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.
