New Zealand Sovereignty: 1857,1907,1947,or 1987?

Abstract

This article¹ provides a brief overview of some of the key dates in New Zealand's path to independence, with particular emphasis on New Zealand's progression to gaining complete and formal sovereignty over its external affairs. The year 2007 marked the centenary of New Zealand's transition from colony to Dominion, and also marked 60 years since New Zealand passed the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947. In 1857 responsible government was consolidated and more than nominal independence from Britain achieved when the British Parliament passed the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act. This gave the New Zealand Parliament authority to amend all but a few entrenched sections of the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852. Although the change in the designation of New Zealand - from the 'Colony of New Zealand' to the 'Dominion of New Zealand' - took effect on 26 September 1907, complete autonomy in New Zealand's foreign affairs was not obtained. The Governor-General continued to: be appointed by Britain; act as both representative of the British Government as well as the sole official representative of New Zealand views to the Imperial government; be the only person to hold the official coding ciphers; exercise sole discretion over which material and despatches were to be passed to the New Zealand government. New Zealand acquired the right to conduct its own international trade negotiations independently of Britain in 1923. It exercised this right for the first time in 1928, when it signed a trade treaty with Japan. Before the Statute of Westminster Act 1931 — and arguably until the New Zealand Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act in 1947 - the New Zealand Parliament was not a sovereign parliament; it did not have the capacity to make all law (such as legislating extra-territorially), and there were some laws that it could not unmake. Full New Zealand sovereignty can be dated to 1947 - both in terms of gaining formal legal control over the conduct of its foreign policy and the attainment of constitutional and plenary powers by its legislature. In passing the Constitution Act 1986 (effective 1 January 1987), New Zealand 'unilaterally revoked all residual United Kingdom legislative power'. New Zealand, as of 1987, had become a free-standing constitutional monarchy whose Parliament possessed unlimited sovereign power.