Real union

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Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions as in contrast to personal unions; however they are not as unified as states in a political union. It has developed from personal union and usually was limited to monarchies.

Unlike the personal union, the real one almost exclusively brought about a downfall of sovereignty of the politically weaker constituent. That was the case with Lithuania and Scotland which came under the influence of much bigger and stronger neighbors, Poland and England respectively, with whom each of them had shared a personal union previously. Sometimes, however, a real union came after a period of a political one. The most notable example of such a move is the Kingdom of Hungary which achieved the status of an equal partner to Austria in the Habsburg Empire following 1867.

Historical examples:

• Kalmar Union (1397–1524)
• Lublin Union (1569)
• German Empire and Prussia between 1871 and 1918: The King of Prussia as an institution also was head of the empire, there under the title "German Emperor"
• Congress Poland and the Russian Empire (1815-1832): Russian emperors never completely recognized the Polish constitution.
• Austria-Hungary (1867−1918)
• Grand Principality of Finland and the Russian Empire (1809-1917): The Russian Empire never recognized Finland as a separate state. However, Finland was de facto squarely ruled in accordance to its semi-official constitution which eventually became a norm leading the Finns to consider Finland a separate constitutional monarchy in real union with Russia. Before 1910 there was no codification of the relationship between Finland and Russia in Russian law, so Finland was for a time allowed to act as if it was a separate state. As a result the eventual subjugation of the Finnish diet to Russian governmental organs was viewed as unconstitutional in Finland as was the 1910 codification of Finlands position as an autonomous, yet indivisible part of the Russian Empire.

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