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This chapter focuses on the constitutional struggle to ‘patriate’ and amend the constitution of Canada which came to a head in 1980–2. It raised a crucial question of convention for the British Parliament about its role as a Commonwealth legislator. The chapter begins its discussion with a brief introduction of the issue. The roles of precedents in the makings of the conventions are then examined. Several arguments that led to the enactment of the Statute of Westminster are presented. Also, how the British amendment of 1949 gave to the Federal Parliament the power to amend the constitution of Canada except in matters falling within the classes of subjects reserved to the Provinces and certain other matters guaranteed in the British North America Act and the subsequent enactments made after that are also examined.

The Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting held in September 1797 presented to Congress a memorial touching on the situation in North Carolina. The memorial recalls the Continental Association that was adopted by the First Continental Congress in 1774 in response to the British Coercive Acts. The Continental Association consisted of a system of committees from the provincial down to the town level that was charged with enforcing an embargo on all trade with Great Britain and with promoting frugality. The memorial linked condemnations of slavery, playhouses, and excesses in celebrations of national holidays was no anomaly.

This chapter explores how the acting in Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011–present) both confirms and problematizes some common assumptions about British acting, and thus by extension notions of difference between British and American acting. The chapter anchors its analysis in the work by Conleth Hill (who plays Varys) and Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth). It considers the ways in which their performances challenge binary distinctions commonly found in discourses on British and American acting (e.g., technical strength versus organic “shooting from the hip,” suitability for stage-versus suitability for screen-based work). By highlighting the complexity and nuance in Hill’s and Cunningham’s acting, the chapter makes an intervention into discourses about British acting that is especially timely given the considerable success of British and Irish actors in contemporary US film and television. In doing so, it makes a valuable contribution to scholarship on performance and transatlantic television.

Although the British Nationality Act of 1948 formally established a British Commonwealth citizenship that applied universally to all British subjects, irrespective of race, color, or origin, policy makers had no intention that nationality law would facilitate an unprecedented non-White migration from the Commonwealth. During the 1950s and 1960s, Afro-Caribbean migrants comprised the largest segments of newcomers from the Commonwealth. This chapter demonstrates how these migrations effectively destabilized racially exclusive boundaries of Britishness. In addition to exploring some of the factors facilitating Afro-Caribbean migration to Britain following World War II, this chapter examines the demographic character of this migration as well as some of the ways in which the arenas of housing and employment proved to be areas where the day-to-day dilemmas of being Black in Britain were most acutely felt by newcomers.

This chapter assesses the emergence of judicial review in Canada. Canadian judicial review emerged as a direct result of federalism and separation of powers umpiring by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), which was Canada’s highest court from the adoption of the British North America Act in 1867 until Canada ended appeals to the JCPC in 1949. There was also, as Ran Hirschl would argue, an element of elite hegemonic entrenchment by imperial British colonial elites in the retention of the JCPC as the highest court of appeals in Canada from the creation of the Supreme Court of Canada in 1875 until Canada abolished appeals to the JCPC in 1949. Some Canadian elites tried and failed to end JCPC judicial review in Canadian cases in 1875. Canadian judicial review from 1867 to 1982 was exclusively concerned with federalism and separation of powers judicial umpiring because Canada had no constitutional Bill of Rights until 1982. There are thus two founding moments in the judicial review of legislation in Canadian history: firstly, the period from 1867 to 1982 when Canadian federalism and separation of powers law took shape as a result of federalism and separation of powers umpiring; and, secondly, the period from 1982 to the present, when the Supreme Court of Canada began vigorously enforcing the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The emergence of judicial review from 1982 down to the present day is partly a rights from wrongs phenomenon, and it is partly the result of constitutional borrowing from the United States’s Warren Court.

This chapter explores the concepts and practices of democracy that accommodate rights protection and promotion. It discusses that the impact on the power relations between the institutions of government when human rights protection is formally introduced into democratic systems causes tension. It explains that because of the corrupting nature of absolute power, the separation of powers doctrine dictates the dispersal of power between the different arms of government. It adds that the separation of powers is tempered by the need for checks and balances, which requires mixed government. It explains that an exploration of the actual sharing of power under modern human rights instruments is instructive in allaying this anti-democratic critique. It employs international human rights instruments, as well as the British Human Rights Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to ground the theoretical discussion.

“West Indies to London” tracks the migration process—its triumphs and challenges—for a generation of West Indians at the twilight of the British Empire. Their journey was facilitated by postwar economic growth and the 1948 British Nationality Act, which granted full citizenship to Commonwealth subjects who settled in Britain. Synthesizing both secondary and original research, including records of the London Council of Social Service, this chapter argues that whether they were colonial students, artists, or professionals in other fields, West Indian settlers in London shared powerful connections to British culture and society through bonds of language, education, and class.

This chapter concentrates on the imperial significance of Australian engagement with China around the turn of the twentieth century. It illuminates the ways in which that relationship came to permeate a series of broader historical developments, each connected to Britain’s search for imperial unity, in an age of intense international rivalry. This influence is explored in relation to five key themes: the growing preoccupation with improving Britain’s system of imperial defence; the impact of the Boxer War on the evolution of Australian attitudes to China; the continuing imperial resonance of Australian efforts to enforce policies of migration restriction; the resulting impact on contemporary thinking about the future of the empire in the Pacific and the unity of Greater Britain; the re-importation of colonial ideas on race and exclusion into Britain itself.

This chapter examines government regulation in the British shipping industry in relation to the coastal sector. It explores the lack of government presence in the wider shipping industry in comparison to the railway sector, then deconstructs their shipping presence, where it becomes apparent that the majority of government inquiry and legislation in shipping pertained to the coastal sector. By studying Parliamentary acts, the Board of Trade, and governmental activity, it demonstrates that the government strived to pioneer new technology and keep the shipping industry active. It concludes that enquiries and legislation faced by the industry were the result of wrecks, explosions, and collisions - events which affected the coastal sector more keenly than the deep-water sector.

This chapter explores the level of involvement of the British government in mercantile shipping during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It provides the history behind the 1651 Navigation Act and the previous instances of British trade being restricted to British vessels, which date as far back as the fourteenth century and were also present during the reign of Elizabeth I. It then analyses the competition between British and Dutch shipping and the escalating tensions that caused the passing of the 1651 Navigation Act and the outbreak of the Dutch wars. It lists the Navigation Act provisions that applied to shipping, and attempts to answer what scope foreign ships had to trade with England as a result of its implementation. Though the bulk of the chapter discusses the Navigation Acts and their fallout, it also considers the increase of government intervention in maritime activity during the eighteenth century which included law-making efforts concerning the Navy, and investment in docks and ports. It concludes that government intervention, when present, was often beneficial to the industry, particularly when it came to employment issues and working conditions.

This chapter challenges the assumption that international freight markets were not possible until the advent of steam shipping and telegraph communication, instead arguing that much of the framework was developed during the age of sail. It accomplishes this by examining the everyday business practices of freight markers during the 1830s and 1840s, particularly the source material from the life and records of Finnish shipowner, Peter Malm Jr. The analysis of his records shows that shipping efficiency did improve during the period, through an increased speed of communication, integration of freight and commodity markets, and a decrease in time spent in docks (demonstrating an improvement in cargo handling). However, the author notes that Malm’s successes were typical or atypical, and may not be fully representative of the industry.

This chapter examines how border policies have evolved in Europe and the United States. It goes beyond law and deals more broadly with what has been termed “policy output. ” The chapter considers how policies have varied over time and space, and the author argues that in both Europe and the United States immigration policy has increasingly become focused on the border, the reinforcement of border controls, and the link between other aspects of immigration to these controls. The framing of the political problem of immigration—as one of legal entry in the United States, and integration in Europe—has been connected to questions of border control and enforcement. Even as levels of immigration have been stable, or even in decline, policy on the border has become more important. The chapter concludes by dealing with outcomes, which help us to understand the relevance of policy objectives.