Western Australia Introduces Royal Succession Legislation

     The process of fully implementing the new royal succession laws took one step closer being completed this week when on Tuesday, February 25th, the Succession to the Crown Bill 2014 was introduced in the State Parliament of Western Australia, where it had its first reading before the legislature.

Parliament House in Perth, Western Australia

     These legal changes were agreed to in principal by the 16 countries in which Queen Elizabeth II is head of state at the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia. Once enacted by all Commonwealth realms, the new laws will replace male preference primogeniture with absolute primogeniture for the descendants of Prince Charles and anyone else in the succession born after October 28, 2011. This means that females will no longer be leap-fogged by their younger brothers (as has happened numerous times over the centuries). In addition, the reformed laws will end the disqualification of members of the royal family who marry Roman Catholics, and limit the need for the monarch's consent for royal marriages to the first six people in the line of succession. However, the prohibition on Catholic's becoming monarchs remains, and monarchs must be in communion with the Church of England.

     The United Kingdom, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, and most of the other realms have already either passed their new laws or have asserted that their constitutions either implicitly or explicitly state that the lawful succession in those countries automatically mirrors the succession laws in the United Kingdom, and that there is therefore no requirement to pass new legislation.

Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of Australia

  
     In Australia, the laws governing succession are embedded at the Federal (national) and State levels, and therefore each State Parliament and the Federal Parliament in Canberra had to act. At a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in April 2013, it was agreed that each of the six Australian States will pass legislation enabling the Federal Parliament to make the necessary changes for Australia and six states. However, Queensland and (apparently) Western Australia have opted to make changes to their own State laws as well as requesting the Federal Parliament to do the same.

     Western Australia and South Australia are currently the only States that have yet to pass the enabling legislation. Once this happens - and the bills receive Royal Assent to become law - the Federal Parliament in Canberra will pass its own legislation to change the royal succession and marriage laws, and upon the passage of this legislation, the process will be complete in Australia. 

     After Australia, the remaining Commonwealth realms that have not officially enacted the new succession laws are: the Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. 

     Barbados and Saint Kitts and Nevis have passed succession bills that are currently awaiting Royal Assent.

Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada in Toronto in 2010. Under the current succession laws,
she would not have bee Queen if her parents had had a son after she was born.

     The others have agreed to the reforms in principle, but have not yet taken formal action (though it is believed that they may follow the lead of Jamaica and other realms that have asserted that domestic legislation is not necessary on the grounds that the UK succession automatically mirrors the succession in their countries). 

     However, in anticipation that some realms may take longer than others, the Commonwealth leaders also agreed that the changes would come into force only after being enacted in all of the realms, and that they will retroactively take effect on October 28, 2011 – reflecting the time at which the succession changes were agreed to in principle during the CHOGM in Perth. 

     With the birth of a boy – Prince George – there has now been little impetus to immediately change the law in some realms since the effect will be moot for at least another generation. However, with the Australian process one step closer to completion, hopefully the remaining realms will act as soon as possible.



Photo Credit: Nachoman-au via Wikimedia Commons cc, David (dbking) via Flickr cc

What You Need To Know About The New Royal Succssion Laws

     In a previous post, the status of the new Royal succession laws was discussed. To summarize, they are not yet fully in force because all of the Commonwealth realms have not yet either passed legislation to implement them or have issued a statement that their succession is automatically linked to the laws of the United Kingdom.

The Commonwealth Realms

      When this happens, the Lord President of the Privy Council will issue a commencement order that will appoint a day for the new laws to come into force.

     However, when they do come into force, here are the three changes that will take effect and how they will affect people who are – or will be – in the succession.

1. Equal Succession Rights Regardless of Gender

     The most notable feature about the succession reforms is the replacement of male primogeniture with absolute primogeniture, meaning that males no longer have preference in the line of succession, which has lead to several situations in which a younger brother leap-frogged his older sister. Now the order of succession will mirror the order of birth.

Even if Baby Cambridge had been a girl, she would not be displaced by a future brother.

     

     However, this only applies to Prince Charles and his descendants, as well as all royal births after October 28, 2011. The law is not retroactively applied to people who were in the line of succession through that date, which means for example that Princess Anne (born in 1950) and her descendants will always be behind Prince Andrew (1960) and Prince Edward (1964) and their descendants. But if Anne’s son Peter Phillips – who already has two daughters – has a son in the future, the boy will not be placed ahead of his sisters in the order of succession. Currently, the highest person who is to be affected by this will be Tāne Lewis – a grandson of Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester – who was born in 2012 and will be displaced by his older sister Senna, who was born in 2010. 

     In addition, references with regard to the murder (or attempted murder) of the monarch’s “eldest Son and Heir” will be changed to “eldest child and Heir” in the Treason Act of 1351, which will also be changed to make it high treason to rape the wife of the eldest son only if he is the heir. There are already provisions for treason in the case of rape against the monarch’s eldest daughter.

2. Marriages to Roman Catholic’s Allowed

     The other significant alteration to the succession laws is the removal of the language that effectively disqualifies a person from succeeding to the throne because said person married a Roman Catholic. Sentences regarding marriage to “papists” will be repealed, and members of the Royal family and others in the succession will be able to marry Roman Catholic’s without penalty to their succession rights.

Prince Michael of Kent is among those will have his succession rights restored.

     
     In addition, unlike the gender equality provision, this change in the laws will be retroactively applied to people who have married Catholic’s, who will have their succession rights restored. The first person to be affected by this will be George Windsor, Earl of St. Andrews – the eldest son of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent – who married a Catholic, and will (as of January 2014) be 33rd in the line of succession once the reforms are in force. His uncle, Prince Michael of Kent – also married to a Catholic – will also have his rights to the throne restored by the effect of the new laws.

    However, the requirement the monarch be a Protestant and in communion with the Anglican Church will remain in force.

3. Monarch’s Consent for Marriage Limited

     The Royal Marriages Act (RMA) of 1772 – which required the  Sovereign’s consent for all marriages involving descendants of King George II – will be repealed in its entirety. Instead, only the first six people in the succession will be required to seek and receive the consent of the reigning monarch.

The RMA was a reaction from George III, who wanted to prevent
members of his family from marrying people deemed to be unsuitable.

     Currently, people covered by the RMA who have married without the consent of the monarch – along with their descendants – are disbarred from the succession and their marriages are not legally valid. This reform will be retroactively applied to such marriages, so that they will be treated as though they have never been void, provided that

• Neither party was one of the first six in line at the time of the marriage
• Consent was not sought or notice was not given
• It is reasonable that either party was unaware that the marriage was covered by the RMA
• Either party did not act on the basis that the marriage was void.

     For purposes of succession to the crown, the monarch’s consent is still required, but the marriage will be legal. This reform is really geared toward people who have no realistic prospect of attaining the throne.

Photo Credit: Camaeron via Wikimedia Commons cc, Christopher Neve via Photopin cc, Paul Reynolds via Flickr cc