Statute of Westminster 1931 - Equality Provisions

Equality Provisions

The Statute gave effect to certain political resolutions passed by the Imperial Conferences of 1926 and 1930, in particular the Balfour Declaration of 1926. The main effect was the removal of the ability of the British Parliament to legislate for the dominions. The Colonial Laws Validity Act of 1865 was repealed in its application to the dominions. After the Statute was passed, the British government could no longer make ordinary laws for the Dominions, other than with the request and consent of the Government of that Dominion.

It did not, however, immediately provide for any changes to the legislation establishing the constitutions of Australia and Canada. This meant, for example, that many constitutional changes continued to require the intervention of the British Parliament, although only with the request and the consent of the Dominions as mentioned above. These residual powers were finally removed by the Canada Act 1982, the Australia Act 1986, and the New Zealand Constitution Act 1986. The reason for the delay in relation to Canada and Australia was because the Statute still did not clarify the ability of the British Parliament to legislate concerning the Provinces of Canada, especially Quebec, which raised many objections, and the States of Australia. This meant that while at the Federal level the governments were legally independent, the British Parliament retained a (hypothetical) ability to legislate at the Provincial or State levels.

This brought up obstinate questions on the separation of powers between the Federal and provincial or state governments, and these took time to be resolved satisfactorily. In New Zealand, the Parliament was empowered to change the constitution by the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1947, which was the last piece of legislation passed by the British Parliament concerning the Government of New Zealand. Nevertheless this act did not remove the ability of the British Parliament to legislate regarding the New Zealand Constitution. This was carried out only by the passage of the Constitution Act of 1986.

The key passage of the Statute of Westminster provides that:

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.

The Statute of Westminster also states:

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 insofar as the same is part of the law of the Dominion.

Under the provisions of Section 9 of the Statute of Westminster, the British Parliament still had the power to pass legislation concerning the six States of Australia, although "in accordance with the constitutional practice". In practice, these powers have not been executed. For example, in a referendum on secession in Western Australia in April 1933, 68 percent of voters voted that the State should leave the Commonwealth of Australia to become a separate Dominion of the British Empire. The State government sent a delegation to Westminster to request that this result be enacted into law, but the British Government refused to intervene on the grounds that this was a matter for the Commonwealth of Australia to be concerned with. As a result of this decision in London, no action was taken in Canberra or Perth. The only other possibility for Western Australia would have been to declare a rebellion against the Australian Federal Government.