Status of Commonwealth Countries

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Purple

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Following from the Union Flag thread and this quote in particular:
Latrade said:
You can still be a country without being a sovereign state. It isn't as clear cut as either just borders or where you are governed from. Hence why Scotland can be a country, but still dependent on the UK parliament, Government, but the Isle of Man separate from the UK and not part of the EU, but dependent on the Crown, yet not be a country.
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What is the sovereign status of Commonwealth countries? For example is Canada a sovereign state and if yes then how since their head of state is the British Monarch and their highest court is the Privy Council?
 
Purple said:
Following from the Union Flag thread and this quote in particular:

What is the sovereign status of Commonwealth countries? For example is Canada a sovereign state and if yes then how since their head of state is the British Monarch and their highest court is the Privy Council?
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It's complicated.

They are independent sovereign states and separate kingdoms, most just happen to share a common Monarch. The Commonwealth is a very fancy quango...oops "Intergovernment Organisation" that really just sets common policy on certain things and sets up the occasional atheltics tournament just so the old colonies can thrash the UK and hopefully make up for a small part of tyranny, oppression and genocide.

They all have independent "heads of state" Prime Ministers, Presidents, Sultans, etc. Some have closer ties the the old Monarchy regime than others and some have none (they're republics), but all are still sovereign states in their own right.
 
Of course they are soverign states.

The British Monarch is also the Canadian Monarch, the Australian etc.
 
Scotland used to be a country, but is now just a region of the UK.

The Isle of Man is a separate independent country to the UK, but has the same head of State i.e. the Queen.

Canada and the other Commonwealth countries with the Queen as head of State are all sovereign independent countries. There is no international law against someone being head of State of more than one country, so the Queen is permitted to be head of more than one State. She is not head of State of these countries as the British Monarch - but in a totally independent capacity (which arises from her ownership of these countries pre-independence). If the UK became a Republic, the Queen would still be Queen of Canada and Queen of Australia.
 
Yorky said:
How do you know they aren't proud to be part of the Commonwealth? Ireland could have been united and part of it too instead of a quasi-state which is independent in name only.
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I never said they weren't, I was being flippant regarding the Commonwealth Games. But, whatever way you look at it, it is just a big superquango. It has no power, it has no say in World events, the closest model is a Union where they may decide on a common message at UN discussions. However, as each member is a sovereign state, it can't enforce any agreements that might have been made. It is completely powerless.
 
Latrade said:
I never said they weren't, I was being flippant regarding the Commonwealth Games. But, whatever way you look at it, it is just a big superquango. It has no power, it has no say in World events, the closest model is a Union where they may decide on a common message at UN discussions. However, as each member is a sovereign state, it can't enforce any agreements that might have been made. It is completely powerless.
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Agree with you on this one.
 
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