A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, [1] royal figure, or other relevant authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislative laws, or customary laws of a government.
In Belgium, a decree is a law of a community or regional parliament, e.g. the Flemish Parliament.
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A decree (Latin: decretum) in the usage of the canon law of the Catholic Church has various meanings. Any papal bull, brief, or motu proprio is a decree inasmuch as these documents are legislative acts of the pope. In this sense, the term is quite ancient. The Roman Congregations were formerly empowered to issue decrees in matters which come under their particular jurisdiction but were forbidden from continuing to do so under Pope Benedict XV in 1917. [2] Each ecclesiastical province and also each diocese may issue decrees in their periodical synods within their sphere of authority.
While in a general sense all documents promulgated by an ecumenical council can be called decrees, in a specific sense some of these documents, as at the Second Vatican Council, were called more precisely constitutions or declarations. [3]
Canon 29 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law defines general decrees:
General decrees, by which a competent legislator makes common provisions for a community capable of receiving a law, are true laws and are regulated by the provisions of the canons on laws. [4]
The Holy See uses decrees from the pope such as papal bull, papal brief or motu proprio as legislative acts. [5]
The word décret, literally "decree", is an old legal usage in France and is used to refer to executive orders issued by the French President or Prime Minister. Any such order must not violate the French Constitution or Civil Code, and a party has the right to request an order be annulled in the French Council of State. Orders must be ratified by Parliament before they can be modified into legislative Acts. Special orders known as décret-loi, literally "decree-act" or "decree-law", [6] [7] usually considered an illegal practice under the 3rd and 4th Republic, were finally abolished and replaced by the regulations under the 1958 Constitution.
Except for the reserve powers of the President (as stated in Art. 16 of the 1958 Constitution, exercised only once so far), the executive can issue decrees in areas that the Constitution grants as the responsibility of Parliament only if a law authorizes it to do so. In other cases, orders are illegal and, should anyone sue for the order's annulment, it would be voided by the Council of State. There exists a procedure for the Prime Minister to issue ordinances in such areas, but this procedure requires Parliament's express consent (see Art 38 of the 1958 Constitution).
Orders issued by the Prime Minister take two forms:
Sometimes, people refer to décrets en Conseil d'État improperly as décrets du Conseil d'État. This would imply that it is the Council of State that makes the decree, whereas the power of decreeing is restricted to the president or prime minister; the role of the administrative sections of the council is purely advisory.
Decrees may be classified into:
Only the prime minister may issue regulatory or application decrees. Presidential decrees are generally nominations or exceptional measures where the law mandates a presidential decree, such as the dissolution of the French National Assembly, the calling of new legislative elections, and the grant of the title Marshal of France.
Decrees are published in the Journal Officiel de la République Française (French Gazette).
According to clause 77 of the Italian Constitution,
The Government may not, without an enabling act from the Houses [of Parliament], issue decrees having the force of ordinary law.
When in extraordinary cases of necessity and urgency the Government adopts provisional measures having the force of law, it must on the same day present said measures for confirmation to the Houses which, even if dissolved, shall be extraordinally summoned for this purpose and shall convene within five days.
The decrees lose effect from their inception if they are not confirmed within sixty days from their publication. The Houses may however regulate by law legal relationships arising out of unconfirmed decrees.
The effectiveness for sixty days produces the effects immediately, giving rights or expectations whose legal basis was precarious, especially when the conversion law never intervened. [8]
In Portugal there are several types of decree (Portuguese : decreto) issued by the various bodies of sovereignty or by the bodies of local government of autonomous regions.
As of 2022 [update] , there are the following types of decree:
According to article 110 of the constitution, the Supreme Leader delineates the general policies of the Islamic Republic.
After the Russian Revolution, a government proclamation of wide meaning was called a "decree" (декретdekret); a more specific proclamation was called an указukaz. Both terms are usually translated as 'decree'.
According to the Russian Federation's 1993 constitution, an ukaz is a presidential decree. Such an ukaz has the force of law, but may not alter the Russian constitution or the regulations of existing laws, and may be superseded by laws passed by the Federal Assembly.
The Government of Russia can also issue decrees formally called Decisions (ПостановленияPostanovleniya or Orders (РаспоряженияRasporyazheniya) and may not contradict the constitution/laws or presidential decrees.
Royal decrees, along with the Sharia, are the sources of law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In Spain, decrees come in several forms:
The decree law (Turkish: Kanun Hükmünde Kararname, KHK) in Turkey is a type of legislative instrument issued by the government, based on the authority granted either by a specific enabling act from the legislative body or directly from the Constitution. These decrees have the force of law in a material sense and acquire formal and organic legal power upon the approval of the parliament. According to Article 87 of the 1982 Constitution of Turkey, granting the Council of Ministers the authority to issue decree laws on specific matters is included in the duties and powers of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. [9]
Article 91 of the Constitution also regulates the issuance of decree laws. It states:
"The Grand National Assembly of Turkey may delegate the power to issue decree laws to the Council of Ministers. However, with the exception of martial law and states of emergency, the fundamental rights, individual rights and duties, and political rights and duties listed in the first and second sections of the second part of the Constitution cannot be regulated by decree laws."
Decree laws in Turkey are categorized into two types: ordinary and extraordinary. Ordinary decree laws are issued by the Council of Ministers and require an enabling act from the Grand National Assembly. They cannot regulate fundamental rights, individual rights and duties, or political rights and duties. Extraordinary decree laws, on the other hand, are issued by the Council of Ministers under the presidency of the President. They do not require an enabling act from the Grand National Assembly and can regulate any area, provided they fulfill obligations arising from international law. Decree laws are subject to both political scrutiny by the parliament and judicial review by the Constitutional Court. [10]
Following the approval of the 2017 constitutional amendment referendum in Turkey and the 2018 general elections, which led to the election of the President by popular vote, Article 91 of the Constitution was repealed. With this change, decree laws were replaced by Presidential Decrees (Turkish: Cumhurbaşkanlığı Kararnameleri, CBK) in the new system. [11]
In the United Kingdom, Orders-in-Council are either primary legislation deriving their authority from the royal prerogative, promulgated by the Privy Council in the name of the Monarch; or secondary legislation, promulgated by a minister of the Crown using the authority granted by an act of Parliament or other primary legislation. Both are subject to judicial review, the former with some exceptions. [12]
In US legal usage, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, a decree was an order of a court of equity determining the rights of the parties to a suit, according to equity and good conscience. Since the 1938 procedural merger of law and equity in the federal courts under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the term judgment (the parallel term in the common law) has generally replaced decree. This is now true also in most state courts. [13] The term decree is broadly treated as synonymous with judgment. [14]
A decree is often a final determination, but there are also interlocutory decrees. A final decree fully and finally disposes of the whole litigation, determining all questions raised by the case, and it leaves nothing that requires further judicial action; it is also appealable. An interlocutory decree is a provisional or preliminary decree that is not final and does not fully determine the suit, so that some further proceedings are required before entry of a final decree. [15] It is usually not appealable, although preliminary injunctions by federal courts are appealable even though interlocutory. [16]
Executive orders, which are instructions from the President to the executive branch of government, are decrees in the general sense in that they have the force of law, although they cannot override statute law or the Constitution and are subject to judicial review. Governors of individual states may also issue state executive orders.
The Constitution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands of 24 August 1815 is one of two fundamental documents governing the Kingdom of the Netherlands as well as the fundamental law of the Netherlands proper. The Kingdom of the Netherlands also includes Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten: there is an overarching instrument of the entire kingdom that has constitution characteristics: the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Sint Maarten is the only country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands that has a constitutional court to govern the Sint Maarten legislature.
The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye, is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the national government and is the commander-in-chief of the Turkish military. The president also heads the National Security Council.
Promulgation is the formal proclamation or the declaration that a new statutory or administrative law is enacted after its final approval. In some jurisdictions, this additional step is necessary before the law can take effect.
The Spanish Constitution is the supreme law of the Kingdom of Spain. It was enacted after its approval in a constitutional referendum; it represents the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy.
An enabling act is a piece of legislation by which a legislative body grants an entity which depends on it for the delegation of the legislative body's power to take certain actions. For example, enabling acts often establish government agencies to carry out specific government policies in a modern nation. The effects of enabling acts from different times and places vary widely.
During its independent political history, Brazil has had seven constitutions. The most recent was ratified on October 5, 1988.
The Catalan constitutions were the laws of the Principality of Catalonia promulgated by the Count of Barcelona and approved by the Catalan Courts. The Corts in Catalan have the same origin as courts in English but instead meaning the legislature. The first constitutions were promulgated by the Corts of 1283. The last ones were promulgated by the Corts of 1705. They had pre-eminence over the other legal rules and could only be revoked by the Catalan Courts themselves. The compilations of the constitutions and other rights of Catalonia followed the Roman tradition of the Codex.
The Government of Turkey is the national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative democracy and a constitutional republic within a pluriform multi-party system. The term government can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Cabinet.
The Law of Portugal is part of the family of what in English-speaking countries are sometimes called the "civil law" legal systems, referring to legal systems that developed at least in conversation or close ties with systems influenced by the ius commune medieval European tradition of Roman law. As such, it has many common features with the legal systems found in most of the countries in Continental Europe.
The present Constitution of the Republic of Albania was adopted by the Parliament of Albania on 21 October 1998 and certified by presidential decree on 28 November 1998, following a public referendum which approved the new Constitution. It is split up over many different acts. The document succeeded the 1976 Constitution, originally adopted at the creation of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania on 28 December 1976 and heavily amended on 29 April 1991.
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the Kingdom of Spain. The court has original jurisdiction over cases against high-ranking officials of the Kingdom and over cases regarding the legalization of political parties. It also has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all cases. The Court has the power of judicial review, except for the judicial revision on constitutional matters, reserved to the Constitutional Court.
The Council of Ministers is the principal executive organ of the Government of Italy. It comprises the President of the Council, all the ministers, and the Undersecretary to the Prime Minister. Deputy ministers and junior ministers are part of the government, but are not members of the Council of Ministers.
In French law, an ordonnance is a statutory instrument issued by the Council of Ministers in an area of law normally reserved for primary legislation enacted by the French Parliament. They function as temporary statutes pending ratification by the Parliament; failing ratification they function as mere executive regulations.
The politics of France take place within the framework of a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic". The constitution provides for a separation of powers and proclaims France's "attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of National Sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789".
Czech law, often referred to as the legal order of the Czech Republic, is the system of legal rules in force in the Czech Republic, and in the international community it is a member of. Czech legal system belongs to the Germanic branch of continental legal culture. Major areas of public and private law are divided into branches, among them civil, criminal, administrative, procedural and labour law, and systematically codified.
The law of Italy is the system of law across the Italian Republic. The Italian legal system has a plurality of sources of production. These are arranged in a hierarchical scale, under which the rule of a lower source cannot conflict with the rule of an upper source.
Gediz University was a private university located in the Seyrek neighborhood of Menemen, a metropolitan district of Izmir, Turkey. It was established in 2008. On 23 July 2016, in the course of the 2016 Turkish purges, the university was closed by the Turkish government due to its alleged ties with the Gülen movement.
Primary legislation and secondary legislation are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislative and executive branches of governments in representative democracies. Primary legislation generally consists of statutes, also known as 'acts', that set out broad principles and rules, but may delegate specific authority to an executive branch to make more specific laws under the aegis of the principal act. The executive branch can then issue secondary legislation, creating legally enforceable regulations and the procedures for implementing them.
States of emergency in France are dispositions to grant special powers to the executive branch in case of exceptional circumstances. A state of emergency was declared following the November 2015 Paris attacks, which expired, after five extensions, in November 2017.
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