Commonwealth (United States insular area):
- This article is about U.S. insular areas. For U.S. States that designate themselves as "Commonwealths", see Commonwealth (United States). For other uses of the term, see Commonwealth.
In the terminology of the United States insular areas, a Commonwealth is a type of organized but unincorporated dependent territory.
There are currently two United States insular areas holding the status of commonwealth, the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico.
Of the current U.S. insular areas, the term was first used by Puerto Rico in 1952 as its formal name in English ("Commonwealth of Puerto Rico") since a strict translation of its name in Spanish would have been unacceptable to the U.S. Congress. The formal name in Spanish for Puerto Rico is "Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico," which translates literally as "Associated Free State of Puerto Rico" or as Free Associated State (a state in "free association").
Despite the Spanish translation of the term "commonwealth", Puerto Rico's relationship with United States is not a Compact of Free Association (which is the case for the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands). As sovereign states, these islands have full right to conduct their own foreign relations, while the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has territorial status subject to United States congressional authority under the Constitution's Territory Clause, “to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory… belonging to the United States.” [1].
The territory was organized by the Foraker Act in 1900, which was amended by the Jones-Shafroth Act in 1917. The drafting of the Constitution of Puerto Rico by its residents was authorized by Congress in 1951, and the result approved in 1952. Puerto Rico does not have the right to unilaterally declare independence, but several referendums have been held, with the option for full U.S. statehood or full independence. At the last referendum (1998) the narrow majority voted for "none of the above", which was a formally undefined alternative used by commonwealth supporters to express their desire for an "enhanced commonwealth" option. [1].
In 1976, Congress approved the mutually negotiated Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in Political Union with the United States][2]
The Commonwealth of the Philippines was an insular area that held commonwealth status from November 15, 1935 until July 4, 1946. The United States recognized the independence of the Philippines in 1935 but called for a transitional period from 1935 until 1946 when the Philippines became fully independent.
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