia to make laws on
172 any matter within the authority of the States of Australia, not
173 being a matter within the authority of the Parliament or
174 Government of the Commonwealth of Australia.
175
176 (2) Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to require the
177 concurrence of the Parliament or Government of the Commonwealth
178 of Australia, in any law made by the Parliament of the United
179 Kingdom with respect to any matter within the authority of the
180 States of Australia, not being a matter within the authority of
181 the Parliament or Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, in
182 any case where it would have been in accordance with the
183 constitutional practice existing before the commencement of this
184 Act that the Parliament of the United Kingdom should make that
185 law without such concurrence.
186
187 (3) In the application of this Act to the Commonwealth of
188 Australia the request and consent referred to in section four
189 shall mean the request and consent of the Parliament and
190 Government of the Commonwealth.
191
192 10. (1) None of the following sections of this Act, that
193 is to say, sections two, three, four, five and six, shall
194 extend to a Dominion to which this section applies as part of
195 the law of that Dominion unless that section is adopted by the
196 Parliament of the Dominion, and any Act of that Parliament
197 adopting any section of this Act may provide that the adoption
198 shall have effect either from the commencement of this Act or
199 from such later date as is specified in the adopting Act.
200
201 (2) The Parliament of any such Dominion as aforesaid
202 may at any time revoke the adoption of any section referred to
203 in subsection (1) of this section.
204
205 (3) The Dominions to which this section applies are
206 the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand and
207 Newfoundland.
208
209 11. Notwithstanding anything in the Interpretation Act,
210 1889, the expression "Colony" shall not, in any Act of the
211 Parliament of the United Kingdom passed after the commencement
212 of this Act, include a Dominion or any Province or State forming
213 a part of a Dominion.
214
215 12. This Act may be cited as the Statute of Westminster,
216 1931.
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