Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is located near the coast of Normandy, France measuring at 45.6 square miles. Their recorded history dates back over 1,000 years and at one point in time, Jersey was part of the Dutch of Normandy. Strangely, this never happened due to their dukes going on to become kings of England in 1066. After Normandy lost their dukes, Jersey and several other small territories in the Channel Islands remained connected to the English Crown. Jersey quickly became divided into 12 parishes, or districts, all bordering the ocean.
Jersey is a self-governing parliament democracy under a constitutional monarchy, meaning they have their own financial, legal and judicial systems. Because of this, Jersey is not part of the United Kingdom and has a separate identity. However, the UK is constitutionally responsible for the defense of Jersey which was established in 1981, under the British Nationality Act. In order to stay connected to the Crown, a Lieutenant Governor is placed in Jersey’s Parliament to represent the monarchy and to stay in correspondence with the Queen. Regarding currency, Jersey uses sterling banknotes that are denominated into pounds sterling. Their history with the monarchy is transparent through their banknotes, which have the Queen on the obverse and a landmark or distinctive territory on the reverse. Although they are one of the Crown dependencies and diplomatic representation is reserved to the Crown, Jersey has been developing its own international identity over the recent years. Jersey negotiates directly with foreign governments independently on several matters within the guidelines of the Government of Jersey.
