Commonwealth realm

A Commonwealth realm is an independent country that recognizes the British monarch as its sovereign and head of state. The monarch’s role is exercised separately in each realm under that country’s constitution.

Monarchy of the United Kingdom: The constitutional institution in which the British monarch serves as head of state of the United Kingdom. The same person holds this separate crown alongside each realm’s national crown.
Statute of Westminster 1931: A British statute that recognized the legislative equality and autonomy of the self-governing Dominions. It established legal independence that helped make a shared monarch compatible with separate governments.
Commonwealth republic: A republic that belongs to the Commonwealth of Nations and has a non-monarchical head of state. It shares Commonwealth membership but does not recognize the monarch as sovereign.
Canada: A North American country and constitutional monarchy whose head of state is the Canadian monarch. Canada maintains its own Crown and constitutional conventions within the shared monarchy.
Governor-general: An official who represents a head of state in a country, usually performing constitutional and ceremonial duties. Governors-general carry out many royal functions within individual realms.
Balfour Declaration of 1926: A declaration that described Britain and the Dominions as autonomous communities equal in status within the British Empire. It articulated the political equality behind the later independent crowns.
British Overseas Territory: A territory under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom that is not constitutionally part of the United Kingdom. Unlike a realm, it is not an independent sovereign country.
Australia: A country and federal constitutional monarchy whose head of state is the Australian monarch. Its federal constitution gives the Crown roles at both national and state levels.
Royal prerogative: The residual executive powers legally held by the Crown and exercised according to constitutional conventions and statutes. It describes powers formally attached to the monarch in realm constitutions.
London Declaration: A 1949 Commonwealth agreement allowing a republic to remain in the Commonwealth while accepting the monarch as its symbolic head. It set the model for republican India’s continued Commonwealth membership, distinct from realm status.

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