statute of Westminster

Westminster, statute of, 1931. The immediate cause of the statute was the complaint of Mackenzie King, prime minister of Canada, that the governor-general had acted unconstitutionally in 1926 in refusing him a dissolution. This led the imperial conference of that year to discuss constitutional relationships. Balfour, philosopher by inclination, defined Britain and the dominions as ‘autonomous communities, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another’. The statute of Westminster, 22 Geo. V c. 4, confirmed this position, leaving the crown and membership of the Commonwealth as the only link.