McGill Law Journal ~ Revue de droit de McGill
BOOK NOTE
Peter Boyce, The Queens Other Realms: The Crown and Its
Legacy in Australia, Canada and New Zealand (Sydney: Federation
Press, 2009), pp v, 290.
One of the greatest political and constitutional developments over the
past century has been the maturing of the British Empire into the Com-
monwealth, and the concomitant emergence of the realms. The remaining
fifteen realms and the United Kingdom share the same sovereign, and the
consequences of this political phenomenon are the subject of this fascinat-
ing book. Peter Boyce1 examines the ongoing evolution of the Crown in the
realms. He does so through focusing upon the older realms of Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand, and the patriation or nationalization of the
Crown in those countriesparticularly through the development of the of-
fice of Governor General. Boyces particular contribution is that he does
not limit his scope to one realm.
Boyce questions whether the Governors General, Australian Gover-
nors, and Canadian Lieutenant-Governors can successfully unite and in-
spire the public, and act as credible constitutional watchdogs in the face of
growing republicanism. Whereas once the threat of republicanism was
grounded in symbolism and nationalism, it is now strengthened by more
fundamental concerns of governance.2 A watchdog, to be effective, must
have teeth. This means that there must be a willingness to bite when nec-
essarywitness the Sir John Kerr and Gough Whitlam crisis in 1970s
Australia.3 Such actions risk inciting controversy, however, and expose
the Governor Generalor even the Queen herselfto criticism, thus pre-
senting inherent difficulties for an impartial and nonpolitical head of
state.
One of the strengths of Boyces book is its breadth, covering Australia,
Canada, and New Zealand. But its span is also a potential weakness,
however, since it presupposes knowledge of the role of the Crown in each
realm. It is additionally subject to the complexity of comparative politics.
But Boyce, as a scholar of international relations before he began study-
ing the Crown, handles this complexity well. This book is an important
1 Peter Boyce, AO, is an Emeritus Professor in political science at the Universities of
Queensland and Western Australia. He was also the Vice-Chancellor of Murdoch Uni-
versity, 1985-96.
2 See Peter Boyce, The Queens Other Realms: The Crown and Its Legacy in Australia,
Canada, and New Zealand (Sydney, AU: Federation Press, 2008) at 216.
3 Ibid at 59.
1208 (2011) 56:4 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
contribution to the literature of both history and politics, at a time when
an understanding of the Crown is especially important.
A brief overview of what the book covers is as follows. Chapters 1 and
2 concern the survival of the monarchy in the Old Commonwealth, and
the surviving family of the Crown. In a sense these chapters set the stage,
recounting how the once single imperial Crown divided. Simultaneously,
this evolution also led to significant subnational Crowns evolving in Can-
ada and Australiapoints picked up in chapters 4 and 5, as well as 6 and
7, respectively. Vice-regal powers and influence, and successful governor-
ship are discussed in chapters 3 and 9. New Zealand, as the one unitary
state to be considered, is the subject of chapter 8. Chapters 10 and 11 in-
clude a discussion of republicanism and the choice of reform as opposed to
republicanism. The latter is crucially important. In the absence of reforms
to the institution of monarchy in the Queens other realms, it may well be
that symbolic republicanism will outlive constitutional republicanism.
The difficulty of developing a republican model that enjoys wide accep-
tance, and the apparent and real problems with republican government,
may mean that the greatest legacy of the Crown in the realms is a heri-
tage of the rule of law and a concept of a permanent Crown as its up-
holder, as well as the distinctive symbol of best practice government in
the Commonwealth.
This book is a major contribution to a sorely neglected field of study,
one that incites much additional thought on the history it contains. Each
of the old dominions enjoys extensive coverage in this book. If a criticism
could be levelled at the coverage, it would be that there is little considera-
tion of howif at allthe historic and cultural identity of these settled
states affected their development, and how the role of the Queen in the
newer realms may have differed from that in the older ones. This omis-
sion is, however, scarcely surprising given the difficulty of evaluating even
the small group of states chosen.
Noel Cox
