Editing Royal assent (section)

==Development==
While royal assent has not been withheld for a bill backed by the government in the United Kingdom since 1708, it has often been withheld in British colonies and former colonies by governors acting on royal instructions. In the [[United States Declaration of Independence]], colonists complained that George III "has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good [and] has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.law.emory.edu/cms/site/index.php?id=2600 |title=Action of Second Continental Congress, 4 July 1776 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070306233902/http://www.law.emory.edu/cms/site/index.php?id=2600 |archivedate=6 March 2007 |website=Emory University Law School |access-date=18 April 2007}}</ref>

Since the [[Balfour Declaration of 1926]] and the [[Statute of Westminster 1931]], all the Commonwealth realms have been sovereign kingdoms, the monarch and governors-general acting solely on the advice of the local ministers, who generally maintain the support of the legislature and are the ones who secure the passage of bills. They, therefore, are unlikely to advise the sovereign, or his or her representative, to withhold assent. The power to withhold the royal assent was exercised by [[Lieutenant Governor of Alberta|Alberta's Lieutenant Governor]], [[John C. Bowen]], in 1937, in respect of three bills passed in the legislature dominated by [[William Aberhart]]'s [[Alberta Social Credit Party|Social Credit]] party. Two bills sought to put banks under the authority of the province, thereby interfering with the federal government's powers. The third, the ''Accurate News and Information Bill'', purported to force newspapers to print government rebuttals to stories to which the provincial cabinet objected. The unconstitutionality of all three bills was later confirmed by the [[Supreme Court of Canada]] and by the [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.assembly.ab.ca/lao/library/lt-gov/bowen.htm |title=The Honourable John C. Bowen, 1937–50 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220124432/http://www.assembly.ab.ca/lao/library/lt-gov/bowen.htm |archivedate=20 December 2008 |website=Legislative Assembly of Alberta |access-date=22 April 2007}}</ref>

In Australia, technical issues arose with the royal assent in both 1976 and 2001. In 1976, a bill originating in the [[Australian House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] was mistakenly submitted to the governor-general and assented to. However, it was later discovered that it had not been passed by the Senate. The error arose because two bills of the same title had originated from the House. The governor-general revoked the first assent, before assenting to the bill which had actually passed the Senate and the House. The same procedure was followed to correct a similar error that arose in 2001.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/odgers13?file=chapter12&section=25 |chapter=Chapter 12: Legislation, Section 25: Governor-General's assent |title=Odgers' Australian Senate Practice |first1=J. R. |last1=Odgers |editor-first1=Harry |editor-last1=Evans |editor-first2=Rosemary |editor-last2=Laing |publisher=Department of the Senate |location=Canberra |edition=13th |year=2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015130942/http://aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/odgers13?file=chapter12&section=25 |archive-date=15 October 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>