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Commissioner is a designation that may be used for a variety of official positions, especially referring to a high-ranking public (administrative or police) official, or an analogous official in the private sector (e.g. the highest executive position of many North American sports leagues).
[edit] Domestic public official
A Commissioner within a modern state generally holds his office by virtue of a commission from the head of state or a Council of Elected Representatives (or appointed by non-elected officials in the case of dictatorships).
[edit] Scotland
Prior to the Acts of Union 1707, an elected member of the Estates (parliament) of Scotland held the office of Commissioner, representing a constituency (the equivalent of a Member of Parliament in the contemporaneous Parliament of England). There were Burgh Commissioners and Shire or Stewartry Commissioners.
[edit] Canadian territories
A Commissioner is the formal head of one of the territories of Canada (i.e. those places within the country without the constitutional status of a province). Unlike the Governor General or a Lieutenant-Governor, who are representatives of the Queen of Canada, Commissioners are not vice-regal representatives. They are appointed by the federal government as a delegate of cabinet. Under the federal statutes[1][2][3] governing the territories, the Commissioners act in accordance with written instructions from cabinet or the minister responsible (currently the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development). While commissioners used to have a direct day-to-day role in administration and government and chaired the Executive Council of the territory, today they are under instruction to act more like a provincial lieutenant-governor as territorial assemblies have taken on more and more responsibility.
[edit] Current Canadian commissioners
[edit] United States
In many U.S. states, the legislative and executive decision-making bodies of counties are called the board of commissioners or county commission. In Minnesota, the heads of statewide cabinet-level departments are called "commissioners".
[edit] Police
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Main article: Police commissioner
[edit] International public and colonial context
[edit] European Union
The European Commissioners are the members of the European Commission, the highest executive organ of the European Union, which is the closest EU equivalent to a government. Each Commissioner is assigned a portfolio, but they make most important decisions collegially, often subject to approval by the European Parliament and/or the Council of the European Union.
[edit] British and Commonwealth overseas possessions
The title of Commissioner was used in a gubernatorial role for the chief British official in
- the Caribbean Turks and Caicos Islands, 1874 - 4 July 1959 as a dependency under the Governor of Jamaica colony
- the Weihaiwei concession territory (held from China) from 1902 to 1938.
[edit] French colonies
The French equivalent, Commissaire, was used for various officials employed at different levels of the colonial administration in several countries.
[edit] Sports
In many North American sports leagues, including nearly all professional leagues, the commissioner is the highest executive position. The exact powers of the commissioner depend on the constitution and/or rules of the league in question. Commissioners are elected by the owners of the league's clubs, and are generally expected to handle such matters as discipline, arbitration of disputes between the clubs, etc.
The title was first used in 1920, when Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed Commissioner of Baseball in the aftermath of the Black Sox Scandal. Landis was titled "Commissioner" partly to distinguish his office from that of the "President" of the American and National Leagues, with Landis' title deriving from the National Commission, the ruling body for baseball established in 1903. which were largely autonomous organizations at the time. Eager to restore public confidence in their sport's integrity, baseball owners gave Landis absolute power and a lifetime contract, which permitted the former judge to assume more power over the sport than a commissioner in any sport has held since.
The other major professional sports leagues of North America eventually followed suit, replacing their positions of league president with that of commissioner. The National Football League appointed its first commissioner in 1941, with the National Basketball Association following suit in 1967 and the National Hockey League appointing a commissioner in 1993. However, the commissioners' powers and responsibilities in these leagues are not substantially different from those of the presidents that preceded them. Although baseball's subsequent commissioners have not enjoyed the absolute power that Landis did, current Commissioner Bud Selig has succeeded in centralizing authority over Major League Baseball in the commissioner's office, relegating the position of league president to an honorary title and giving baseball's commissioner competencies similar to those of his colleagues in the other major sports.
Many minor professional and amateur leagues throughout the United States and Canada have also appointed commissioners. The title has not caught on outside North America. In addition to Selig, the other current commissioners of the North American major professional leagues are Roger Goodell in the NFL, David Stern in the NBA and Gary Bettman in the NHL.
[edit] Compound titles
In many cases the term Commissioner is part of a more specific title, including English renditions of such titles in other languages. Examples (in some cases there are further compounds) include:
- Assistant Commissioner
- Chief Commissioner
- Civil Commissioner
- Commissioner-General
- Deputy Commissioner
- District Commissioner
- Divisional Commissioner
- Extraordinary Commissioner
- Federal Commissioner
- Fire Commissioner
- Government Commissioner
- High Commissioner
- Imperial Commissioner
- Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty
- Lord High Commissioner and its further compounds, notably Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland
- Military and Civil Commissioner
- Provincial Commissioner
- Resident Commissioner
- Royal commissioner
- Special Commissioner
- State Commissioner and Commissioner of State
- Traveling Commissioner
[edit] See also
- List of Commissioners of New South Wales Police
- List of Northwest Territories commissioners
- List of Nunavut commissioners
- List of Yukon commissioners
[edit] External links