Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947
| Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947 | |
|---|---|
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| New Zealand Parliament | |
| An Act to Adopt certain sections of the Statute of Westminster 1931 | |
| Amendments | |
| None | |
| Related legislation | |
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Statute of Westminster 1931 (UK) New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1947 (UK) New Zealand Constitution Amendment (Request and Consent) Act 1947 |
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| Status: Repealed |
The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947 (Public Act no. 38 of 1947) was a constitutional Act of the Parliament of New Zealand that formally accepted the full external autonomy offered by the British Parliament. By passing the Act on 25 November 1947, New Zealand adopted the Statute of Westminster 1931, an Act of the British Parliament which granted full sovereign status and Commonwealth membership to the Dominions ratifying the statute (New Zealand was the last Dominion to do so, as the Dominion of Newfoundland voted to become a part of Canada in 1949).
The Act's main purpose was to adopt sections two, three, four, five and six of the Statute of Westminster 1931. Section two of the Statute repealed the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865, section three allowed the Parliament to legislate extraterritoriality, section four disallowed the Parliament of the United Kingdom to legislate for the Dominion, except by its own consent. Sections five and six relate to jurisdiction over merchant shipping and Courts of Admiralty.
Section two of the Act ensured that, under section four of the Statute, the request and consent of the Parliament of New Zealand was required for any legislation. It also stated existing statutes of the United Kingdom that applied to New Zealand "shall be deemed so to apply and extend as if they have always so applied and extended according to its tenor". This section allowed the Parliament of New Zealand the ability to amend all of the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, a power it took up by passing the New Zealand Constitution Amendment (Request and Consent) Act 1947. The United Kingdom Parliament then passed the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1947 (UK).
New Zealand did not adopt the Statute of Westminster 1931 until 1947 on account of a desire not to foster separatism in the British Empire. At the opening of the 1930 Imperial Conference which drafted the Statute of Westminster, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, George Forbes stated: "New Zealand has not, in any great measure, been concerned with the recent development in the constitutional relations between the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. We have felt that at all times within recent years we have had ample scope for our national aspirations and ample freedom to carry out in their entirety such measures as have seemed to us desirable."
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