Both businesses and residents of the City, or "Square Mile", are entitled to vote in corporation elections.

The "Liberties and Customs" of the City of London are guaranteed in Magna Carta's clause IX, which remains in statute.

[7] There is no surviving record of a charter first establishing the corporation as a legal body, but the City is regarded as incorporated by prescription, meaning that the law presumes it to have been incorporated because it has for so long been regarded as such (e.g. Magna Carta states that "the City of London shall have/enjoy its ancient liberties").

[8] The City of London Corporation has been granted various special privileges since the Norman Conquest,[9][10] and the Corporation's first recorded royal charter dates from around 1067, when William the Conqueror granted the citizens of London a charter confirming the rights and privileges that they had enjoyed since the time of Edward the Confessor.

Numerous subsequent royal charters over the centuries confirmed and extended the citizens' rights.

The Corporation is unique among British local authorities for its continuous legal existence over many centuries, and for having the power to alter its own constitution, which is done by an Act of Common Council.

The chief executive of the administrative side of the Corporation holds the ancient office of Town Clerk of London.

Because of its accumulated wealth and responsibilities, the Corporation has a number of officers and officials unique to its structure who enjoy more autonomy than most local council officials,[citation needed] and each of whom has a separate budget: There are others: The first direct elections to Common Council took place in 1384.

[20] Eligible voters[21] must be at least 18 years old and a citizen of the United Kingdom, or a Commonwealth country, and either: Each body or organisation, whether unincorporated or incorporated, whose premises are within the City of London may appoint a number of voters based on the number of workers it employs.

The numbers below reflect the changes caused by the City of London (Ward Elections) Act and a recent[when?]

The senior members of the livery companies, known as liverymen, form a special electorate known as Common Hall.

Common Hall is the body that chooses the lord mayor, the sheriffs and certain other City officers.

[25] The "Court" is the primary decision-making body of the City of London Corporation and meets nine times per year, though most of its work is carried out by committees.

They also represent the court on various different committees, support the lord mayor in the business of the Corporation and are prominently present on ceremonial occasions.

Tax journalist Nicholas Shaxson described the ceremony in an article in the New Statesman:[38] Whenever The Queen makes a State entry to the City, she meets a red cord raised by City police at Temple Bar, and then engages in a colourful ceremony involving the Lord Mayor, his Sword, assorted Aldermen and Sheriffs, and a character called the Remembrancer.

[...] The ceremony is an acknowledgement by the Mayer of the Queen's sovereignty in the City and may take place at the point of entry where it may be.

During the ceremony the Monarch's carriage procession draws up, the City Police pull a red cord across the street where Temple Bar once stood, the royal procession stops, the Lord Mayor approaches the carriage and presents the hilt of the City's Pearl Sword to the Monarch who touches it and symbolically returns the sword to the Lord Mayor.

This is act of feudal fealty in which the Lord Mayor surrenders his principal symbol of authority to the Monarch, who in turn (assuming she finds him suitably qualified to continue in office) returns the sword.

One of the most recent persons to receive the award was Anna Landre in 2024, recognising her work in computer science and her disability campaigning.

City of London residents may send their children to schools in neighbouring local education authorities (LEAs).

The Lord Mayor also holds the posts of Rector of City University and President of Gresham College, an educational institution for advanced study.

Writing in The Guardian, George Monbiot claimed that the corporation's power "helps to explain why regulation of the banks is scarcely better than it was before the crash, why there are no effective curbs on executive pay and bonuses and why successive governments fail to act against the UK's dependent tax havens" and suggested that its privileges could not withstand proper "public scrutiny".