Download This Paper‘Dominion Status’: History, Framework & Context
in (2019) 17 International Journal of Constitutional Law 1173-1191
20 Pages Posted: 14 Jul 2017 Last revised: 18 Feb 2020
Date Written: July 11, 2017
Abstract
This article attempts to explain ‘Dominion status’ by various means. First, it notes that the word ‘Dominion’ has had different meanings over time, even though it is most closely associated with the status acquired by Australia, Canada, Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand and South Africa in the years 1926-1931. Second, Dominion status in 1926- 31 is compared to the constitutional claims made a century and a half earlier by American colonists. Third, Dominion Status as of 1931 is explained by way of comparison with what came before, paying particular attention to issues of repugnancy, extraterritoriality, reservation and disallowance. And finally, the importance of constitutional conventions is observed throughout.
Keywords: Dominion Status, Balfour Declaration, Statute of Westminster, Pre-Revolutionary American Claims, Constitutional Conventions
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