European Union treaties and the affects on the Commonwealth
 
Double Bay, New Soiuth Wales, Australia - Tuesday, June 26, 2007 by: Philip Benwell BME

In November of 2006, I launched, in the House of Lords, the Association of the Commonwealth Realms. The purpose of the Association is to monitor the actions of the British Government and Parliament in acceding to European Union treaties and to expose those provisions which may impinge upon The Crown and thus have the potential to affect our own constitutional stability.

The Association has the support of such eminent personalities as His Grace the Duke of Wellington and the former, now independent, Labour Peer, Lord Stoddart.

The British Government has recently agreed that it is to implement the majority of the provisions of the European Constitution under differing terminology without proceeding to a referendum of the people. These provisions will further entrench the dominance of the European Union over the internal affairs of Britain and the other members of the Union. Already Brussels exercises total control in well over one hundred legislative areas. The British courts have already held that: "All the specific rights and obligations which EU law creates are by the European Communities Act incorporated into our domestic law and rank supreme." (Lord Justice Laws, sitting with Mr Justice Crane Judgement on February 18th, 2002 at the Royal Courts of Justice, London.) This judgement further held that: "common law had come to recognise that there are certain acts that are constitutional. There was thus a "hierarchy" of Acts of Parliament, that is, ordinary statutes and constitutional statutes. While ordinary acts may be impliedly repealed, constitutional acts cannot and can only be repealed by express words. The 1972 EC Act was such a constitutional statute."

The several Treaties implementing political and constitutional union with Europe have undermined not simply the independence of British Law but also the sovereignty of the British Parliament itself. The Treaty of Maastricht of 1992 had the effect of making everyone in the United Kingdom, including The Queen, citizens of the Union. We are as yet to determine how this may impinge on Her Majesty's role as Queen of fifteen other Realms.

The British Parliament has legislative jurisdiction over The Crown of the United Kingdom, but recent attempts to amend the Act of Settlement have clearly shown that most members of that Parliament have little or even no knowledge of the implications Statute of Westminster 1931, nor do they have any understanding of the manner in which the sovereign Constitutions of the Commonwealth Realms and particularly those of the former British Nations of Australia, New Zealand and Canada are reliant upon The Crown are of the United Kingdom.

The Association of the Commonwealth Realms proposes to maintain a watching brief on all legislation enacted by the UK Parliament and to educate Members of that and other Parliaments within the Realms on their responsibility to protect the integrity of The Crown of the United Kingdom.

It is for this purpose that the Association is organising a mini-Conference in Sydney on Sunday 18 November 2007. Professor Noel Cox, Chairman of the Monarchist League in New Zealand, a member of the Working Committee of the Association, will be a guest speaker. It is with regret that, to date, we have been unable to generate interest from Canadian Monarchists in our concerns.

 
Philip Benwell BME
National Chairman - Australian Monarchist League
 

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