The editors have invited me to write about the 90th anniversary of the proclamation of the Statute of Westminster on Dec. 11, 1931, which effectively made Canada and other comparable British Empire jurisdictions autonomous of British laws. The so-called Dominions that were declared to be of equal sovereignty to the United Kingdom were Canada, Australia, what was then known as the Irish Free State and which became the Republic of Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and South Africa. These were the founding members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, which eventually became just the Commonwealth of Nations.
