Editing Commonwealth realm (section)

==Interrelationship==
The Commonwealth realms are [[sovereign state]]s. They are united only in their voluntary connection with the institution of the monarchy,<ref name=Trepanier28>{{cite journal| last=Trepanier| first=Peter| title=Some Visual Aspects of the Monarchical Tradition| journal=Canadian Parliamentary Review| page=28| volume=27| issue=2| year=2004| url=http://www.revparl.ca/27/2/27n2_04e_trepanier.pdf| accessdate=2 May 2009}}</ref> the succession, and the King himself; the person of the sovereign and the Crown were said in 1936 to be "the most important and vital link" between the dominions.<ref>{{Citation| last=Berriedale| first=A. Keith| authorlink=Arthur Berriedale Keith| year=1936| publication-date=2006| contribution=The King and the Imperial Crown: The Powers and Duties of His Majesty| editor-last=Coates| editor-first=Colin MacMillan| title=Majesty in Canada: essays on the role of royalty| page=12| location=Toronto| publisher=Dundurn Press Ltd| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FhFyvhpPx8MC| isbn=978-1-55002-586-6| accessdate=16 January 2011}}</ref> Political scientist Peter Boyce called this grouping of countries associated in this manner "an achievement without parallel in the history of international relations or constitutional law."<ref>{{cite book| last=Boyce| first=Peter| title=The Queen's Other Realms| publisher=Federation Press| year=2008| location=Annandale| page=1| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kY-Tk0-quyoC| isbn=978-1-86287-700-9}}</ref> Terms such as ''[[personal union]]'',{{refn|<ref>{{cite book| last=Oppenheim| first=Lassa| editor-last=Lauterpacht| editor-first=Hersch| title=International law: a treatise| publisher=Longmans| year=1952| location=London| page=163| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tNYsAAAAMAAJ&q=personal+union| volume=1| accessdate=29 January 2010| isbn=978-1-58477-609-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| author=Clerk of the House of Commons| title=Debates: official report| publisher=King's Printer for Canada| year=1947| location=Ottawa| page=591| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ktOAAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+United+Kingdom+and+Canada+are+to+be%22| accessdate=29 January 2010| volume=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last1=Coolidge| first1=Archibald Cary| last2=Armstron| first2=Hamilton Fish| title=Foreign affairs| volume=6| publisher=Council on Foreign Relations| year=1927| location=New York| pages=124–125, 127| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xtYSAAAAIAAJ&q=%22personal+union%22| accessdate=7 November 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| author=Library of Parliament| authorlink=Library of Parliament| title=Special war session, Volume 1| publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada| year=1947| location=Ottawa, BC| page=591| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ktOAAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+United+Kingdom+and+Canada+are+to+be%22| accessdate=7 November 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.crownedrepublic.com.au/index.php/australian-crown/personal-union| title=Personal Union| publisher=Crowned Republic| accessdate=29 January 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091118004805/http://www.crownedrepublic.com.au/index.php/australian-crown/personal-union| archive-date=18 November 2009| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oC0lKtAxveMC| last=Hudson| first=Wayne| title=Restructuring Australia: Regionalism, Republicanism and Reform of the Nation-State| page=86| publisher=Federation Press| location=Sydney, NSW| year=2004| isbn=9781862874923}}</ref><ref>{{citation| url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8885/CBP-8885.pdf| last=Torrance| first=David| title=The Crown and the Constitution| date=11 January 2023| publisher=House of Commons Library| accessdate=1 March 2023}}</ref>}} a ''form of personal union'',{{NoteTag|[[F.R. Scott]] stated, "the common kinship within the British group today establishes a form of personal union, the members of which are legally capable of following different international policies even in time of war."<ref name=scott1>{{citation| last=Scott| first=F.R.| title=The End of Dominion Status| journal=The American Journal of International Law| volume=38| date=January 1944| pages=34–49| doi=10.2307/2192530| issue=1| jstor=2192530| s2cid=147122057}}</ref>|name=Scott1}}<ref name=murdoch1/> and ''shared monarchy'',<ref>{{Harvnb| Trepanier| 2004| p=27}}</ref> among others,{{NoteTag|W.Y. Elliott stated, "if a personal union be chosen, the Crown will be forced to act on the king's own discretion [and], since personal discretion in a modern monarch is unthinkable, the only alternative would be a league of states with a common, but symbolic crown",<ref name=elliott1>{{cite journal| last=Elliott| first=W.Y.| date=November 1930| title=The Sovereignty of the British Dominions: Law Overtakes Practice| journal=The American Political Science Review| volume=24| issue=4| pages=971–989| doi=10.2307/1946754| jstor=1946754| s2cid=147362163}}</ref> and Alexander N. Sack stated, "whatever the future development of the British Commonwealth may be, [it] can be described as that of associations or unions of states, as distinguished from 'personal' unions, on the one hand, and federal States, on the other.<ref name=sack1/>|name=Elliott1}}<ref name=corbett1>{{cite journal| title=The Status of the British Commonwealth in International Law| last=Corbett| first=P.E.| journal=The University of Toronto Law Journal| volume=3| issue=2| pages=348–359| doi=10.2307/824318| year=1940| jstor=824318}}</ref> have all been advanced as definitions since the beginning of the Commonwealth itself, though there has been no agreement on which term is most accurate.{{refn|<ref name=corbett1/><ref name=sack1>{{cite journal| last1=Sack| first1=Alexander N.| date=March 1940| journal=University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register| title=Treaty Relations of the British Commonwealth of Nations| volume=88| issue=5| pages=637–640| doi=10.2307/3308937| last2=Stewart| first2=Robert B.| jstor=3308937| hdl=2027/mdp.39015062366508| hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Keith| first=Arthur Berriedale| title=The Sovereignty of the British Dominions| publisher=Macmillan & Co Ltd| year=1929| location=New York| page=xvii| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GjcGAAAAMAAJ&q=%22personal+union%22| accessdate=7 November 2009| isbn=978-0-8371-8668-9}}</ref>}}

Under the [[Balfour Declaration of 1926]], [[dominion]]s were proclaimed to be "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown"{{refn|<ref name=Trepanier28/><ref>{{cite conference| first=Arthur| last=Balfour| authorlink=Arthur Balfour| title=Imperial Conference 1926| book-title=Balfour Declaration| page=3| publisher=Inter-Imperial Relations Committee| date=November 1926| location=London| url=http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/cth11_doc_1926.pdf| id=E (I.R./26) Series| accessdate=6 May 2009}}</ref><ref name=Cox>{{Citation| last=Cox| first=Noel| title=The Development of a Separate Crown in New Zealand| page=18| date=19 October 2003| publisher=Auckland University of Technology| url=http://www.reocities.com/noelcoxfiles/Development_of_Separate_Crown_in_New_Zealand.pdf| accessdate=3 January 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715173716/http://www.reocities.com/noelcoxfiles/Development_of_Separate_Crown_in_New_Zealand.pdf| archive-date=15 July 2011| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Mallory>{{cite journal| last=Mallory| first=J.R.| title=Seals and Symbols: From Substance to Form in Commonwealth Equality| journal=The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science| volume=22| issue=3| pages=281–291| date=August 1956| issn=0008-4085| jstor=13843}}</ref><ref name=Trepanier144>{{Citation| last=Trepanier| first=Peter| year=2006| contribution=A Not Unwilling Subject: Canada and Her Queen| editor-last=Coates| editor-first=Colin MacMillan| title=Majesty in Canada: essays on the role of royalty| page=144| location=Toronto| publisher=Dundurn Press Ltd| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FhFyvhpPx8MC&q=%22commonwealth+realms%22+equally&pg=PA144| isbn=978-1-55002-586-6| accessdate=11 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YrOFei5WRRkC&q=equal| last=Twomey| first=Anne| authorlink=Anne Twomey (academic)| title=The Chameleon Crown| page=81| publisher=Federation Press| year=2006| location=Sydney, NSW| isbn=9781862876293}}</ref>}} and the monarch is the leader "equally, officially, and explicitly of separate, autonomous realms".{{refn|<ref name=Trepanier28/><ref name=Cox/><ref name=Trepanier144/><ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lXwzAAAAIAAJ&q=%22equally+queen%22+%22elizabeth+II%22| last=Michie| first=Allan Andrew| title=The Crown and the People| pages=52, 369| publisher=Secker & Warburg| location=London| year=1952| accessdate=11 June 2017}}</ref>}} Andrew Michie wrote in 1952 that "Elizabeth II embodies in her own person many monarchies: she is Queen of Great Britain, but she is equally Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and Ceylon ... It is now possible for Elizabeth II to be, in practice as well as theory, equally Queen in all her realms."<ref>{{harvnb| Michie| 1952| p=52}}</ref> Still, Boyce holds the contrary opinion that the crowns of all the non-British realms are "derivative, if not subordinate" to the crown of the United Kingdom.<ref>{{harvnb| Boyce| 2008| p=23}}</ref>
[[File:Belize High Commissioner to the UK (8077123594).jpg|thumb|High Commissioner of Belize to the UK meets with the British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. High Commissioners act as liaisons between the governments of the Commonwealth realms.]]
Since each realm has the same person as its monarch, the diplomatic practice of exchanging ambassadors with [[Letter of credence|letters of credence and recall]] from one head of state to another does not apply. Diplomatic relations between the Commonwealth realms are thus at a cabinet level only, and [[High Commissioner (Commonwealth)|high commissioners]] are exchanged between realms (though all other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations also follow this same practice, for traditional reasons). A high commissioner's full title will thus be ''High Commissioner Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary for His Majesty's Government in [Country]''.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} For certain ceremonies, the order of precedence for the realms' high commissioners or national flags is set according to the chronological order of, first, when the country became a dominion and then the date on which the country gained independence.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/british-flags/flying-flags-in-the-united-kingdom/british-flag-protocol/#index26 |title = British Flag Protocol > Order for Commonwealth Events Held in the UK (but not the Commonwealth Games) |publisher = Flag Institute |access-date = 1 October 2015}}</ref>{{failed verification|reason=nothing about high commissioners at the source|date=April 2023}}

Conflicts of interest have arisen from this relationship amongst independent states. Some have been minor diplomatic matters, such as the monarch expressing on the advice of one of his/her [[cabinets]] views that counter those of another of his/her cabinets.{{NoteTag|During a British [[state visit]] to Jordan in 1984, Queen Elizabeth II made a speech expressing opinions of her [[British Cabinet]] that countered the views of her [[Australian Cabinet]],<ref>{{cite web |first = Zelman |last = Cowen |authorlink=Zelman Cowen |title = Further Reflections on an Australian Republic |publisher = Sir Robert Menzies Lecture Trust |year=1995 |url = http://www.menzieslecture.org/1995.html |format=Lecture |access-date = 3 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070928055540/http://www.menzieslecture.org/1995.html |archive-date=28 September 2007 }}</ref> though the Queen was evidently not representing Australia at that time. Similarly, Elizabeth II undertook a visit to Latin America to promote British goods at the same time that a Canadian ministerial trip was underway in the same region to promote Canadian products.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sharp| first=Mitchell| authorlink=Mitchell Sharp | title=Which Reminds Me..., A Memoir |url = https://archive.org/details/whichremindsmeme0000shar |url-access=registration| publisher=University of Toronto Press| year=1994 |location=Toronto |page=[https://archive.org/details/whichremindsmeme0000shar/page/223 223] |isbn=978-0-8020-0545-8 }}</ref>|name=Conf}} More serious issues have arisen with respect to armed conflict, where the monarch, as head of state of two different realms, may be simultaneously at war and at peace with a third country, or even at war with themself as head of two hostile nations.{{NoteTag|On 3 September 1939, the United Kingdom declared war on [[Nazi Germany]], but it was only on 6 September that, under the articles of the ''Statute of Westminster'', the [[Union of South Africa]] did same, followed by Canada on 10 September. Therefore, from 3 to 10 September, King [[George VI]], as king of the United Kingdom, South Africa and Canada, was both at war and at peace with Germany.<br/>During the [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1947]], George VI was head of state of both warring nations. In 1983, Elizabeth II was monarch of Grenada when [[List of Governors-General of Grenada|her governor-general there]] requested the [[invasion of Grenada|invasion of the country]] by a number of other [[Caribbean]] states, including some that were also realms of the Queen; an undertaking that was opposed by a number of Queen Elizabeth II's other governments, such as those of the United Kingdom, Canada and Belize.|name=War}}