Editing Statute of Westminster 1931 (section)

==Implications for succession to the throne==

[[File:KingBaldwin1926.jpg|thumb|[[Canadian Prime Minister]] [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] (left) and his [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British counterpart]] [[Stanley Baldwin]] (right), 1926]]

The preamble to the Statute of Westminster sets out a guideline for changing the rules of succession to [[the Crown]]. The second paragraph of the preamble to the statute reads:

{{blockquote|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 of 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:}}

Though a preamble is not considered to have the force of statute law, that of the Statute of Westminster has come to be a [[Constitutional convention (political custom)|constitutional convention]], which "has always been treated in practice as though it were a binding requirement".<ref>{{cite journal| last=Brazier| first=Rodney| title=Royal Incapacity and Constitutional Continuity: The Regent and Counsellors of State| journal=Cambridge Law Journal| volume=64| issue=2| date=July 2005| page=572| doi=10.1017/S0008197305006896| s2cid=144894787| url=https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/files/27983732/POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS.PDF| access-date=7 March 2023| archive-date=16 April 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416190442/https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/files/27983732/POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS.PDF| url-status=live}}</ref> The convention was then adopted by every country that subsequently gained its independence from Britain and became a Commonwealth realm.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8885/CBP-8885.pdf| last=Torrance| first=David| title=The Crown and the Constitution| date=11 January 2023| publisher=House of Commons Library| access-date=1 March 2023| archive-date=2 March 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230302033737/https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8885/CBP-8885.pdf| url-status=live}}</ref>

===Abdication of King Edward VIII===

[[File:Edward abdication.png|thumb|Instrument of abdication signed by [[Edward VIII]] and his three brothers, [[George VI|Albert]], [[Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester|Henry]] and [[Prince George, Duke of Kent|George]], 10 December 1936]]

During the [[Abdication of Edward VIII|abdication crisis]] in 1936, British Prime Minister [[Stanley Baldwin]] consulted the Commonwealth prime ministers at the request of King [[Edward VIII]]. The King wanted to marry [[Wallis Simpson]], whom Baldwin and other British politicians considered unacceptable as Queen, as she was an American divorcée. Baldwin was able to get the then-five Dominion prime ministers to agree with this and, thus, register their official disapproval at the King's planned marriage. The King later requested the Commonwealth prime ministers be consulted on a compromise plan, in which he would wed Simpson under a [[morganatic marriage]], pursuant to which she would not become queen. Under Baldwin's pressure, this plan was also rejected by the Dominions. All of these negotiations occurred at a diplomatic level and never went to the Commonwealth parliaments. The enabling legislation that allowed for the actual abdication ([[His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936]]) did require the assent of each Dominion parliament to be passed and the request and consent of the Dominion governments so as to allow it to be part of the law of each Dominion. For expediency and to avoid embarrassment, the British government had suggested the Dominion governments regard whoever is monarch of the UK to automatically be their monarch, but the Dominions rejected this. Prime Minister of Canada [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] pointed out that the Statute of Westminster required Canada's request and consent to any legislation passed by the British Parliament before it could become part of Canada's laws and affect the line of succession in Canada.<ref name=Twomey/> The text of the British act states that Canada requested and consented (the only Dominion to formally do both<ref>{{cite journal |first=E. C. S. |last=Wade |author-link=E. C. S. Wade<!--assumed; JSTOR says "E. C. S. W." and the date and subject matter are right for it to be him--> |title=Declaration of Abdication Act, 1936 |journal=Modern Law Review |volume=1 |number=1 |date=June 1937 |pages=64–66 |jstor=1089160}}</ref>) to the act applying in Canada under the Statute of Westminster, while Australia, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa simply assented.

In February 1937, the South African Parliament formally gave its assent by passing [[His Majesty King Edward the Eighth's Abdication Act, 1937]], which declared that Edward VIII had abdicated on 10 December 1936; that he and his descendants, if any, would have no right of succession to the throne; and that the [[Royal Marriages Act 1772]] would not apply to him or his descendants, if any.<ref name=sac>May, H. J. (1949). ''The South African Constitution''.</ref> The move was largely done for symbolic purposes, in an attempt by Prime Minister [[J.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;M. Hertzog]] to assert South Africa's independence from Britain.<ref name="Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog pushes for independence from Brittan">{{cite web |title=J.B.M. Hertzog |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-B-M-Hertzog |work=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=27 February 2025 |date=18 March 1999}}</ref> In Canada, the federal Parliament passed the [[Succession to the Throne Act, 1937]], to assent to His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act and ratify the government's request and consent to it.

In the [[Irish Free State]], [[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|President]] [[Éamon de Valera]] used the [[abdication of King Edward VIII]] as an opportunity to remove all explicit mention of the monarch from the [[Constitution of the Irish Free State]], through the [[Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936]], passed on 11 December 1936. The following day, the [[Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936|External Relations Act]] provided for the King to carry out certain diplomatic functions, if authorised by law; the same act also brought Edward VIII's Instrument of Abdication into effect for the purposes of Irish law (s. 3(2)).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1936/act/58/enacted/en/print|title=Executive Authority (External Relations) Act, 1936|website=[[Irish Statute Book]]|access-date=25 January 2019|archive-date=25 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125073402/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1936/act/58/enacted/en/print|url-status=live}}</ref> A new [[Constitution of Ireland]], with a president, was approved by Irish voters in 1937, with the Irish Free State becoming simply "Ireland", or, in the [[Irish language]], {{lang|ga|Éire}}. The position of head of state of Ireland remained [[Irish head of state from 1922 to 1949|unclear until 1949]], when Ireland unambiguously became a republic outside the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] by enacting [[The Republic of Ireland Act 1948]]. Between 1937 and 1949, [[King George VI]] was recognised under the External Relations Act as the external head of state, while the [[President of Ireland]] served as the internal head of state as a replacement for the [[Governor-General of the Irish Free State]] as from 1938, when [[Douglas Hyde]] was elected. Ireland was both a Dominion and a de-facto republic, as it was still within the [[British Commonwealth]].