Act of Settlement 1701
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Anne Twomey reviews three possible interpretations of the clause. First: it "mandates that whoever is the sovereign of the United Kingdom is also, by virtue of this external fact, sovereign of Australia"; accordingly, changes to British succession laws would have no effect on Australian law, but if the British amendment changed the sovereign, then the new sovereign of the United Kingdom would automatically become the new sovereign of Australia. Second, it is "merely an interpretative provision", operating to ensure that references to "the Queen" in the Constitution are references to whoever may at the time be the incumbent of the "sovereignty of the United Kingdom" as determined with regard to Australia, following the Australia Act 1986, by Australian law. Or, third, it incorporates the United Kingdom rules of succession into the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, which itself can now be altered only by Australia, according to the Australia Act 1986; in that way, the British rules of succession have been patriated to Australia and, with regard to Australia, are subject to amendment or repeal solely by Australian law. However, Twomey expresses confidence that, if the High Court of Australia were to be faced with the problems of covering clause 2, it would find some way to conclude that, with regard to Australia, the clause is subject solely to Australian law. Canadian scholar Richard Toporoski theorised in 1998 that "if, let us say, an alteration were to be made in the United Kingdom to the Act of Settlement 1701, providing for the succession of the Crown... [i]t is my opinion that the domestic constitutional law of Australia or Papua New Guinea, for example, would provide for the succession in those countries of the same person who became Sovereign of the United Kingdom."
- See also: Wikipedia, Wikisource
- Related: Jacobitism
| Text of the Act of Settlement as originally passed Text of the Act of Settlement as originally passed www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46986 - Web |
| Official text of the "Act of Settlement 1700" as c... Official text of the "Act of Settlement 1700" as currently in force in the Australian Capital Territory www.legislation.act.gov.au/a/db_1788/default.asp - Web |
| British Monarchy web page on the Act of Settlement British Monarchy web page on the Act of Settlement www.royal.gov.uk/.../TheActofSettlement.aspx - Web |
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