Isle of Man & Channel Islands - Overview:
The UK Crown Dependicies are comprised of the Isle of Man, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the latter two being known collectively as the Channel Islands. The islands' constitutional links with the UK are based on their allegiance to the British Crown and the Queen is represented as head of state on each of the islands by a Lieutenant Governor. They are not considered part of the UK and as such are not represented at Westminster and are not part of the EU. Each Crown Dependency is an internally self-governing territory responsible for its own domestic law, including fiscal and social policy, although all primary legislation does require Royal assent and Westminster retains responsibility for good governance of the islands and can legislate on their behalf as a last resort. For an annual fee, reponsibility for foreign representation and defence is undertaken on the islands' behalf by the UK Government. In keeping with their independence, each of the islands issues its own currency, which is of the same denominations and value as the currency in the UK. All UK notes and coins are legal tender on the islands.
None of the Crown Dependencies have a party political system such as that in the UK. Instead, candidates for election stand as independents and all votes within parliament are free votes. The government of the Isle of Man is conducted by a Council of Ministers within the framework of a parliamentary democracy. The Isle of Man parliament, Tynwald, which was established over 1000 years ago by Norse Vikings, is one of the oldest in the world and is divided into two branches; the directly elected House of Keys and the indirectly elected Legislative Council.
The Channel Islands do not have a ministerial form of government, but the business of government is conducted by Committees of the local States. The States of Guernsey is made up of People's Deputies elected to represent individual parishes, and Councillors elected on an island-wide basis, while the States of Jersey has Deputies and Senetors elected in a similar way. However, Jersey is set to make the transition to a ministerial form of government in 2003. The Bailiwick of Guernsey, in addition to the island of Guernsey, is comprised of the islands of Alderney and Sark, which have their own distinct legislative assemblies, the States of Alderney and the Chief Pleas of Sark.
The autonomy enjoyed by the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey over their own legislative and fiscal policies has resulted in low tax regimes in each and they have all developed their economies to foster the financial services sector.
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