ABSTRACT
Walter Bagehot famously attributed three rights to the sovereign – to be consulted, to encourage and to warn. These rights apply not only in the United Kingdom but also with respect to the powers of the Governor-General in Realms such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This chapter considers how accurate Bagehot's assessment was in its day, the intention behind it, and its transformation from radicalism to orthodoxy. It analyses how those rights are exercised by vice-regal officers. It discusses the tension between the conventional obligation to act on final ministerial advice and the assessment of when that advice is 'final' or can still be delayed, stymied or altered. It also addresses the suggestion that the rights Bagehot identified have transformed from mere encouragement and warning into a right, or even a duty, to advise and advocate policy change. It concludes with a discussion of the limits on the power and influence of the sovereign and her vice-regal representatives and how Bagehot's rights can mask the exercise of soft power while averting the need to exercise the Crown's reserve powers.
