Glossary

The Universal Register uses a shared vocabulary of constitutional and cultural terms across many articles, some of it plain enough to guess, some of it specific to this world’s constitutional settlements. Wherever you see a word with a dotted underline in an article, it links to its entry here; this page collects every one of those definitions in a single, permanent list.

A

ABC: The American Broadcasting Corporation, the Realm's public broadcaster, established by Royal Charter in 1927 and funded by an endowment and an annual grant voted by Parliament. Its editorial independence of the government is guaranteed by its Charter and defended by convention. Read more
Accession Council: The expanded sitting of the Privy Council held on the morning after a sovereign's death, at which Privy Councillors, peers, senior members of the Commons, the archbishops and the senior judges hear the proclamation. It records the accession; it does not make it. Read more
Acts of Admission: The Acts by which a polity other than a founding Province entered the Union, fixing its form and, for most, creating its Crown. Louisiane's of 1804 protect its civil law, the French language and its parish government. Read more
Advice rule: The principle that in each capacity the King acts on the advice of that realm's ministers and of no others. Its few exceptions, such as the Irish case of conflicting advices and the Jersey assent committee, are written into the law of the realm concerned. Read more
American pound (A£): The currency of the Realm, written A£, established by the American Monetary Act in the 1790s and issued since 1914 by the Royal American Reserve. It is the principal reserve currency of the world. Read more
American Rights Act: The Realm's statutory bill of rights, enacted in 1866 on a vote of confidence in the Lincoln ministry. It bound federal authority alone until the Extension Act of 1962 and was last consolidated in 2008. Read more
Article II.8: The clause of the Charter of Union providing that the American succession follows the British so long as the two remain the same, and that Parliament decides it if they differ. Long thought a formality, it was referred to the law officers after Kittyhawk. Read more
Article X.10: The clause of the Charter of Union by which any court may pronounce void an Act, order or local law contrary to the Charter, to the extent of the contradiction and no further. It is the Realm's power of judicial review, first applied in Amory (1799). Read more
Atlantic Treaty Organization (ATO): The defensive alliance of seventeen Atlantic states, established by the Treaty of Brussels in 1949 and seated at Brussels. An attack on one member places every member at war automatically, and membership rests on Atlantic geography and willingness, with no monarchy or constitutional test. Read more

B

Bailiff of Jersey: The chief judge and civic head of Jersey, who presides over both the Royal Court and the States Assembly. Appointed by the King on the Chief Minister's advice, he serves until seventy, and his double office is the island's standing argument about the separation of powers. Read more
Board of Recognition: The statutory board, created by the Treaty Relations Act 1978, that decides petitions for recognition as a nation. Three of its five members are named by the National Council of Treaty Nations and two by the Crown on the minister's advice, and the minister may not overturn its findings. Read more
Bounded sovereignty: The doctrine reconciling the sovereignty of Parliament with the Charter: Parliament may make or unmake any law whatever within the Charter, because the Charter is the instrument by which Parliament exists. Read more

C

Caretaker conventions: The unwritten restraints on a ministry between losing office and leaving it, or while a hung Parliament is resolved: no significant appointments, treaties, major spending or binding policy decisions. Their limits are argued from first principles each time. Read more
Charter Axis: The ceremonial way of New Westminster, running to Charter Hill, with Columbia Palace at its western end, Parliament House at its eastern and Ledger Square between them. Government House and the Supreme Court stand deliberately off it. Read more
Charter Day: The Realm's national day, 4 July, commemorating the sealing of the Charter of Union in 1783. The March of Arizona keeps its own Charter Day on 14 May, the sealing of its Charter of 1884. Read more
Charter House: The official residence of the Prime Minister, at 14 Charter Road in the Executive Quarter of New Westminster, behind a black door. The name is also used for the Prime Minister's office itself. Read more
Chief Justice: The Chief Justice of the United Kingdom of America, head of the Royal American Supreme Court and second in precedence. He administers the Governor-General's oath and sits among the five officers and at Three Sisters as a person, never for the Court. Read more
Church of America: The established church of the Realm, descended from the colonial parishes of the Church of England and legally distinct since 1783, with the monarch as Supreme Governor. Its establishment is narrow: no coercive power, no religious test and no general public funding. Read more
Civil-law Justice: The convention, not a statute, that one of the seven Justices of the Supreme Court is trained in the civil law, usually from the Grand Duchy of Louisiane. It began with Justice Ines Calderon in 1966 and has been observed at every vacancy since. Read more
Clameur de Haro: A remedy of Jersey's Norman customary law: a landowner whose land is trespassed on kneels before witnesses, cries Haro and recites the Lord's Prayer in French, and the trespass must stop until the Royal Court decides the matter. Read more
Columbia District: The federal capital district on the north bank of the Potomac, containing the single city of New Westminster. It belongs to no polity, is not one of the forty-nine, and holds an instrument of government of 1912 that Parliament may amend by ordinary Act. Read more
Columbia Palace: The American residence and ceremonial seat of the monarch, at the western end of the Charter Axis, built in the 1790s and ordinarily called the White House. It has no throne and no executive function, and is open free to the public. Read more
Commonwealth: A polity type chosen, like every type, by the polity's own convention when it joined; the name marks a government its people constituted for themselves, and the Crown is ordinarily represented by a Governor. There are seven: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, California and Cascadia. Read more
Conference of Realms: The meeting of the prime ministers of the fourteen realms, held every second year. It has no powers and issues no communique, and it seats its members alphabetically in the language of the host. Read more
Confidence: The support of the House of Commons that a ministry must hold in order to govern. It is tested by confidence motions and above all by supply, and no Prime Minister has ever tried to stay in office after losing it. Read more
Consolidation Act: The American Rights Consolidation Act 2008, which brought the security powers taken after the May Day Bombings inside the Rights Act, subject to warrant, record, proportionality, sunset and judicial review, and rewrote Part VII on emergency. Read more
Council of Nations and Compacts: The March of Arizona's body for compact disputes with the treaty nations that rise above ministerial negotiation, sitting at Phoenix and convened through the Lord Marcher. It can tender advice and require it to be received, but not require it to be followed. Read more
Council of State: In the Realm, the temporary body of the Chief Justice and the presiding officers of both Houses that acted when the Governor-Generalship fell vacant in 1852 and 1865. It could complete routine assent and indispensable instruments only, and none has sat since. Read more
Crown capacity: One of the fourteen capacities held by the King, Ernest V until 2028 and since then George V: eleven kingdoms, two duchies and one empire. Thirteen are counted as sovereign and Normandy as constituent. Thirteen are legally separate Crowns; Malaya's is strictly an office of protectorship rather than a Crown. Read more
Crown dependencies: Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Isle of Man: self-governing islands that are not part of Great Britain. Jersey and Guernsey hold Crowns in right of their own; Man is the King's Lordship of Mann. Each has its own parliament, and none is represented in Britain's. Read more
Crown in right: The doctrine under which one monarch holds fourteen capacities, thirteen of them Crowns that are separate legal persons, each owning its own property and acting only on its own realm's ministers' advice; the fourteenth, Malaya, is an office of protectorship and not a Crown. The Crown in right of America, created by the Charter of Union in 1783, was the first. Read more
Crown Port: The style of Rocky Point on the Sea of Cortez, the March of Arizona's coastal exclave and the only salt water any March has held. It came to the Realm by the Border Settlement of 1899 and is ordinary March territory. Read more
Crown-in-Parliament: The doctrine under which federal law is made by the King, the Lords and the Commons acting together as one body. None of them makes law alone, and the King's part is performed through the Governor-General on ministerial advice. Read more

D

Declaration of American Grievances: The founding declaration adopted by the Second Continental Congress on 4 July 1776 and drafted by Thomas Jefferson. It indicts George III but claims self-government and secured rights under the Crown rather than independence, and it is read aloud each Charter Day. Read more
Declaration of incompatibility: A statement by a superior court, under section 58 of the American Rights Act, that an enactment cannot be read compatibly with the Act. It leaves the enactment valid and in force, does not bind the parties, and obliges a Minister to answer Parliament within six months. Read more
Direct rule: The federal government of the five polities that rebelled in the Civil War, with their own institutions set aside, imposed during the war and ended for all five in 1884. Loyal slaveholding polities such as Missouri and Kentucky were never placed under it. Read more

E

Easter Settlement: The Irish settlement of 1919, reached after an Easter Rising whose leaders were not executed. It recognised Irish sovereignty, made the monarch King in right of Ireland on Irish advice alone, and promised an elected national office, which was constituted only in 1937. Read more
Eleventh Amendment: The amendment of 1962 that extended the liberties of Article IX of the Charter against the polities; until then they had bound only the Union. It passed in the same year as the Extension Act. Read more
Empire of Raj: The sovereign Crown realm of the South Asian subcontinent, united without partition by the Raj Constitution of 1947 and including Burma. The King reigns there as Emperor of Raj on the advice of Raj ministers alone; Delhi governs and Calcutta judges. Read more
European Concert: The supranational union of European states founded by the Treaty of Straßburg in 2027, with an elected parliament, a commission, a court and a common market. Its founding powers are Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy and the Scandinavian Union; the United Kingdom of America is not a member. Read more
Extension Act: The American Rights (Extension) Act 1962, which removed the words in section 4.2 confining the Rights Act to federal authority, bound the polities and every public authority, and added Part VI on the Indigenous nations. Read more

F

First Great War: The war of 1914 to 1918 in which the Central Powers, among them Germany, Great Britain, the United Kingdom of America and Japan, defeated France, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The Realm entered in 1916 after a French submarine sank the liner SS Chesapeake. Read more
First Minister: The head of a constituent kingdom's devolved government: the First Minister of Scotland (at Holyrood House) or of England (at Alfred House, Winchester). Distinct from the British Prime Minister, who leads the whole UKGB.
Fourth Amendment: The amendment of 1873 that entrenched the abolition of slavery in the Charter and guaranteed equal protection. Until 1962 that guarantee ran against the Union alone and did not reach a polity's own authorities. Read more
Free City: The polity type of Philipsburg, the Realm's smallest polity, admitted in 1921 under a Free City Charter. It governs itself in every matter not reserved to the Realm and in exchange sends no members to either House of Parliament. Read more

G

Government House: The residence and office of the Governor-General in New Westminster, built in 1825, where ministries are commissioned, ministers sworn and honours conferred. It is the only one of the capital's three great houses that the public cannot enter. Read more
Governor-General: The Crown's resident representative in the UKA, making the monarch operationally present in America day to day, since the King mainly resides in Great Britain. Read more
Grand Duchy: A polity whose hereditary Grand Duke is head of state under an elected ministry, acting in the name of the duchy's own Crown with no separate Crown representative. There are four: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Louisiane. Read more
Guardian power: The King's narrow power under the trust of the Royal American Parks System to require a public inquiry, pause irreversible action or refer a legal question to the Supreme Court. Ernest V used it once, in Wyoming's dispute over the Greater Yellowstone compact. Read more

H

Havana Accord: The tripartite settlement among Cuba, Russia and the United Kingdom of America that ended the Caribbean Missile Crisis of 1962. Russia removed its missiles, the Realm pledged not to invade Cuba and quietly withdrew its own missiles from Byzantium, and the League of Nations verified the bargain. Read more
High Steward: The head of government of the March of Arizona, commissioned as the member able to command the March Diet. The High Steward leads the Ministry and must deliver the Basin Report to the Diet each November. Read more
Historic Kingdom Regions: England's internal regions, drawn from the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the Heptarchy: Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, and Sussex. Constitutional "rooms," not sovereign kingdoms.
Holyrood: The seat of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh; Holyrood House is the seat of the Scottish Government. "Holyrood legislates; Stirling witnesses."
House of Commons: The elected chamber of Parliament, of 460 members returned by a federal mixed-member system in which every member stands for a named place. It controls supply, and a ministry holds office only while it commands the confidence of the Commons. Read more
House of Hanover: The dynasty that holds the fourteen Crowns. After Queen Victoria's assassination in 1840 the succession passed to Ernest I, who reunited the Hanoverian Crown with the British and American Crowns, and his line of Ernests has reigned since. Read more
House of Lords: The upper chamber of Parliament, of 302 members: life peers, polity members, hereditary peers and Lords Spiritual. It revises ordinary bills and may delay them but not refuse them, and it cannot touch supply or bring down a ministry; over an amendment to the Charter it holds an absolute veto. Read more

I

Independent Judicial Appointments Commission: The body that recommends judges on merit, created in 1993 to take over the Lord Chancellor's patronage. The Minister of Justice may require it to reconsider a name, with published reasons, but may not substitute another. Read more
Interrealm Succession Compact: The agreement among thirteen of the realms that none will change its law of succession without the others, so that all keep the same heir. Malaya, which follows Britain by its own constitution, is not a party, and the Compact does not cover regency. Read more
Ishida v the Realm: The judgment of 1967 in which the Supreme Court expressly overruled Nakamura and Rutledge and said plainly that its own unanimous errors had been wrong when made. It was written by the most junior Justice, Ines Calderon. Read more

J

Judicial Conduct Tribunal: The independent tribunal of senior judges that investigates misconduct by a Justice of the Supreme Court before any impeachment in the Commons and trial in the Lords. No Justice has been removed, though two resigned during an investigation. Read more
Jurats: The twelve lay judges of Jersey's Royal Court, elected by an electoral college of the island's officials and parishes, who sit with the Bailiff as judges of fact in the more serious cases. Read more

K

Kernow: The Duchy of Kernow (Cornwall): a constituent part of Great Britain recognised in 2025, distinct from England. Not part of Wessex: "Wessex ends at the Tamar."
Kingdom: A constituent monarchy with a king of its own. There are two: Hawaii, which entered the Realm by the Treaty of Honolulu in 1898 with its Crown, legislature and courts preserved, and Alaska, whose Crown is held by the House of Liechtenstein. Read more

L

Leader of the Opposition: The leader of the largest party not in government, recognised as leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition and expected to be ready to form a ministry if the government falls. The office leads a shadow cabinet that mirrors the Ministry. Read more
League of Nations: The universal intergovernmental organisation founded in 1920 under the Berlin settlement and reconstructed, as the same legal body, by the San Francisco Charter of 1945, the Second Covenant. Its headquarters are at Geneva, its General Assembly at San Francisco and its Security Council at Kyoto. Read more
Leave: Permission to appeal, granted by the Supreme Court itself on the ground of general public importance. Most appeals reach the Court only by leave, and it grants so few that it delivers a few dozen judgments a year. Read more
Ledger Square: The square on the Charter Axis between Columbia Palace and Parliament House where the public accounts are displayed. Publishing the Union's contracts and certified accounts there has been a statutory duty since 1885. Read more
Lieutenant-Governor: The Crown's representative and head of state in most Provinces, acting for the provincial Crown on provincial advice. Virginia keeps a Governor, the Carolinas a Governor-Palatine and Plymouth a Captain-Regent; Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties share one officer. Read more
Lord Marcher: The Crown's representative and head of state in the March of Arizona, on a non-renewable commission of eight years. Alone among polity Crown representatives, the office holds an emergency authority by proclamation over heat, water, fire and flood, never used for civil order. Read more
Lord Speaker: The presiding officer of the House of Lords, elected by the House, who sits on the Woolsack but holds almost no power of order. The office replaced the Lord Chancellor's in the chamber in the 1990s and is one of the five officers. Read more

M

March: A frontier polity type of which the March of Arizona, created by Act of Parliament in 1884, is the only example. Its Crown representative, the Lord Marcher, holds an emergency authority that no other polity's representative has. Read more
Marshall silence: The settled custom that a Governor-General never comments on a matter before the courts or likely to reach them. It is named for John Marshall, Governor-General from 1825 to 1835, who made a doctrine of declining to give his view. Read more
May Day Bombings: Four coordinated attacks in the Province of New York on 1 May 2006, at Grand Central, Kennedy airport, the Ferry Terminal and the Union March, which killed 2,158 people. The bombers were named, but whom they acted for has never been established. Read more
Minister for Treaty Relations: The minister of state, outside the Cabinet, who conducts the government's business with the treaty nations and answers for the Office of Treaty Relations. The post was created by the Treaty Relations Act 1978. Read more
MSP: Member of the Scottish Parliament: an elected member of Scotland's unicameral legislature, chosen by the Additional Member System.

N

National Council of Treaty Nations: The common body of the treaty nations, founded in 1944 by nations whose men were serving in the Second Great War, and seated at Denver beside the Office of Treaty Relations since 1978. It divides the Treaty Fund and names three of the five members of the Board of Recognition; the Navajo Republic does not sit in it. Read more
New Albion: The northern sister realm of the United Kingdom of America, a federal constitutional monarchy of eight provinces and three territories with its capital at Ottawa. Its colonies stayed British in 1783 and federated in 1867 under Ernest II; it shares the King but not his government. Read more
New Westminster: The capital city of the Realm and the only city of the Columbia District, on the north bank of the Potomac. It was laid out in the 1790s under Article III.3 of the Charter and has been the seat of government since 1801. Read more
Non-derogable core: Section 9 of the American Rights Act, which no emergency, war or necessity may suspend. It forbids torture, slavery, punishment without law, secret conviction, disappearance, detention without review by a court, and emergency rule as the ordinary constitution. Read more
Norman compact: The cultural compact among Normandy, Brittany and the Channel Islands covering language, archives, fisheries, ports, emergency response and education. Its Norman Language Commission sits in St Helier and has helped revive Jèrriais; it is distinct from the French-Norman constitutional compact. Read more

O

Office of Treaty Relations: The federal office that conducts the Crown's business with the treaty nations, at Denver since 1978 and headed by a civil servant styled the Commissioner. Until the Treaty Relations Act 1978 it was the Indian Office, under a Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Read more
Olive Branch Petition: The petition of loyalty sent to George III by the Second Continental Congress in July 1775. On Lord Dartmouth's advice the Crown accepted it and declined to proclaim the colonies in rebellion, which kept a constitutional settlement possible although the fighting went on. Read more
Original jurisdiction: The Supreme Court's power to hear, at first and last instance, suits between a polity and the Realm, between two polities, and under the Treaty of Honolulu and Alaska's accession settlement. It is used seldom, and boundaries and rivers were its historical staple. Read more

P

Parliament House: The seat of Parliament, on Charter Hill in New Westminster, closing the eastern end of the Charter Axis. The state opening closes the Axis and the streets around the Hill. Read more
Peace of Boston: The armistice and framework agreement signed in the Old State House at Boston on 19 October 1779 by George Washington and Sir Henry Clinton, ending the Four-Year War without victor or surrender. Its anniversary is kept as Boston Day. Read more
Personal union: The arrangement by which one monarch holds several legally separate Crowns, each advised only by the ministers of its own realm. It is the central doctrine of the Realm's constitution: no realm's ministers may advise the monarch on another realm's affairs. Read more
Philadelphia Negotiations: The conference of 1779 to 1783 at which the Crown, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Continental Congress turned the Peace of Boston into a permanent settlement. It produced the Charter of Union, adopted at Philadelphia on 21 June 1783 and proclaimed at Boston on 4 July. Read more
Polity: A constituent member of the Union, governing itself under its own instrument within the Charter. There are forty-nine, of eight kinds; the Columbia District, the Territory of Loreto and the treaty nations stand outside the count. Read more
Polity Crown: A Crown in right of one of the American polities: a separate legal person inside the American Crown, and not a further capacity of the King. Forty-six of the 49 polities hold one; the three republics, Vermont, Texas and Florida, do not. Read more
Premier: The usual title of a polity's head of government, commissioned as the person who commands the polity legislature. Several polities use other titles, among them First Minister, State Chancellor, First Steward, High Steward and High Warden. Read more
Prime Minister: The head of government of the Realm, commissioned by the Governor-General as the person who commands the confidence of the House of Commons. The office rests wholly on convention, and until 1903 its only formal name was First Lord of the Treasury. Read more
Privy Council: The Crown's formal body of sworn advisers in right of America, through which the highest instruments are made, witnessed and recorded. It is distinct from the Privy Councils of the other realms, and the Governor-General presides at its sittings. Read more
Province: The polity type of the Realm's oldest members, those with a prior colonial existence, whose Crowns descend from the colonial Crowns and are ordinarily represented by a Lieutenant-Governor; there are fifteen, among them Virginia, New York and Massachusetts Bay. Read more

R

Reference: A question put to the Supreme Court in advance by the Governor-General in Council, on ministerial advice, usually whether a proposed measure is within competence or compatible with the Charter. References are a substantial part of the Court's docket. Read more
Regency Act 1811: The Act under which any three of five officers may declare the Sovereign incapable on physicians' evidence. The heir becomes Regent if of full age, eighteen, and otherwise the consort; its standing machinery was first used after the loss of Kittyhawk, making Queen Christina Regent. Read more
Republic: One of three polities with a republican form and an elected President: Vermont, Texas and Florida. They hold no Crown in right of themselves, and Vermont and Texas were independent republics before they joined the Union. Read more
Reserve powers: The Governor-General's residual authority to keep constitutional government working when the ordinary machinery fails, by commissioning a ministry, recalling Parliament or, in extremis, acting directly. They were used in 1943 and, by the usual count, in 2006. Read more
Responsible government: The principle that the Crown's ministers hold office only while they command the confidence of the House of Commons, and answer to it for the Crown's acts. The Charter does not provide for it; Franklin's first ministry established it in practice. Read more
Royal American Air Force: The air service of the Royal American Armed Forces, responsible for air superiority, strategic airlift, close support and reconnaissance. Its transport flight carries the Sovereign when in the Realm, the Governor-General and the Prime Minister. Read more
Royal American Reports: The published judgments of the Royal American Supreme Court, cited by year, volume and page in a form used since 1799. Dissents are reported in full, and the early volumes were reconstructed in the 1880s from the Justices' own notes. Read more
Royal American Reserve: The central bank of the Realm since 1914. It issues the American pound, sets monetary policy, supervises the banking system and acts as lender of last resort. Read more
Royal American Supreme Court: The final court of the United Kingdom of America, in which seven Justices hear every case together at Sessions House in New Westminster. Under the Charter it may pronounce an Act void; under the Rights Act it may only declare one incompatible. Read more
Royal Assent: The act by which a bill passed by Parliament becomes law, granted in the Realm by the Governor-General on the Crown's behalf. It is effectively automatic, and no Governor-General has ever refused assent to a bill that passed both Houses. Read more
Royal Court of Jersey: Jersey's principal court, in which the Bailiff sits with two or more Jurats and which keeps the island's records of property in Norman French. Its appeals go to the Jersey Court of Appeal, final for the island's law since a reform of the 1990s. Read more
Royal Parks trust: The constitutional trust under which the Crown in right of America holds the Royal American Parks System as trustee, not owner, for present and future generations, created by the Royal Parks Trust Act 1906 and administered by the Royal Parks Service since 1916. Read more
Russian Republic: The nationalist authoritarian republic that succeeded the Russian Empire, proclaimed by Kerensky's provisional government in 1917 and seized by Admiral Kolchak in a coup in 1922. It held elections whose results were settled in advance and was the Realm's principal adversary in the cold war, until in October 2028 it freed its vote, restored the Romanovs by referendum and became the Russian Empire again. Read more

S

Saltire: The flag of Scotland: a white diagonal cross (St Andrew's Cross) on a blue field. One of Scotland's principal public symbols.
Scandinavian Union: The confederation of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland, bound by the Treaty of Kalmar of 1949 and seated at Stockholm. Its members keep their own heads of state, armies and currencies, and the Union is a nuclear-free full member of the Atlantic Treaty Organization. Read more
Scots Law: Scotland's distinct legal system, with its own courts (the Court of Session, the High Court of Justiciary, the sheriff courts) and profession. Not a variant of English common law, "a national grammar, not a local dialect."
Second Great War: The war of 1939 to 1945 between the Allies, among them Germany, Great Britain and the Realm, and the Axis of fascist France and Japan. The Realm entered after Japan attacked Honolulu in December 1941; the war ended with the fall of Paris and the atomic bombings. Read more
Section 2.2: The warrant doctrine of the American Rights Act: a public authority that interferes with a right must be able to identify the lawful authority under which it acts. Summed up as 'power must show its warrant', it is the legend of the Supreme Court's seal. Read more
Section 4.2: The definition of public authority in the American Rights Act. As enacted in 1866 it confined the Act to federal authority; since 1962 it reaches every public body of the Realm and the polities, from a ministry to a county registrar. Read more
Security settlement: The security powers built after the May Day Bombings, chiefly the Security of the Realm Act 2006, the Royal American Signals Directorate and the American Rights Consolidation Act 2008. They work unseen rather than at checkpoints, so their typical harm is a listing nobody is told of. Read more
Sessions House: The seat of the Royal American Supreme Court since the 1820s, a deliberately modest limestone building off the Charter Axis behind Ledger Square in New Westminster. It was the least monumental of four designs submitted. Read more
Source-of-law rule: The Supreme Court's method in disputes over competence: it asks where the authority for a measure comes from, not what the measure is about. A competence not granted is held to have been withheld. Read more
Speaker of the House of Commons: The impartial presiding officer of the Commons, elected by its members, who keeps order, certifies money bills, may recall Parliament in an emergency and votes only to break a tie. The Speaker is also one of the five officers of the Regency Act 1811. Read more
Special Master: An appellate judge assigned to a case in the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction, who hears the witnesses, receives the documents and reports to the bench, which then sits on the report. Read more
Speech from the Throne: The speech setting out the government's programme at the State Opening of Parliament, written by the ministry and read by the Governor-General as the Crown's voice. The Governor-General may not amend it and is not answerable for its contents. Read more
State: The standard federal polity type, chosen by the polity's own convention when it joined, usually after a period as a federal Territory; the Crown is represented by a Governor. There are sixteen, including the Free State of Colorado, whose style is not a separate category. Read more
Stirling: Scotland's ceremonial and national capital: the seat of royal and battlefield memory (Stirling Castle, Bannockburn) and St Andrew's Day. "Edinburgh governs; Stirling remembers."
Structural remedy: The remedy established in Ivey v the Minister of Housing (1974): a court that finds a public programme unreasonable may require a lawful one and keep the case until it arrives. It is the Supreme Court's most powerful tool and is used about once a decade. Read more
Supreme statute: The standing of the American Rights Act: an ordinary Act of Parliament in form, repealable by a simple majority, but treated as constitutional in weight. Under section 1.4 it cannot be amended by implication, only expressly and in terms. Read more

T

Tenants' Case: Amalgamated Tenants and the Cooperative Congress v the Attorney-General, the pending case on whether Part V of the American Rights Act contains a right to income security. It has been argued before the Supreme Court over eleven days and judgment is reserved. Read more
Territory of Loreto: The federal territory comprising the whole Baja peninsula, ceded by Mexico under the Treaty of La Paz in 2027. It is not one of the forty-nine polities and is governed by a Crown Territorial Commissioner until its constitutional form is settled. Read more
The Charter: The Charter of Union of the American Colonies (1783): the founding constitution of the United Kingdom of America, agreed by the Crown, Parliament and the Continental Congress. It is short, and it is cited by Article and clause. Read more
The Civil War: The armed rebellion of five slaveholding polities against the lawful government of the Realm, fought from 1861 to 1863 and suppressed by Abraham Lincoln's ministry. The rebels professed loyalty to the King, and the Union's war papers call it the rebellion. Read more
The cold war: The long postwar rivalry between the constitutional states and the authoritarian Russian Republic, fought by proxy and under nuclear deterrence. It was never a contest of two blocs, since Russia built no counter-alliance, and it has since faded without formally ending. Read more
The Counter-Invasion: The Allied assault on fascist-held France on 6 June 1944 under Dwight Eisenhower's supreme command, with the main Overlord landings on the Breton coast and the secondary Operation Rollo in the Cotentin. It opened the liberation of occupied Europe and the advance on Paris. Read more
The Dominion Era: Historians' retrospective name for the years 1775 to 1850, in which the colonies became a continental sovereign realm by usage and convention rather than by declaration. It closes with the settlement of 1850 and the Flag Act, which took the Union off the Realm's flag. Read more
The England Act: The legislation establishing England's devolved government: a First Minister and Parliament of England seated at Winchester, distinct from the UKGB government in London.
The five officers: The Governor-General, the Chief Justice, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Speaker and the Prime Minister, who may declare the Sovereign incapable under the Regency Act 1811. The Lord Speaker's seat was the Lord Chancellor's until the 1990s. Read more
The Four-Year War: The founding conflict of 1775 to 1779 between the Thirteen Colonies and the British Crown, fought over constitutional terms rather than independence. It ended without a victor in the Peace of Boston, and its settlement was completed by the Charter of Union in 1783. Read more
The fourteen Crowns: The capacities held by the King in personal union: eleven kingdoms, two duchies and one empire. Thirteen are counted as sovereign and Normandy as constituent, and in Malaya the King is Protector beside an elected king rather than head of state. Read more
The Kirk: The Church of Scotland, Presbyterian and self-governing under its own General Assembly. Established in Scotland and distinct from the Church of England; the monarch is an ordinary member, not its Supreme Governor.
The Realm: The usual name, in speech and in most writing, for the United Kingdom of America. Its people also call it America, and the Union when they mean the federation as distinct from the Crown. Read more
The Reconciliation King: The epithet of Wilhelm II, King of Prussia and German Emperor from 1957 to 1989, for a thirty-year programme settling the quarrels the Prussian state had begun with its religious and national minorities. He was the great-grandfather of Alexander I. Read more
The three failures: The Supreme Court's worst judgments, all unanimous: Rutledge v Ordway (1853) on slavery, Halloway v the Grand Duchy of Louisiane (1897) on separate provision, and Nakamura v the Crown (1943) on internment. Schoolchildren learn them before the Court's successes. Read more
The two consent keys: The rule that the armed forces may be deployed at home, and nuclear weapons released, only on the joint authority of the Prime Minister and the Governor-General. Neither key is a power to command; each is a power to refuse. Read more
Three Sisters: The meeting of the Governor-General, the Chief Justice and the Prime Minister at Government House on the evening of a King's death, named for rocks in the Potomac. It has no written procedure and keeps no record, and confirms that the succession still follows Britain's. Read more
Treaty Day: 21 April, the anniversary of the Proclamation of Union of 1846 that brought the Republic of Texas into the Realm, falling on the anniversary of San Jacinto. It is a Texan observance, not a federal one. Read more
Treaty nation: An Indigenous nation holding its land under treaty with the Crown in right of America, or in Alaska under the accession settlement of 1884, outside the forty-nine polities in law though inside their borders on the map, and dealing with the Crown through the Governor-General (the Haudenosaunee through the Lieutenant-Governor of New York) and with the government through the Minister for Treaty Relations. There are 574 on the Schedule, the Navajo Republic the largest by territory; they are semi-sovereign, with no foreign policy, defence or currency of their own. Read more
Treaty of Austin: The treaty signed on 2 March 1845 that fixed the terms on which the Republic of Texas would join the Realm. Union itself began on 21 April 1846 under reciprocal Acts of Union and a Proclamation, admitting Texas as a constituent republic with no Crown of its own. Read more
Treaty of Berlin: The 1919 peace settlement of the First Great War, written chiefly by Germany and Britain. It left Alsace and Lorraine German and burdened France without dismembering it, founded the League of Nations, and is generally held to have made a second war nearly certain. Read more
Treaty Relations Act 1978: The statute of Carter's ministry that created the Minister for Treaty Relations, the Office of Treaty Relations and the Board of Recognition, settled that the treaties are with the Crown in right of America, and required a nation's consent to any change in its treaty status, recognised jurisdiction or protected land. The consent requirement lives only in the Act and was never entrenched. Read more

U

UKGB: The United Kingdom of Great Britain: the parent realm of its constituent nations, the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, the Principality of Wales, and the Duchy of Kernow. Capital: London. A sister realm of the UKA: the same King holds it, as a separate Crown with its own ministers.

V

Versailles Conference: The 1945 conference that settled the Second Great War in Europe under the formula 'Punish Paris, Preserve France'. It took territory from France, restored the Duchy of Normandy, raised the Bonapartist French Empire and established the Paris Tribunal. Read more

W

Wardell: Wardell v the Commissioner of Police for the Columbia District (1969), the leading authority on section 2.2. A plasterer searched in the street without lawful power won a declaration and one shilling, and the phrase 'governed rather than policed' comes from it. Read more
West Indies Federation: The sovereign Caribbean Crown realm of sixteen states, established on 3 January 1958 with its capital at Kingston. It survived the Jamaican referendum of 1961, and it includes Porto Rico, which passed from the Realm's possession to the Federation by referendum at its founding. Read more
Winchester: The capital of the Kingdom of England: deliberately not London. Seat of the First Minister (at Alfred House) and the Parliament of England.
Winter War: The short conflict on Finland's eastern frontier in the late 1940s, after Finland refused a Russian ultimatum demanding bases and concessions. It was contained and won, and in its aftermath the five Nordic states signed the Treaty of Kalmar in 1949. Read more