Royal Prerogative - Ministerial Exercise of The Monarch's Prerogatives

Ministerial Exercise of The Monarch's Prerogatives

Today, some prerogatives are directly exercised by ministers without the approval of Parliament, including, in the United Kingdom, the powers to regulate the civil service, issue passports and grant honours. Some prerogative powers are exercised nominally by the monarch, but on the advice of the Prime Minister, with whom the monarch meets weekly, and on the advice of Cabinet of the United Kingdom. Some key areas of the British system of government are still carried out by means of the royal prerogative, but its usage has been diminishing as functions are progressively made statutory.

Contrary to widespread belief, the royal prerogative is not constitutionally unlimited. While the sovereign has the right to promulgate (i.e., create and proclaim) new law, it is a form of reserve power not constitutionally used. (Her Majesty, as Head of State of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, has the right to use the royal prerogative over any nation where she is Head of State.)

In the Case of Proclamations (1611) during the reign of King James I/VI, English common law courts judges emphatically asserted that they possessed the right to determine the limits of the royal prerogative. Since the Glorious Revolution (1688), which brought co-monarchs Queen Mary II and King William III to power; this interpretation of there being a separate and distinct power of the Judiciary has not been challenged by the Crown. It has been accepted that it is emphatically the province of the Court(s) to say what the law is, or means. This is a crucial corollary and foundation to the concept of the Judicial Power; and its distinct and separate nature from the Executive Power possessed by the Crown itself, or its Ministers.