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The Perth Agreement is an agreement made by the prime ministers of the 16 Commonwealth realms during the bi-annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October 2011 in Perth, Western Australia, concerning amendments to the royal succession laws, namely, replacing male-preference primogeniture, under which male descendants take precedence over females in the line of succession, with absolute primogeniture; ending the disqualification of those married to Roman Catholics; and limiting the number of individuals in line to the throne requiring permission from the sovereign to marry. However, the ban on Catholics and other non-Protestants becoming sovereign and the requirement for the sovereign to be in communion with the Church of England remained. By December 2012, all the realm governments had agreed to implement the proposals. New Zealand chaired a working group to determine the process for reform. The Commonwealth realms—the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis—are independent of each other, while sharing one person as monarch in a constitutionally equal fashion. It was affirmed that legislation in those realms that required it would commence when the appropriate domestic arrangements were in place in all the realms and the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announced on 26 March 2015 that the amendments had come into effect "across" every realm;〔(Statement by Nick Clegg MP, UK parliament website ), 26 March 2015 (retrieved on same date).〕〔(UK commencement order )〕〔(Statement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Canada Providing Assent to Amendments to Rules Governing the Line of Succession ), 26 March 2015 〕 Canada's law is being challenged in court. The earliest people in the line of succession to be affected by the changes on the date they came into force were the children of Lady Davina Lewis: her son Tāne (born 2012) and her daughter Senna (born 2010), who were reversed in the order of succession, becoming 29th and 28th in line respectively. ==Background== Succession to the throne in each of the Commonwealth realms is governed both by common law and statute. Under common law, the Crown was transmitted by male-preference primogeniture, under which succession passed first to the monarch's or nearest dynast's legitimate sons (and to their legitimate issue) in order of birth, and subsequently to their daughters and their legitimate issue, again in order of birth, so that sons always inherit before their sisters, elder children inherit before younger, and descendants inherit before collateral relatives. Succession is also governed by the Acts of Union 1707, which restates the provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701, and the Bill of Rights 1689. These laws originally restricted the succession to legitimate descendants of Sophia, Electress of Hanover (the mother of George I), and debar those who are Roman Catholics or who have married Roman Catholics.〔 "That whosoever shall hereafter come to the Possession of this Crown shall joyn in Communion with the Church of England as by Law established."〕 The descendants of those who are debarred for being or marrying Roman Catholics, however, may still be eligible to succeed. By convention iterated in the preamble to the Statute of Westminster 1931, the line of succession cannot be altered in any realm without the assent of the parliaments of the other 15 realms. Challenges had been made against the Act of Settlement, especially its provisions regarding Roman Catholics and preference for males. In Canada, where the Act of Settlement is part of Canadian constitutional law, Tony O'Donohue, a Canadian civic politician, took issue with the provisions that exclude Roman Catholics from the throne and which make the monarch of Canada the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. In 2002, O'Donohue launched a court action that argued the Act of Settlement violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but the case was dismissed by the court. In the United Kingdom, from time to time there had been debate over repealing the clause that prevents "Papists" (Roman Catholics) or those who marry one from ascending to the British throne. The Scottish Parliament unanimously passed a motion in 1999 calling for the complete removal of any discrimination linked to the monarchy and the repeal of the Act of Settlement. A private member's bill—the Succession to the Crown Bill—was introduced in the House of Lords in December 2004. The government, headed by Tony Blair, however, blocked all attempts to revise the succession laws, claiming it would raise too many constitutional issues and it was unnecessary at the time. The issue was raised again in January 2009, when a private member's bill to amend the Act of Succession was introduced in parliament. British Labour Member of Parliament Keith Vaz introduced to the House of Commons at Westminster, in early 2011, a private member's bill, which proposed that the Act of Settlement be amended to remove the provisions relating to Roman Catholicism and change primogeniture governing the line of succession to the British throne from male-preference to absolute. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Perth Agreement」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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