This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work from a set of rules or standards to determine whether such approval should be given.
The word may be considered very roughly synonymous with accreditation, and in fact in French and Spanish[1] may be used with regard to academic degrees (see apostille).
In today's marketplace, for instance, products must often be homologated by some public agency to assure that they meet standards for such things as safety and environmental impact.
This delayed homologation of the track from January 2005 to October 2005 in order to achieve safe runs during luge competitions.
In towed water sports, tournaments must adhere to homologation requirements set by the International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation in order to qualify as ranking.