Official Long Title: An Act to give effect to certain resolutions passed by
Imperial Conferences held in the years 1926 and 1930.
[Preamble]
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 forthin the Reports
of the said Conference:
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 to 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 in 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:
Section 1 [Meaning of "Dominion" in this Act]
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.
Section 2 [Validity of laws made by Parliament of a Dominion]
(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.
Section 3 [Power of Parliament of Dominion to legislate
extra-territorially]
It is hereby declared and enacted that the Parliament of a Dominion has full power to make
laws having extra-territorial operation.
Section 4 [Parliament of United Kingdom not to legislate for
Dominion except by its consent]
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.
Section 5 [Powers of Dominion Parliaments in relation to merchant
shipping]
Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provisions of this Act, sections
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.
Section 6 [Powers of Dominion Parliaments in relation to Courts of
Admiralty]
Without prejudice to a 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.
Section 7 [Saving for British North America Acts and applications of
the Act to Canada]
(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 the relation
to matters within the competence of the Parliament of Canada or of any of the legislatures
of the Provinces respectively.
Section 8 [Saving for Constitution Acts of Australia and New
Zealand]
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.
Section 9 [Saving with respect to States of Australia]
(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.
Section 10 [Certain sections of Act not to apply to Australia, New
Zealand or Newfoundland unless adopted]
(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 subsection (1) of this section.
(3) The Dominions to which this section applies are the Commonwealth of Australia, the
Dominion of New Zealand and Newfoundland.
Section 11 [Meaning of "Colony" in future Acts]
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 a
part of a Dominion.
Section 12 [Short title]
This Act may be cited as the Statute of Westminster, 1931.
Source:
22 George V, Chapter 4; 11th December, 1931
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© Paul Halsall, July 1998
