The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London serves as the ultimate avenue of appeal in matters of law and justice.
Of the three, only Bermuda's has legislated continuously, with the Royalist camp maintaining control of the archipelago during the Commonwealth of England and the Protectorate.
Nova Scotia was the first colony to achieve responsible government in January–February 1848 through the efforts of Joseph Howe, followed by the Province of Canada later that year.
In the Dominions, prior to the Statute of Westminster in 1931, a Governor General, officially the monarch's representative, was an officer of the British government.
After the agreement on the Balfour Declaration 1926 and the Statute of Westminster 1931, the Dominions were recognized as equal to the United Kingdom.
After that time, the Dominions were largely free to act in matters of defence and foreign affairs, if they so chose and "Dominion" gradually acquired a new meaning: a state which was independent of Britain, but which shared the British monarch as the official head of state.