Commonwealth (U.S. state)

Commonwealth is a designation used by four of the 50 states of the United States in their full official state names: the Commonwealth of Kentucky (the law creating Kentucky names it the "State of Kentucky," but it was originally part of the land grant of the Colony of Virginia), the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Each was, prior to 1776, a British colony, or parts thereof, and share a strong influence of English common law in some of their laws and institutions.

The term "Commonwealth" does not describe or provide for any specific political status or legal relationship when used by a state. Those that do use it are equal to those that do not. A traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good, it is used symbolically to emphasize that these states have a "government based on the common consent of the people" as opposed to one legitimized through their earlier colonial status that was derived from the British crown. It refers to the common "wealth", or welfare, of the public and is derived from a loose translation of the Latin term res publica.

Criminal charges in these four states are brought in the name of the "Commonwealth".

Besides the four aforementioned states, other states have also, on occasion, used the term "commonwealth" to refer to themselves:

Two U.S. territories are also designated as commonwealths: Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands. When used in connection with areas under U.S. sovereignty that are not states, the term broadly describes an area that is self-governing under a constitution of its own adoption and whose right of self-government will not be unilaterally withdrawn by the United States Congress.

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