Britain. In Canada, the federal parliament passed the Succession to the Throne Act 1937, to assent to His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act and ratify the government's request and consent to it. In the Irish Free State, Prime Minister Éamon de Valera used the departure of Edward VIII as an opportunity to remove all explicit mention of the monarch from the Constitution of the Irish Free State, through the Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936, passed on 11 December 1936. The following day, the External Relations Act provided for the king to carry out certain diplomatic functions, if authorised by law; the same Act also brought Edward VIII's Instrument of Abdication into effect for the purposes of Irish law (s. 3(2)). A new Constitution of Ireland, with a president, was approved by Irish voters in 1937, with the Irish Free State becoming simply "Ireland", or, in the Irish language, "". However, the head of state of Ireland remained unclear until 1949, when Ireland unambiguously became a republic outside the Commonwealth of Nations by enacting The Republic of Ireland Act 1948. Commemoration In some countries where the Statute of Westminster forms a part of the constitution, the anniversary of the date of the passage of the original British statute is commemorated as Statute of Westminster Day. In Canada, it is mandated that, on 11 December, the Royal Union Flag (as the Union Jack is called by law in Canada) is to be flown at properties owned by the federal Crown, where the requisite second flag pole is available. See also Chanak Crisis Commonwealth of Nations membership criteria Westminster system Notes References Further reading Bailey, Kenneth H. "The Statute of Westminster." Australian Quarterly 3.12 (1931): 24–46. online Mansergh, Nicholas. Survey of British Commonwealth affairs: problems of external policy, 1931–1939 (Oxford University Press, 1952). Nicolson, Harold. King George V (1953) pp 470–488. online Plucknett, Theodore FT. "Case and the Statute of Westminster II." Columbia Law Review (1931): 778–799. online Wheare, K. C. The Statute of Westminster, 1931 (Clarendon Press, 1933). Wheare, K. C. The Statute of Westminster and dominion status (Oxford University Press, 1953). External links Digital reproduction of the Original Act on the Parliamentary Archives catalogue 1 – Canada and the Statute of Westminster 2 – Canada and the Statute of Westminster Statute of Westminster, 1931 (text) Australia and the Statute of Westminster Commonwealth realms 1931 in law United Kingdom Acts of