 The Privy Council is one of the four principal councils of the sovereign . The other three are the courts of law , the Commune Concilium ( Common Council , or Parliament ) and the Magnum Concilium ( Great Council , or the assembly of all the Peers of the Realm ) . All are still in existence , or at least have never been formally abolished , but the Magnum Concilium has not been summoned since 1640 and was considered defunct even then . 
