The Crown Dependencies are three offshore island territories in the British Isles that are self-governing possessions of the British Crown: the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Jersey (together known as the Channel Islands), and the Isle of Man.
They are closely related to the United Kingdom (UK), although they are not part of it. They have the status of "territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible", rather than sovereign states. As a result, they are not member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. However, they do have relationships with the Commonwealth and other international organisations, and are members of the British–Irish Council. They have their own teams in the Commonwealth Games.
Each island's political development has been largely independent from, though often parallel with, that of the UK, and they are akin to "miniature states with wide powers of self-government".
As the Crown Dependencies are not sovereign states, the power to pass legislation affecting the islands ultimately rests with the King-in-Council (though this power is rarely exercised without the consent of the dependencies, and the right to do so is disputed). However, they each have their own legislative assembly, with power to legislate on many local matters with the assent of the Crown (the Privy Council, or, in the case of the Isle of Man, in certain circumstances the lieutenant-governor or, in the case of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Lieutenant-Governor). In Jersey and the Isle of Man, the head of government is called the chief minister. In Guernsey, the head representative of the committee-based government is the President of the Policy and Resources Committee.
Terminology
The term "Crown Dependencies" has been disputed by Gavin St Pier, former Chief Minister of Guernsey. He argues that the term was an administrative invention of Whitehall, which incorrectly implies that the islands are dependent upon the Crown, and advocates instead the use of the term "Crown Dominion".
List of Crown Dependencies
Channel Islands
Since 1290, the Channel Islands have been governed as:
the Bailiwick of Guernsey, comprising the islands of Alderney, Brecqhou, Guernsey, Herm, Jethou, Lihou, and Sark;
the Bailiwick of Jersey, comprising the island of Jersey and uninhabited islets such as the Écréhous and Minquiers.
Each Bailiwick is a Crown dependency and each is headed by a Bailiff, with a Lieutenant Governor representing the Crown in each Bailiwick. Each Bailiwick has its own legal and healthcare systems and its own separate immigration policy, with "local status" in one Bailiwick having no validity in the other. The two Bailiwicks exercise bilateral double taxation treaties. Since 1961, the Bailiwicks have had separate courts of appeal, but generally, the Bailiff of each Bailiwick has been appointed to serve on the panel of appellate judges for the other Bailiwick.
Bailiwick of Guernsey
The Bailiwick of Guernsey comprises three separate jurisdictions:
Alderney, including smaller surrounding uninhabited islands.
Guernsey, which also includes the nearby islands of Herm, Jethou, Lihou, and other smaller uninhabited islands.
Sark, which also includes the nearby island of Brecqhou, and other smaller uninhabited islands.
The parliament of Guernsey is the States of Deliberation, the parliament of Sark is called the Chief Pleas, and the parliament of Alderney is called the States of Alderney. The three parliaments together can also approve joint Bailiwick-wide legislation that applies in those parts of the Bailiwick whose parliaments approve it. There are no political parties in any of the parliaments; candidates stand for election as independents.
Bailiwick of Jersey
The Bailiwick of Jersey consists of the island of Jersey and a number of surrounding uninhabited islands.
The parliament is the States Assembly, the first known mention of which is in a document of 1497. The States of Jersey Law 2005 introduced the post of Chief Minister of Jersey, abolished the Bailiff's power of dissent to a resolution of the States and the Lieutenant Governor's power of veto over a resolution of the States, and established that any Order in Council or Act of the United Kingdom Parliament proposed to apply to Jersey must be referred to the States so that the States can express their views on it.
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man's Tynwald claims to be the world's oldest parliament in continuous existence, dating back to 979. (However, it does not claim to be the oldest parliament, as Iceland's Althing dates back to 930.) It consists of a popularly elected House of Keys and an indirectly elected Legislative Council. These two branches may sit separately or jointly to consider pieces of legislation, which, when passed into law, are known as "Acts of Tynwald". Candidates mostly stand for election to the Keys as independents, rather than being selected by political parties. There is a Council of Ministers headed by a chief minister.
Unlike the other Crown Dependencies, the Isle of Man has a Common Purse Agreement with the United Kingdom.
City status
As overseas territories were added to the land conquered by the British, a number of towns and villages began to request formal recognition to validate their importance, and would be accorded a status if deemed to be deserving such as a borough or as a more prestigious city by the monarch. Many cities were designated over several centuries, and as Anglican dioceses began to be created the process of city creation became aligned to that used in England, being linked to the presence of a cathedral.
Despite this, St Patrick's Isle adjoining the Isle of Man, which had a medieval cathedral, was never granted privileges of a city. What is now Peel Cathedral was later built nearby, but only raised to the status of a cathedral in the 1980s.
The Channel Islands were at first part of a mainland French diocese, and then came under the Bishop of Winchester after the English Reformation. These islands had no cathedral.
Since the year 2000, the UK government has arranged competitions to grant city status to settlements. In 2021, submissions for city status were invited to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, with Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories being allowed to take part for the first time. In the Dependencies, the only applicants were Douglas and Peel, both on the Isle of Man, and Douglas was granted the honour, making it the first formal city.
Constitutional status
According to the 1973 Kilbrandon Report, the Crown Dependencies are "like miniature states". According to a 2010 Commons Justice Committee, they are independent from the UK and from each other and their relationship is with the Crown. The UK's responsibilities derive from that fact.
All "insular" legislation has to receive the approval of the "King in Council", in effect, the Privy Council in London. Certain types of domestic legislation in the Isle of Man and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, however, may be signed into law by the Lieutenant Governor, using delegated powers, without having to pass through the Privy Council. In Jersey, provisional legislation of an administrative nature may be adopted by means of triennial regulations (renewable after three years), without requiring the assent of the Privy Council. Much legislation, in practice, is effected by means of secondary legislation under the authority of prior laws or Orders in Council.
A unique constitutional position has arisen in the Channel Islands as successive monarchs have confirmed the liberties and privileges of the Bailiwicks, often referring to the so-called Constitutions of King John, a legendary document supposed to have been granted by King John in the aftermath of 1204. Governments of the Bailiwicks have generally tried to avoid testing the limits of the unwritten constitution by avoiding conflict with British governments. Following the restoration of King Charles II, who had spent part of his exile in Jersey, the Channel Islands were given the right to set their own customs duties, referred to by the Jersey Legal French term as impôts.
The Crown
The monarch is represented by a Lieutenant Governor in each Crown dependency, but this post is largely ceremonial. Since 2010 the Lieutenant Governors of each Crown dependency have been recommended to the Crown by a panel in each respective Crown dependency; this replaced the previous system of the appointments being made by the Crown on the recommendation of UK ministers. In 2005, it was decided in the Isle of Man to replace the Lieutenant Governor with a Crown Commissioner, but this decision was reversed before it was implemented.
The Crown in the Isle of Man
"The Crown" is defined differently in each Crown Dependency. Legislation of the Isle of Man defines the "Crown in right of the Isle of Man" as being separate from the "Crown in right of the United Kingdom". In the Isle of Man the British monarch is styled Lord of Mann, a title variously held by Norse, Scottish and English kings and nobles (the English nobles in fealty to the English Crown) until it was revested into the British monarchy in 1765. The title "Lord" is today used irrespective of the gender of the person who holds it.
The Crown in the Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are part of the territory annexed by the Duchy of Normandy in 933 from the Duchy of Brittany. This territory was added to the grant of land given in settlement by the King of France in 911 to the Viking raiders who had sailed up the Seine almost to the walls of Paris. William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, claimed the title King of England in 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, and secured the claim through the Norman conquest of England. Subsequent marriages between Kings of England and French nobles meant that Kings of England had title to more French lands than the King of France. When the King of France asserted his feudal right of patronage, the then-King of England, King John, fearing he would be imprisoned should he attend, failed to fulfill his obligation.
In 1204, the title and lands of the Duchy of Normandy and his other French possessions were stripped from King John of England by the King of France. The Channel Islands remained in the possession of the King of England, who ruled them as Duke of Normandy until the Treaty of Paris in 1259. John's son, Henry III, renounced the title of Duke of Normandy by that treaty, and none of his successors ever revived it. The Channel Islands continued to be governed by the Kings of England as French fiefs, distinct from Normandy, until the Hundred Years' War, during which they were definitively separated from France. At no time did the Channel Islands form part of the Kingdom of England, and they remained legally separate, though under the same monarch, through the subsequent unions of England with Wales (1536), Scotland (1707) and Ireland (1801).
Charles III reigns over the Channel Islands directly, and not by virtue of his role as monarch of the United Kingdom. No specific title is associated with his role as monarch of the Channel Islands. The monarch has been described, in Jersey, as the "King in right of Jersey", and in legislation as the "Sovereign of the Bailiwick of Jersey" and "Sovereign in right of the Bailiwick of Jersey".
In Jersey, statements in the 21st century of the constitutional position by the Law Officers of the Crown define it as the "Crown in right of Jersey", with all Crown land in the Bailiwick of Jersey belonging to the Crown in right of Jersey and not to the Crown Estate of the United Kingdom. In Guernsey, legislation refers to the "Crown in right of the Bailiwick", and the Law Officers of the Crown of Guernsey submitted that "The Crown in this context ordinarily means the Crown in right of the république of the Bailiwick of Guernsey" and that this comprises "the collective governmental and civic institutions, established by and under the authority of the Monarch, for the governance of these Islands, including the States of Guernsey and legislatures in the other Islands, the Royal Court and other courts, the Lieutenant Governor, Parish authorities, and the Crown acting in and through the Privy Council." This constitutional concept is also worded as the "Crown in right of the Bailiwick of Guernsey".
Distinction from Overseas Territories
Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories (BOTs) share a similar geopolitical status. They are both categories of self-governing territories which fall under British sovereignty (the Head of State being the King of the United Kingdom) and for which the UK is responsible internationally. Neither Crown Dependencies nor BOTs are part of the UK and neither send representatives to the UK Parliament.
However, Crown Dependencies are distinct from BOTs. Unlike BOTs, which are remnants of the British Empire, the Crown Dependencies have a much older relationship with the UK, springing from their status as "feudatory kingdoms" subject to the English Crown. The self-governing status of the BOTs evolved through Acts of Parliament and the creation of fairly homogeneous political structures. On the other hand, the political systems of the Crown Dependencies evolved in an ad hoc manner, resulting in particular and unique political structures in each dependency.
Relationship with the UK
The United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories collectively form "one, undivided realm" under the British monarchy. Crown Dependencies have the international status of "territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible" rather than sovereign states. The relationship between the governments of the Crown Dependencies and the UK is "one of mutual respect and support, i.e. a partnership". There is a significant gap between the official and operational relationship between the UK and the islands.
Until 2001, responsibility for the UK Government's relationships with the Crown dependencies rested with the Home Office, but it was then transferred first to the Lord Chancellor's Department, then to the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and finally to the Ministry of Justice. In 2010, the Ministry of Justice stated that relationships with the Crown Dependencies are the responsibility of the United Kingdom Government as a whole, with the Ministry of Justice holding responsibility for the constitutional relationship and other ministries engaging with their opposite numbers in the Crown Dependencies according to their respective policy areas.
The UK Government is solely responsible for defence and international representation (although, in accordance with 2007 framework agreements, the UK has elected not to act internationally on behalf of the Crown Dependencies without prior consultation). The Crown Dependencies are within the Common Travel Area and apply the same visa policy as the UK, but each Crown dependency has responsibility for its own customs and immigration services.
As in England, but not the United Kingdom as a whole, the Church of England is the established Church in the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey.
The constitutional and cultural proximity of the islands to the UK means that there are shared institutions and organisations. The BBC, for example, has local radio stations in the Channel Islands, and also a website run by a team based in the Isle of Man (which is included in BBC North West). Similarly, ITV Channel Television is a franchise in the UK's ITV network, while the Isle of Man falls within the ITV Granada franchise area. While the islands now assume responsibility for their own post and telecommunications, they continue to participate in the UK telephone numbering plan, and they have adopted postcode systems that are compatible with that of the UK. For purposes of amateur radio awards they are counted as separate jurisdictions.
The growth of offshore finance in all three territories led to a "conflictual relationship" with the UK governments of the 2000s.
The Crown Dependencies, together with the United Kingdom, are collectively known as the British Islands. Since the British Nationality Act 1981 came into effect, they have been treated as part of the United Kingdom for British nationality law purposes. However, each Crown dependency maintains local controls over housing and employment, with special rules applying to British citizens without specified connections to that Crown dependency (as well as to non-British citizens).
Parliament Square, at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London, features all of the British flags alined: the flags of the United Kingdom, those of its four nations, the county flags of these nations, the three flags of the Crown Dependencies and the sixteen heraldic shields of the British Overseas Territories.
On 15 May 2023, the three coats of arms of the Crown Dependencies and the sixteen heraldic shields of the British Overseas Territories, were 'immortalised' in two new stained glass windows unveiled in the Speaker's House at the New Palace of Westminster. The Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, said: "The two windows represent part of our United Kingdom family".
International representation
For the purposes of international agreements, the islands were considered part of the British metropolitan territory until a declaration was agreed in 1950 that henceforth the three territories would be considered distinct from the UK and each other.
In 2007–2008, each Crown Dependency and the UK signed agreements that established frameworks for the development of the international identity of each Crown Dependency. Among the points clarified in the agreements were that:
The UK has no democratic accountability in and for the Crown Dependencies, which are governed by their own democratically elected assemblies;
The UK will not act internationally on behalf of the Crown Dependencies without prior consultation;