Royal Assent

Royal Assent is the formal method by which a Monarch in many constitutional monarchies completes the process of the enactment of legislation, by formally assenting to an Act of Parliament. In most republics, this process is referred to as signing a Bill into law or promulgation. The power to deny Royal Assent is one of the reserve powers of the Monarch.

Table of contents

1 Introduction
2 The Three Options
3 The Use of the Powers

3.1 Granting the Royal Assent
3.2 Withholding of the Royal Assent
3.3 Reserving the Royal Assent

4 Notes
5 External links

Introduction

Within countries that operate the Westminster system of parliamentary government and which continue to have the British monarch as their own sovereign, the Royal Assent in given to legislation by the Governor-General. Legislation actually given assent by the Queen herself is known as a law 'reserved for the Queen's pleasure'. Also, the sovereign herself has powers to veto legislation within one year of assent by the Governor-General.

Historically, the power of the President of the United States to veto legislation or sign bills into law was derived from the royal assent.

The Three Options

Three formal options exist when a Bill is presented for the Royal Assent.

Grant the Royal Assent ie, make the Bill law
Withhold the Royal Assent ie, veto the Bill
Reserve the Royal Assent ie, neither veto or confirm it, just leave it in limbo for an unspecified period

While in theory, any one of the three options can be used, in practice, no British monarch since 1707 [1] has withheld the Royal Assent. Until the late 1920s, all Commonwealth governors-general were advised on the exercise of the Royal Assent by the British government. Since then, the responsibility for advising a governor-general on the Royal Assent rests with the state's own government. As they almost invariably will have introduced the Bill being considered, they are highly unlikely to advise the effective vetoing of their own Bill. Reserving the legislation for 'the Queen's pleasure' (i.e. for the sovereign to give assent to personally) is rare; some countries such as Australia have however done so if the Bill is of such significance that the state wish to have it signed not by the Governor-General but by Queen Elizabeth II herself in person. The Queen also has can disallow legislation signed by the Governor within one year of its assent.

The Use of the Powers

Granting the Royal Assent

The traditional method for granting the Royal Assent involved the monarch or Lords Commissioners on his or her behalf, and peers assembling in the House of Lords. Black Rod, a parliamentary official, was then dispatched to the House of Commons to summon its members to the House of Lords. MPs would travel to the Lords chamber, where they would stand at the back, while the name of whatever Bills had completed parliamentary passage were read out. Where the Assent was given, the Lords Clerk, at the direction of the Commissioners, would state the appropriate Norman French formula:

For a supply bill, La Reyne remercie ses bon sujets, accepte leur bénévolence, et ainsi le veult. (The Queen thanks her good subjects, accepts their benevolence, and thus wills it.)
For a public or private bill, La Reyne le veult. (The Queen wills it.)
For a personal bill, Soit fait comme il est désiré. (Be it done as it is desired.)

MPs would then return back to the Commons to continue with their business. This ceremony, adapted somewhat, was copied in many Commonwealth parliamentary democracies. In Canada, the Governor-General or his or her representative would formally attend in the Senate chamber, to which MPs would be summoned, to witness the granting of the Royal Assent.

In most states, this ceremony has been changed. MPs complained that it disrupted their deliberations too much. In 1967 the ceremony was reformed in the United Kingdom. Instead the granting of the Royal Assent is now confirmed in both Houses separately, by the Lords Commissioners in the House of Lords and the Speaker in the House of Commons (see External links below). Canada remained the last Commonwealth state to continue the ritual of summoning both houses to witness the granting of the Royal Assent.

Withholding of the Royal Assent

In the United Kingdom - Queen Anne was the last monarch to withhold a Royal Assent, when she blocked a Scottish militia Bill in 1707.¹
In Canada, Royal Assent was withheld in 1937 on several bills and the crown dissolved the legislature.
In 1936 Alberta's Lieutenant Governor Bowen withheld the Royal Assent from three Bills passed during William Aberhart's Social Credit government. Two of them were thought likely to interfere in federal-government controlled financial areas, while the third, the Accurate News and Information Act, would have placed restrictions on how media reported the news and was thus considered by some lawyers to be unconstitutional.

While withholding the Royal Assent is rare, there have been discussions on situations in which it would be proper. For example, many legal scholars believe that if the Quebec National Assembly were to unilaterally declare independence, that the Lieutenant Governor would not only have the power to withhold royal assent, but be duty bound to do so.

Reserving the Royal Assent

The concept of reserving the Royal Assent was created to allow a monarch to avoid making an immediate decision on whether to Assent to or withhold a Bill. In Empire and Commonwealth history, it allowed the British Government in London to examine a Bill passed in a dominion to see whether it thought it worth instructing the Governor-General to veto. Today, Bills are normally only reserved on rare occasions, such as if a government wishes to have the Queen herself rather than the Governor-General sign a Bill and a royal visit is pending within a couple of weeks.

Notes

[1] While history and legal textbooks generally refer to the last 'withholding' of the Royal Assent (ie, vetoing) as occurring in 1707, when Queen Anne vetoed a Scottish militia bill, the British parliamentary website dates the veto as occurring in 1708. This is probably due to the difference between the British "Old Style" calendar, in which a year began at the vernal equinox (March 25th, to be exact), and the "New Style" calendar, in which a year began on January 1.