The Act of Settlement is an act of the Parliament of England that was passed in 1701 to settle the succession to the English and Irish crowns and thrones on the Electress Sophia of Hanover ( a granddaughter of James I ) and her Protestant heirs.

Since the implementation of the Statute of Westminster 1931 in each of the Commonwealth realms ( on successive dates from 1931 onwards ), the Act of Settlement cannot be altered in any realm except by that realm's own parliament and, by convention, only with the consent of all the other realms, as it touches on the succession to the shared throne.

The Act of Settlement was thus passed and granted Royal Assent in 1701.

The Act of Settlement provided that the throne would pass to the Electress Sophia of Hanover – a granddaughter of James VI of Scotland and I of England, niece of Charles I of Scotland and England – and her Protestant descendants who had not married a Roman Catholic ; those who were Roman Catholic, and those who married a Roman Catholic, were barred from ascending the throne " for ever ".

For different reasons, various constitutionalists have praised the Act of Settlement: Henry Hallam called the act in the United Kingdom " the seal of our constitutional laws " and David Lindsay Keir placed its importance above the Bill of Rights 1689.

Naamani Tarkow has written: " If one is to make sweeping statements, one may say that, save Magna Carta ( more truly, its implications ), the Act of Settlement is probably the most significant statute in English history ".

The original Act of Settlement

The Act of Settlement was, in many ways, the major cause of the union of Scotland with England and Wales to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

The Parliament of Scotland was not happy with the Act of Settlement and, in response, passed the Act of Security in 1704, through which Scotland reserved the right to choose its own successor to Queen Anne.

By virtue of Article II of the Treaty of Union, which defined the succession to the throne of Great Britain, the Act of Settlement became part of Scots Law as well.

Since the passage of the Act of Settlement, the most senior member of the Royal Family to have married a Roman Catholic, and thereby been removed from the line and later lines of succession, is Prince Michael of Kent, who married Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz in 1978 ; he was fifteenth in the lines of succession at the time of his marriage.

Under the Act of Settlement, male-preference primogeniture succession of an Anglican legitimate descendant of the Electress Sophia is automatic and immediate, neither depending on, nor waiting for, any proclamation.

In the Australian Capital Territory, the Act of Settlement was, on 11 May 1989, converted, from an act of the Parliament of England into an ACT enactment, by section 34 ( 4 ) of the Australian Capital Territory ( Self-Government ) Act 1988 ( Cwlth ), and then renamed The Act of Settlement 1700 by the Legislation Act 2001.

Challenges have been made against the Act of Settlement, especially its provisions regarding Roman Catholics and preference for males.

It was reported in October 2011 that the Australian federal government had reached an agreement with all of the states on potential changes to their laws in the wake of amendments to the Act of Settlement.

Canadian scholar Richard Toporoski theorised in 1998 that " if, let us say, an alteration were to be made in the United Kingdom to the Act of Settlement 1701, providing for the succession of the Crown ... t is my opinion that the domestic constitutional law of Australia or Papua New Guinea, for example, would provide for the succession in those countries of the same person who became Sovereign of the United Kingdom.

In Canada, where the Act of Settlement is now a 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, requiring him or her to be an Anglican.

* 1662 – The Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.

Charles II of England was concerned by the unregulated copying of books and passed the Licensing of the Press Act 1662 by Act of Parliament, which established a register of licensed books and required a copy to be deposited with the Stationers ' Company, essentially continuing the licensing of material that had long been in effect.

When Ray found himself unable to subscribe as required by the ‘ Bartholomew Act ’ of 1662 he, along with 13 other college fellows, resigned his fellowship on 24 August 1662

In the Book of Common Prayer ( 1662 ), the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible – for Epistle and Gospel readings – and as such was authorized by Act of Parliament.

After the English Restoration of 1660 and the 1662 Uniformity Act, almost all Puritan clergy left the Church of England, some becoming nonconformist ministers, and the nature of the movement in England changed radically, though it retained its character for much longer in New England.

With only minor changes, the Church of England was restored to its pre-Civil War constitution under the Act of Uniformity 1662, and the Puritans found themselves sidelined.

With the abolition of the Star Chamber and Court of High Commission by the Long Parliament, the legal basis for this warrant was removed, but the Long Parliament chose to replace it with the Licensing Act 1662.

In letters to Clarke he wrote of the absurdity of the existing system, complaining primarily about the unfairness of it to authors, and " he parallels between Locke's commentary and those reasons presented by the Commons to the Lords for refusing to renew the 1662 Act are striking ".

He was presented to the living of Wilby, Northamptonshire ; but lost it as a result of the Act of Uniformity 1662.

* The Act of Uniformity 1662 in England and Wales makes mandatory the use of the Book of Common Prayer.

Publication was controlled under the Licensing Act of 1662, but the Act's lapses from 1679 – 1685 and from 1695 onwards encouraged a number of new titles.

The Corporation Act 1661 required municipal officeholders to swear allegiance ; the Act of Uniformity 1662 made the use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer compulsory ; the Conventicle Act 1664 prohibited religious assemblies of more than five people, except under the auspices of the Church of England ; and the Five Mile Act 1665 prohibited clergymen from coming within five miles ( 8 km ) of a parish from which they had been banished.

The Church of England was restored as the national Church in England, backed by the Clarendon Code and the Act of Uniformity 1662.

Following the Modus Tenendi Parliamenta of 1419, the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, the Feudal Tenure Act ( 1662 ), and the Fines and Recoveries Act of 1834, titles of feudal barony became obsolete and without legal force.

In England, after the Act of Uniformity 1662 a Nonconformist was an English subject belonging to a non-Christian religion or any non-Anglican church.

Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers ( founded in 1648 ), were considered Nonconformists at the time of the 1662 Act of Uniformity.

After a period of decline, navigation rights along the river were confirmed by a clause in the Stour and Salwarpe Navigation Act of 1662.

* the Quaker Act 1662, which required people to swear an oath of allegiance to the king, which Quakers did not do out of religious conviction.

Before the Draft Act was passed Baker had confidentially briefed governors, sheriffs, and prospective draft board members on the administration of the measure -- and the confidence was kept so well that only one newspaper learned what was going on.

It was Baker, working through Provost Marshal Enoch Crowder and Major Hugh S. ( `` Old Ironpants '' ) Johnson, who arranged for a secret printing by the million of selective service blanks -- again before the Act was passed -- until corridors in the Government Printing Office were full and the basement of the Washington Post Office was stacked to the ceiling.

When the United States entered the First World War Baker made certain that the Draft Act of 1917 prohibited the sale of liquor to men in uniform and that it provided for broad zones around the camps in which prostitution was outlawed.

The authority for the program was renewed several times until the vocational rehabilitation program was made permanent as Title 5, of the Social Security Act in 1935.

Throughout these years, the statutory authorization was for such sums as were necessary to carry out the provisions of the Act.

For the States which maintain two separate agencies -- one for the vocational rehabilitation of the blind, and one for the rehabilitation of persons other than the blind -- the Act specifies that their minimum ( base ) allotment shall be divided between the two agencies in the same proportion as it was divided in fiscal year 1954.

Petitioner, who claims to be a conscientious objector, was convicted of violating 12a of the Universal Military Training and Service Act by refusing to be inducted into the armed forces.

The latest major change in this program was introduced by the National Defense Education Act of 1958, Title 8, of which amended the George-Barden Act.

For the Smith-Hughes, George-Barden, and National Defense Act of 1958, the cumulative total of Federal expenditures in 42 years was only about $740 million.

The Title 8, program of the National Defense Education Act of 1958 was a great spur to this trend toward area schools.

However, the Federal Court held that since the State had accepted the provisions of the Wagner-Peyser Act into its own Code, and presumably therefore also the regulations, it was now a State matter.

The passage of the Sherman Act was aimed at giant monopolies.

In 1914, the Clayton Act attempted to take labor out from under the anti-trust legislation by stating that human labor was not to be considered a commodity.

So the audience last night was all ears and eyes just after Act 2, got a rousing opening chorus, `` Where's Charley??

In July 1862, the Second Confiscation Act was passed, which set up court procedures that could free the slaves of anyone convicted of aiding the rebellion.

The passage of the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Acts was made possible by the absence of Southern congressmen and senators who had opposed the measures in the 1850s.

The American Film Institute ( AFI ) is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act.

By the Naturalisation Act 1870, it was made possible for British subjects to renounce their nationality and allegiance, and the ways in which that nationality is lost are defined.

" On July 27, 1868, the day before the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, U. S. Congress declared in the preamble of the Expatriation Act that " the right of expatriation is a natural and inherent right of all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ," and ( Section I ) one of " the fundamental principles of this government " ( United States Revised Statutes, sec.