Personal union

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This article is about the political arrangement. For the Christian theological teaching, see Hypostatic union.

A personal union is a relationship of two or more entities that are considered separate, sovereign states, which, through established law, share the same person as their respective head of state. It is not to be confused with a federation, which internationally is considered as a single state.

Personal unions can arise for very different reasons, ranging from near coincidence (a princess who is already married to a king becomes queen regnant, and their child inherits the crown of both countries) to virtual annexation (where a personal union sometimes was seen as a means of preventing uprisings). They can also be codified (i.e. the constitutions of the states clearly express that they shall share the same person as head of state) or non-codified, in which case they can easily be broken (e.g. by different succession rules).

Because presidents of republics are ordinarily chosen from within the citizens of the state in question, personal unions are almost entirely a phenomenon of monarchies, and sometimes the term dual monarchy is used to signify a personal union between two monarchies. With the decline of monarchies during the 20th century, personal unions have become quite uncommon. Where they do exist is most notably between the Commonwealth realms[1][2], where, beyond the United Kingdom, the Governor-General is the vice-regal representative of the Monarch.

There is a somewhat grey area between personal unions and federations, and the first has regularly grown into the second. This article is an attempt at listing some historical and contemporary personal unions.

Contents

[edit] Andorra

  • Partial personal union with France since 1607 (the French president, and formerly the king of France, is one of the Heads of State in Andorra, the other co-head of state is the Bishop of La Seu d'Urgell, Catalonia, Spain.)

[edit] Aragon, Crown of

On 1162 Alfonso II of Aragon was the first person to bear the titles of King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, ruling what was called later Crown of Aragon.

[edit] Bohemia

  • Personal union with Poland 1003 - 1004 (Bohemia occupied by Poles)
  • Personal union with Poland 1300 - 1306 and Hungary 1301 - 1305 (Wenceslas II and Wenceslas III)
  • Personal union with Luxembourg 1313 - 1378 and 1383 - 1388
  • Personal union with Hungary 1419-1439 (Sigismund of Luxemburg and his son in law) and 1490 - 1526 (Jagellon dynasty)
  • Personal union with Austria and Hungary 1526 - 1918 (except years 1619 - 1620)

[edit] Brandenburg

[edit] Commonwealth realms (current and former)

 This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)

The assumption is made in this section that each of Commonwealth realms came into personal union[3][4][5][6] at the time they were given complete freedom to legislate for themselves.

Other possible dates that personal union could claim to have come about are:

  • when colonies were granted Dominion status: Canada in 1867, Australia in 1901, New Zealand in 1907, South Africa in 1910
  • when the Governor became a Governor-General: as above for all except New Zealand (1917)
  • through international recognition, signing the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and thus becoming founding members of League of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations
  • informally, as a result of the Balfour Declaration 1926
  • implicitly, as a result of the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927
  • when a High Commissioner was appointed to represent the British Government instead of the Governor or Governor-General[1]: Canada 1928, South Africa 1930, Australia 1931-6, New Zealand 1939, Irish Free State 1939. It appears that the Governor-General of the Irish Free State stopped representing the British government in 1928 but that an alternative official was not appointed until 1939.
  • with the Statute of Westminster 1931
  • when it was inadvertently demonstrated by the Irish Free State that succession laws could be different in each dominion (the abdication of Edward VIII, 1936)
  • when a country gained both the power to make laws with extraterritorial effect and the power to change their constitution (this is the assumption used below): South Africa and the Irish Free State with the Statute of Westminster, New Zealand in 1947, Canada in 1982, Australia in 1986
  • when the power of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make laws for the Commonwealth realm in question was removed: Canada in 1982, Australia in 1986, New Zealand in 1986
  • when the right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was removed: Canada in 1949, Australia in 1986, New Zealand (but not the Cook Islands, Niue or Tokelau) in 2004

[edit] Antigua and Barbuda

[edit] Australia

  • Since 1941, upon the ratification of the Statute of Westminster in 1942 - which ended the British Parliament's ability to legislate for Australia. The Australia Act of 1986, amongst other things, removed the Privy Council as the last court of Appeal in the Australian Judicial System. Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom serves, independently, as Queen of Australia, through her Vice-Regal Representative, the Governor-General, nominated by the Prime Minister.

[edit] Bahamas

[edit] Barbados

[edit] Belize

[edit] Canada

[edit] Ceylon

[edit] Fiji

[edit] Gambia

[edit] Ghana

[edit] Grenada

[edit] Guyana

[edit] India

[edit] Ireland

[edit] Jamaica

[edit] Kenya

[edit] Malawi

[edit] Malta

[edit] Mauritius

[edit] New Zealand

[edit] Nigeria

[edit] Pakistan

[edit] Papua New Guinea

[edit] Saint Kitts and Nevis

[edit] Saint Lucia

[edit] Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

[edit] Sierra Leone

[edit] Solomon Islands

[edit] South Africa

[edit] Tanganyika

[edit] Trinidad and Tobago

[edit] Tuvalu

[edit] Uganda

[edit] United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

[edit] Congo Free State

  • Personal union with Belgium from 1885 to 1908, when it became a Belgian colony.

[edit] Croatia

[edit] Denmark

[edit] England

[edit] Finland

[edit] France

Note: The point at issue in the War of the Spanish Succession was the fear that the succession to the Spanish throne dictated by Spanish law, which would devolve on Louis, le Grand dauphin — already heir to the throne of France — would create a personal union that would upset the European balance of power (France had the most powerful military in Europe at the time, and Spain the largest empire).

[edit] Great Britain

[edit] Hanover

[edit] Holy Roman Empire

[edit] Hungary

  • Personal union with Croatia from 1102 to 1918.
  • Personal union with Poland and Bohemia 1301 - 1305
  • Personal union with Poland from 1370 to 1382 under the reign of Louis the Great. This period in Polish history is sometimes known as the Andegawen Poland. Louis inherited the Polish throne from his maternal uncle Casimir III. After Louis' death the Polish nobles (the szlachta) decided to end the personal union, since they didn't want to be governed from Hungary, and chose Louis' younger daughter Jadwiga as their new ruler, while Hungary was inherited by his elder daughter Mary. Personal union with Poland in the second time from 1440 to 1444.
  • Personal union with Bohemia from 1419 to 1439 and from 1490 to 1918
  • Personal union with the Holy Roman Empire from 1410 to 1439 and from 1526 to 1806 (except 1608-1612)
  • Personal union with Austria from 1867 to 1918 (the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary) under the reigns of Franz Joseph and Charles IV.

[edit] Iceland

  • Personal union with Denmark from 1918 to 1944 when the country became a republic

[edit] Ireland

[edit] Lithuania

[edit] Luxembourg

[edit] Navarre

  • Personal union with France from 1589 to 1620, when Navarre was formally integrated into France.

[edit] The Netherlands

[edit] Norway

[edit] Poland

[edit] Poland-Lithuania

[edit] Portugal

[edit] Romania

[edit] Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach

The duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach were in personal union from 1741, when the ruling house of Saxe-Eisenach died out, until 1809, when they were merged into the single duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

[edit] Schleswig and Holstein

Duchies with peculiar rules for succession.

[edit] Scotland

[edit] Spain

[edit] Sweden

Main article: Unions of Sweden

[edit] United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

[edit] Vatican City / Holy See

[edit] References

  1. ^ P. E. Corbett (1940). "The Status of the British Commonwealth in International Law". The University of Toronto Law Journal 3: 348-359. doi:10.2307/824318. 
  2. ^ F. R. Scott (January 1944). "The End of Dominion Status". The American Journal of International Law 38: 34-49. doi:10.2307/2192530. 
  3. ^ Zines, The High Court and the Constitution, 4th ed. (1997) at 314: "The Queen as monarch of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is in a position resembling that of the King of Scotland and of England between 1603 and 1707 when two independent countries had a common sovereign"; the relationship between England and Scotland during those years is described as a personal union.
  4. ^ P. E. Corbett (1940). "The Status of the British Commonwealth in International Law". The University of Toronto Law Journal 3: 348-359. doi:10.2307/824318. 
  5. ^ F. R. Scott (January 1944). "The End of Dominion Status". The American Journal of International Law 38: 34-49. doi:10.2307/2192530. 
  6. ^ R v Foreign Secretary; Ex parte Indian Association, QB 892 at 928; as referenced in High Court of Australia: Sue v Hill [1999 HCA 30; 23 June 1999; S179/1998 and B49/1998]

[edit] See also