Monarchies in The Americas - Succession Laws

Succession Laws

The succession orders in the current American monarchies are determined by primogeniture. Most states and regions, including those Commonwealth realms in the Americas, as well as those American territories under the British crown, adhere to male-preferance cognatic primogeniture, whereby sons have precedence over daughters in the order of succession. For the Commonwealth realms, this line is governed by provisions of the Act of Settlement and the English Bill of Rights, whether by willing deference to the act as a British statute or as a patriated part of the particular realm's constitution. Those possessions under the Danish and Dutch crowns adhere to absolute primogeniture, whereby the eldest child inherits the throne, regardless of gender.

Suggestions of change have been raised in the Commonwealth realms in regards to the order of succession; however, as these states share one monarch with other countries, all with legislative independence and/or independent regulations regarding the order of succession, any change would have to be made simultaneously in all of the Commonwealth realms to maintain the shared monarchy. With no imminent need for change– with males in the first four places in the line of succession– proposals were repeatedly postponed until recently. For Greenland, however, the 2005 elected Danish parliament passed a law altering the line of succession to the throne of Denmark (and thus Greenland as well), and, after the 13 November 2007 election, the parliament had passed the law again in January 2009, whereby in June 2009, it was confirmed in the referendum.