Royal assent
thumb|George VI grants royal assent to laws in the Canadian Senate, 19 May 1939. Seated beside him is his consort, Queen Elizabeth.
Royal assent is the method by which a country's constitutional monarch (possibly through a delegated official) formally approves an act of that nation's parliament, thus making it a law or letting it be promulgated as law. In the vast majority of contemporary monarchies, this act is considered to be little more than a formality; even in those nations which still permit their monarchs to withhold royal assent (such as the United Kingdom, Norway, and Liechtenstein), the monarch almost never does so, save in a dire political emergency or upon the advice of their government. While the power to withhold royal assent was once exercised often in European monarchies, it is exceedingly rare in the modern, democratic political atmosphere that has developed there since the 18th century.

Royal assent is sometimes associated with elaborate ceremonies. In the United Kingdom, for instance, the sovereign may appear personally in the House of Lords or may appoint Lords Commissioners, who announce that royal assent has been granted at a ceremony held at the Palace of Westminster for this purpose. However, royal assent is usually granted less ceremonially by letters patent. In other nations, such as Australia, the Governor-General merely signs the bill. In Canada, the Governor-General may give assent either in person at a ceremony held in the Senate or by a written declaration notifying parliament of his or her agreement to the bill.

Commonwealth realms

United Kingdom
Before the Royal Assent by Commission Act of 1541 became law, assent was always required to be given in person before Parliament by the sovereign.

The last time royal assent was given by the sovereign in person was during the rule of Queen Victoria at a prorogation on the 12th of August 1854.Erskine May, Parliamentary Practice (19th ed.), p. 564. This was also the last occasion on which Parliament was prorogued by the monarch in person (ibid, at p. 261).

The Act was repealed and replaced by the Royal Assent Act of 1967, section 1 (2) of which does not prevent the sovereign from declaring assent in person if he or she so desires.

Royal assent is the final step required for a parliamentary bill to become law. Once a bill is presented to the sovereign or the sovereign's representative, he or she has the following formal options:

-the sovereign may grant royal assent, thereby making the bill an Act of Parliament.

-the sovereign may delay the bill's assent through the use of his or her reserve powers in near-revolutionary situations, thereby vetoing the bill.Francis Bennion, Modern Royal Assent Procedure at Westminster.

-the sovereign may refuse royal assent on the advice of his or her ministers.Thomas Erskine May's Parliamentary Practice, page 373, 2nd edition, 1851

Under modern constitutional conventions, the sovereign acts on the advice of his or her ministers. Since these ministers most often maintain the support of parliament and are the ones who obtain the passage of bills, it is highly improbable that they would advise the sovereign to withhold assent. Hence, in modern practice, royal assent is always granted; a refusal to do so would be appropriate only in an emergency requiring the use of the monarch's reserve powers.

The Monarch does not have the power to withhold a Bill from assenting.See Erskine May's, Parliamentary Practice (19th ed.), p. 562: "from that sanction they cannot be legally withheld."See 2 Hats. 339. 13 Lords' Journals, p.756, 3 Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, 354. 2 Burnet's Own Time, 274. The last bill that was refused assent by the sovereign was the Scottish Militia Bill during Queen Anne reign in 1708.Lords' Journals (1705-17090 p. 506

Historical development
Originally, legislative power was exercised by the sovereign acting on the advice of the Curia Regis, or Royal Council, in which important magnates and clerics participated and which evolved into parliament. The so-called Model Parliament included bishops, abbots, earls, barons, and two knights from each shire and two burgesses from each borough among its members. In 1265, the Earl of Leicester irregularly called a full parliament without royal authorisation. The body eventually came to be divided into two branches: bishops, abbots, earls, and barons formed the House of Lords, while the shire and borough representatives formed the House of Commons. The King would seek the advice and consent of both houses before making any law. During Henry VI's reign, it became regular practice for the two houses to originate legislation in the form of bills, which would not become law unless the sovereign's assent was obtained, as the sovereign was, and still remains, the enactor of laws. Hence, all acts include the clause "Be it enacted by the Queen's (King's) most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows...". The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 provide a second potential preamble if the House of Lords were to be excluded from the process.

The power of parliament to pass bills was often thwarted by monarchs. Charles I dissolved parliament in 1629, after it passed motions critical of and bills seeking to restrict his arbitrary exercise of power. During the eleven years of personal rule that followed, Charles performed legally dubious actions, such as raising taxes without parliament's approval."Charles I (r. 1625–49)". Royal Household at Buckingham Palace. Retrieved 12 April 2007. After the English Civil War, it was accepted that parliament should be summoned to meet regularly, but it was still commonplace for monarchs to refuse royal assent to bills. In 1678, Charles II withheld his assent from a bill "for preserving the Peace of the Kingdom by raising the Militia, and continuing them in Duty for Two and Forty Days,""House of Lords Journal Volume 13: 27 November 1678". Journal of the House of Lords: volume 13: 1675–1681 (1771), pp. 380–85. Retrieved 12 April 2007. suggesting that he, not parliament, should control the militia."The making and keeping of Acts" (PDF). History Today, Vol. VI, pp. 765–773, 1956. Retrieved 18 April 2007. The last Stuart monarch, Anne, similarly withheld on 11 March 1707, on the advice of her ministers, her assent from a bill for the settling of Militia in Scotland. No monarch has since withheld royal assent on a bill passed by the British parliament.

During the rule of the succeeding Hanoverian dynasty, power was gradually exercised more by parliament and the government. The first Hanoverian monarch, George I, relied on his ministers to a greater extent than did previous monarchs. Later Hanoverian monarchs attempted to restore royal control over legislation: George III and George IV both openly opposed Catholic EmancipationConway, Stephen. "Book Review: George III: An Essay in Monarchy". The Institute of Historical Research, February 2003. Retrieved 12 April 2007."George IV (1762–1830)". BBC History. Retrieved 12 April 2007. and asserted that to grant assent to a Catholic emancipation bill would violate the Coronation Oath, which required the sovereign to preserve and protect the established Church of England from Papal domination and would grant rights to individuals who were in league with a foreign power which did not recognise their legitimacy. However, George IV reluctantly granted his assent upon the advice of his ministers. Thus, as the concept of ministerial responsibility has evolved, the power to withhold royal assent has fallen into disuse, both in the United Kingdom and in the other Commonwealth realms.

In 1914, George V did take legal advice on withholding royal assent from the Government of Ireland Bill, a highly contentious piece of legislation that the Liberal government intended to push through parliament by means of the Parliament Act 1911. The King decided that he should not withhold assent without "convincing evidence that it would avert a national disaster, or at least have a tranquillizing effect on the distracting conditions of the time".

Devolved parliaments and assemblies

Scotland
Royal assent is the final stage in the legislative process for acts of the Scottish parliament. The process is governed by sections 28, 32, and 33 of the Scotland Act 1998. After a bill has been passed, the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament submits it to the monarch for royal assent after a four-week period, during which the Advocate General for Scotland, the Lord Advocate, the Attorney General or the Secretary of State for Scotland"Stage of a bill". The Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 29 June 2015. may refer the bill to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (prior to 1 October 2009, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council) for review of its legality. Royal assent is signified by letters patent under the Great Seal of Scotland in the following form which is set out in The Scottish Parliament (Letters Patent and Proclamations) Order 1999 (SI 1999/737) and of which notice is published in the London, Edinburgh, and Belfast Gazettes:

After the House of Representatives has debated the law, it either approves it and sends it to the Senate with the text "The Second Chamber of the States General sends the following approved proposal of law to the First Chamber", or it rejects it and returns it to the government with the text "The Second Chamber of the States General has rejected the accompanying proposal of law." If the upper house then approves the law, it sends it back to the government with the text "To the King, The States General have accepted the proposal of law as it is offered here."

The government, consisting of the monarch and the ministers, will then usually approve the proposal and the sovereign and one of the ministers signs the proposal with the addition of an enacting clause, thereafter notifying the States General that "The King assents to the proposal." It has happened in exceptional circumstances that the government does not approve a law that has been passed in parliament. In such a case, neither the monarch nor a minister will sign the bill, notifying the States General that "The King will keep the proposal under advisement." A law that has received royal assent will be published in the State Magazine, with the original being kept in the archives of the King's Offices.

Norway
Articles 77–79 of the Norwegian Constitution specifically grant the monarch of Norway the right to withhold royal assent from any bill passed by the Storting."The Constitution". The Storting's Information Service. Retrieved 12 April 2012. Should the sovereign ever choose to exercise this privilege, Article 79 provides a means by which his veto may be over-ridden: "If a Bill has been passed unaltered by two sessions of the Storting, constituted after two separate successive elections and separated from each other by at least two intervening sessions of the Storting, without a divergent Bill having been passed by any Storting in the period between the first and last adoption, and it is then submitted to the King with a petition that His Majesty shall not refuse his assent to a Bill which, after the most mature deliberation, the Storting considers to be beneficial, it shall become law even if the Royal Assent is not accorded before the Storting goes into recess."

Spain
Title IV of the 1978 Spanish constitution invests the Consentimiento Real (Royal Assent) and promulgation (publication) of laws with the monarch of Spain, while Title III, The Cortes Generales, Chapter 2, Drafting of Bills, outlines the method by which bills are passed. According to Article 91, within fifteen days of passage of a bill by the Cortes Generales, the sovereign shall give his or her assent and publish the new law. Article 92 invests the monarch with the right to call for a referendum, on the advice of the president of the government (commonly referred to in English as the prime minister) and the authorisation of the cortes.

No provision within the constitution grants the monarch an ability to veto legislation directly; however, no provision prohibits the sovereign from withholding royal assent, which effectively constitutes a veto. When the Spanish media asked King Juan Carlos if he would endorse the bill legalising same-sex marriages, he answered "Soy el Rey de España y no el de Bélgica" ("I am the King of Spain and not that of Belgium")—a reference to King Baudouin I of Belgium, who had refused to sign the Belgian law legalising abortion. The King gave royal assent to Law 13/2005 on 1 July 2005; the law was gazetted in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 2 July and came into effect on 3 July 2005. Likewise, in 2010, King Juan Carlos gave royal assent to a law permitting abortion.

If the Spanish monarch ever refused in conscience to grant royal assent, a procedure similar to the Belgian handling of King Baudouin's objection would not be possible under the current constitution. If the sovereign were ever declared incapable of discharging royal authority, his or her powers would not be transferred to the Cabinet, pending the parliamentary appointment of a regency. Instead, the constitution mandates the next person of age in the line of succession would immediately become regent. Therefore, had Juan Carlos followed the Belgian example in 2005 or 2010, a declaration of incapacity would have transferred power to Felipe, then the heir apparent.

Tonga
Articles 41 and 68 of the constitution empower the sovereign to withhold royal assent from bills adopted by the Legislative Assembly.Constitution of the Kingdom of Tonga In 2010, the kingdom moved towards greater democracy, with King George Tupou V saying that he would be guided by his prime minister in the exercising of his powers. Nonetheless, this does not preclude an independent royal decision to exercise a right of veto. In November 2011, the assembly adopted an Arms and Ammunitions (Amendment) Bill, which reduced the possible criminal sentences for the illicit possession of firearms. The bill was adopted by ten votes to eight. Two members of the assembly had recently been charged with the illicit possession of firearms. The Prime Minister, Lord Tuʻivakanō, voted in favour of the amendment. Members of the opposition denounced the bill and asked the King to veto it, which he did in December."Democracy at Work?", Lopeti Senituli, Taimi Media Network, 17 November 2011"Houses slashes penalties for firearms offenses", Matangi Tonga, 14 October 2011"King withholds assent on lower firearms penalties", Matangi Tonga, 9 January 2012"Tonga king blocks arms amendment act", Radio New Zealand International, 10 January 2012

References

External links
.
Royal Assent, UK Parliament.

Further reading
 "Act of Parliament" and "Parliament". In Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London (1911): Cambridge University Press.
 Bond, M. F. (1956). "La Reyne le Veult: The making and keeping of Acts at Westminster". "History Today", (Vol. 6, pp. 756–773). Retrieved 11 April 2007.
 Companion to the Standing Orders and guide to the Proceedings of the House of Lords (22nd ed). Retrieved 11 April 2007.
 Hansard, House of Lords, 2 March 1967, columns 1181–1191
 "The Honourable John C. Bowen, 1937–50. Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Retrieved 11 April 2007.
 "Royal Assent Act. (2002, c. 15)" Department of Justice Canada, 2002. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
 "Queen and Prince Charles using power of veto over new laws, Whitehall documents reveal" The Telegraph

Category:Westminster system
Category:Constitution of the United Kingdom
Category:Royal prerogative
Category:Legal terminology