Royal Succession Changes: Where Things Currently Stand

     With all of the big events concerning the royal family taking up much of the news cycle last year, one issue of importance that received little mention was the gradual progress of the changes to the Royal succession.

Background of Succession Laws and Implications

Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

     For hundreds of years, succession to the British throne has been governed by male primogeniture, which enables males to leap-frog their older sisters in the line of succession. This rule has resulted in significant consequences. For example, Queen Victoria’s first child was a girl named Victoria who married Prince Frederick of Prussia, who eventually became the German Kaiser (Emperor). Their son was Queen Victoria’s eldest grandson and would become Kaiser Wilhelm II, who would have also reigned over the British Empire (and thereby avoiding World War I) if there had been equal succession rights. Instead, Queen Victoria had eight more children, including four boys who were ahead of their sisters in the succession, regardless of their date of birth. The eldest of these boys was Victoria’s second child, and he would eventually become Edward VII. More recently, Elizabeth II owes her position to the fact that her parents had no son.

     In addition, the Bill of Rights (1689) and the 1701 Act of Settlement prohibits the succession of Catholics to the throne, as well as the marriage of people within the succession to Catholics due to the monarch’s role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Members of the royal family who have married Roman Catholics or have converted to Catholicism are currently excluded from the succession, including Prince Michael of Kent, whose wife is Catholic (though his children remain in the succession because they have been raised as Protestants). More recently, Autumn Kelly Phillips – wife of the Queen’s eldest grandson, Peter Phillips – converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism before their marriage in 2008 so that Peter could retain his place in the succession.

Time for a Change

New royal couple, new times.

     There have been movements to change these laws in the past, but it was only the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the prospect of a royal baby that finally got wheels of change to move.

     At the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia, it was announced that the 16 Commonwealth realms where the Queen is head of state had agreed in principle to change the laws of succession to allow for absolute primogeniture (equal succession rights for females) and an end to prohibiting members of the royal family from marrying Roman Catholics. The Queen is said to have been supportive of the changes and though she did not expressly give her endorsement to the new rules, she did make references to empowering women and girls during her address to open the Heads of Government meeting.

     Because the monarchy is shared across 16 separate and independent countries, it is necessary for each of them to pass their own individual succession laws agreeing to the changes.

     This has taken some time because it required some research to ascertain which individual laws had to be amended in the United Kingdom – since it is the country from the monarchy originated – so that the changes could properly be legislated there. Amended laws included the 1689 Bill of Rights, the 1701 Act of Settlement, the 1706-1707 acts of union between England and Scotland (to become Great Britain), the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, the 1800 acts of union between Great Britain and Ireland (to become the United Kingdom), and other statutes, some so old that they were written in Norman French from the 12^th Century. After the UK did its work and passed a new succession act, the other realms would follow.

     The process was expedited after it was announced in December 2012 that the Duchess of Cambridge was expecting a child in the following year.

Legislative Processes Throughout the Commonwealth

The Commonwealth Realms

     In the UK, the Succession to the Crown Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on December 13, 2012 and was passed through on January 28, 2013. The next day, it was read to the House of Lords, where it received passage on April 22, 2013. Three days later, the bill received Royal Assent from the Queen and it became an Act of Parliament.

     Meanwhile, Canada had passed its own Succession to the Throne Act on March 26, 2013, which merely assented to the changes being made by the UK, and it received Royal Assent the next day. The Canadian Government asserted that the changes to the succession did not affect the office (duties and responsibilities) of the monarch, and that since the Canadian monarch was the same as the UK monarch, the government only needed to agree to the changes by simple legislation and not by constitutional amendment which requires the consent of all of the Canadian provinces.

Royal Coat of Arms of Australia

     In Australia, where royal succession is governed both at the federal level and state level, five of the states decided that each state legislature would pass a law enabling the federal parliament in Canberra to alter the succession for the Commonwealth of Australia and for each of the states. However, the State of Queensland decided to pass its own Succession to the Crown legislation on the belief that each state had to pass the necessary legislation affecting its own jurisdiction, as opposed to simply giving that authority to the federal government. Eventually, the Queensland legislation included a clause giving the federal parliament permission act on succession laws, and it was given Royal Assent on May 14, 2013. New South Wales (July 1), Tasmania (September 12), and Victoria (October 22) followed with their own enabling legislation. South Australia and Western Australia have yet to act, but once they do, the federal parliament will pass its succession legislation for all of Australia.

     Next door in New Zealand (whose Prime Minister chairs the working group responsible for ensuring that the reforms go through smoothly in each realm), the Royal Succession Act was passed on December 10, 2013 and given Royal Assent on December 17th. Barbados and Saint Kitts and Nevis have also passed similar legislation, though those bills have not yet received Royal Assent.

     In Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu, it has been 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.

     In the 2003 court case O’Donohue v. Canada, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice concluded that because the monarchy is a shared institution across 16 Commonwealth countries, the rules of succession are uniform and symmetrical; any new laws regarding succession must be agreed to by all of these countries in order for them to take effect – even in countries that have already passed such laws.

     The effect of this judgment – in conjunction with previous statements to the same effect – amounts to an unofficial treaty under which the Commonwealth realms agree to act together in order to maintain the unity of Crown. So the new laws will not take effect until after all of the realms either agree to the changes or declare that such changes are not necessary, and that the succession will be automatic according to whoever is monarch in the UK.

     However, in anticipation that some realms might take longer than others, the Commonwealth leaders have also agreed that once the changes were uniform, 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. 

Bringing It All Together

     In summary, the following ten Commonwealth realms have either passed new succession legislation with Royal Assent or have asserted that new legislation is not required to implement the changes under their constitutions:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Belize
• Canada
• Grenada
• Jamaica
• New Zealand
• Papua New Guinea
• Solomon Islands
• Tuvalu
• United Kingdom 

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

     With regard to Australia, four of its six states have passed succession laws which have received Royal Assent. Once the other two (Western Australia and South Australia) have also done so, the federal parliament in Canberra will act on the behalf of the entire Commonwealth of Australia. 

     Finally, the Bahamas, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 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). 

Final Thoughts

The Queen is said to be personally supportive of the succession reforms

     So as can been seen, the process of amending the succession laws is actually rather tedious, which probably explains why they have not been changed until it became necessary to do so due to the impending birth of a child to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Even now, with the birth of a boy – Prince George – there is little impetus to immediately change the law in some realms since the effect will be moot for at least another generation. 

     Nevertheless, these changes are a significant development in the constitutions of Britain and the Commonwealth realms. It marks the concerted effort to ensure that all Commonwealth realms take an active and co-equal role in the maintenance of the shared monarchy, as opposed to taking orders from London.

     These changes have also sparked a movement in the UK to change the laws regarding succession to aristocratic titles and estates, so that the daughters of dukes, earls, and other nobles can succeed to the titles of their fathers – as opposed to a younger brother or even distant male cousins when there are no sons. 

     Finally, the new laws mark yet another adjustment for the monarchy in the face of the modern world. This is an institution that has been shown to be flexible to new values and concerns, and in the course of her nearly 62 year reign, the Queen has shown herself to be adaptable to the extraordinary changes that have taken place in Britain and the Commonwealth. For her and the monarchy, this is simply another chapter in a long and illustrious history.

Photo Credit: Sodacan via Wikimedia Commons cc, Robbie Dale via Flickr cc, Camaeron via Wikimedia Commons cc, West Midlands Police via Flickr cc