Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Blaðsíða 85

THE KINGDOM OF ICELAND
77
vember 1918, which came into force on the next day, ist Decem-
ber 1918. It was passed in identical terms by the parliaments of
both countries. Though styled an Act, it is really a treaty between
the two sovereign and equal States of Denmark and Iceland. This
»statute-treaty« contains all the provisions which now govern the
relations between the two States, and reference will therefore be
made to it throughout the rest of this paper. Its provisions may
briefly be described as defining a union between two States of
equal status in international law, each of them having full sover-
eignty over its own affairs independently of the other.
Apart from certain dispositions of a practical nature which
follow from the fact that the King resides in the capital of Den-
mark, the position of the Crown is the same in the two States.
This finds, inter alia, a formal expression in the inclusion of the
names of both States in the King’s official title; when the King
acts as King of Iceland the name of Iceland precedes that of Den-
mark, while the opposite is the case when he acts as King of Den-
mark. Each State is a limited monarchy under a parliamentary
form of Government. Each State has its own Constitution, on
which the King takes the oath in each State separately. There is
no joint legislation with the exception of the Law of Succession.
Each state has its own independent judicature. Each state has its
own Ministry, appointed by the King, and there are no joint
ministers and no state of inter-dependence with regard to changes
of government in one of the States. There is no joint citizenship,
each state having its own. There is no joint defence: Iceland has
no army, navy, or air force, whereas Denmark has all three arms.
Iceland has declared herself permanently neutral. The finances,
including the tariff systems, of the two States are entirely separate.
Neither State makes any contribution to the other, separately or
for common purposes, with the exception of the contributions to
the Civil List, and a contribution, which incidentally is very
small, by Iceland to Denmark in return for the work performed
by the Danish Foreign Service on behalf of Iceland.
The position is thus one of complete constitutional equality
for the two States under the same King. Neither of them is in any
respect subordinate to the other.
Two of the provisions of the Act of Union may be singled
out for special mention:
1: As mentioned above, there is no joint citizenship between