Royal charter

Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but since the 14th century have only been used in place of private acts to grant a right or power to an individual or a body corporate.

[11] Charters have been used in Europe since medieval times to grant rights and privileges to towns, boroughs, and cities.

After the eighth year of Henry VIII, all grants under the Great Seal were issued as letters patent.

Early charters to such companies often granted trade monopolies, but this power was restricted to Parliament from the end of the 17th century.

This enabled corporations that had existed from time immemorial to be recognised as incorporated via the legal fiction of a "lost charter".

Universities established solely by royal (as distinct from imperial) charter did not have the same international recognition – their degrees were only valid within that kingdom.

[27] The Edinburgh charter gave permission for the town council "to build and to repair sufficient houses and places for the reception, habitation and teaching of professors of the schools of grammar, the humanities and languages, philosophy, theology, medicine and law, or whichever liberal arts which we declare detract in no way from the aforesaid mortification" and granted them the right to appoint and remove professors.

[32] Thus the University of Dublin was also brought into existence by this charter, as the body that awards the degrees earned by students at Trinity College.

Hastings Rashdall states that "the special privilege of the jus ubique docendi ... was usually, but not quite invariably, conferred in express terms by the original foundation-bulls; and was apparently understood to be involved in the mere act of erection even in the rare cases where it is not expressly conceded".

Both London (1878) and Durham (1895) later received supplemental charters allowing the granting of degrees to women, which was considered to require explicit authorisation.

An attempt to resolve this in London in 1754 ended inconclusively when Henry Pelham, the prime minister, died.

However, Princeton's charter was never challenged in court prior to its ratification by the state legislature in 1780, following the US Declaration of Independence.

Most Canadian universities originally established by royal charter were subsequently reincorporated by acts of the relevant parliaments.

[65] McGill University was established under the name of McGill College in 1821, by a provincial royal charter issued by Governor General of British North America the Earl of Dalhousie; the charter stating that the "College shall be deemed and taken to be an University" and should have the power to grant degrees.

In 1841. a provincial act replaced the charter, reconstituted the academy as Victoria College, and granted it degree-awarding powers.

This remains in force as the university's primary constitutional document and was last amended, through the Canadian federal parliament, in 2011.

This gave rise to doubts about whether their degrees would be recognised outside of those colonies, leading to them seeking royal charters from London, which would grant legitimacy across the British Empire.

This stated that (emphasis in the original): the Memorialists confidently hope that the Graduates of the University of Sydney will not be inferior in scholastic requirements to the majority of Graduates of British Universities, and that it is desirable to have the degrees of the University of Sydney generally recognised throughout our dominions; and it is also humbly submitted that although our Royal Assent to the Act of Legislature of New South Wales hereinbefore recited fully satisfies the principle of our law that the power of granting degrees should flow from the Crown, yet that as that assent was conveyed through an Act which has effect only in the territory of New South Wales, the Memorialists believe that the degrees granted by the said University under the authority of the said Act, are not legally entitled to recognition beyond the limits of New South Wales; and the Memorialists are in consequence most desirous to obtain a grant from us of Letters Patent requiring all our subjects to recognise the degrees given under the Act of the Local Legislature in the same manner as if the said University of Sydney had been an University established within the United Kingdom under a Royal Charter or an Imperial enactment.The charter went on to (emphasis in the original): will, grant and declare that the Degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, Doctor of Laws, Bachelor of Medicine, and Doctor of Medicine, already granted or conferred or hereafter to be granted or conferred by the Senate of the said University of Sydney shall be recognised as Academic distinctions and rewards of merit and be entitled to rank, precedence, and consideration in our United Kingdom and in our Colonies and possessions throughout the world as fully as if the said Degree had been granted by any University of our said United Kingdom.

[80] The act that established the University of Adelaide in 1874 included women undergraduates, causing a delay in the granting of its charter as the authorities in London did not wish to allow this.

[87] The Barbers Guild (the Gild of St Mary Magdalen) in Dublin is said to have received a charter in 1446, although this was not recorded in the rolls of chancery and was lost in the 18th century.

[92] New professional bodies were formed in Britain in the early 19th century representing new professions that arose after the industrial revolution and the rise of laissez-faire capitalism.

These new bodies sought recognition by gaining royal charters, laying out their constitutions and defining the profession in question, often based on occupational activity or particular expertise.

[95] However, several non-technical higher education institutions have been founded, or refounded, under royal decree, such as the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (National Fund for Scientific Research) in 1928[96] and the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten in 1938.

The royal charter codifies the laws applied to the particular city and lays out the powers and responsibilities not given to other municipalities in the province concerned.

[112] Royal charters continue to be used in the United Kingdom to incorporate charities and professional bodies, to raise districts to borough status, and to grant university status and degree awarding powers to colleges previously incorporated by royal charter.

[citation needed] Most new grants of royal charters are reserved for eminent professional bodies, learned societies, or charities "which can demonstrate pre-eminence, stability and permanence in their particular field".

[114] In 2016, the decision to grant a royal charter to the (British) Association for Project Management (APM) was challenged in the court by the (American) Project Management Institute (PMI), who feared it would give a competitive advantage to APM and claimed the criteria had not been correctly applied; the courts ruled that while the possibility of suffering a competitive disadvantage did give PMI standing to challenge the decision, the Privy Council was permitted to take the public interest (in having a chartered body promoting the profession of project management) into account as outweighing any failure to meet the criteria in full.

[citation needed] The BBC operates under a royal charter which lasts for a period of ten years, after which it is renewed.

Following Dartmouth College v. Woodward, they are "in the nature of a contract between the state, the corporation representing the founder, and the objects of the charity".

Case law indicates that they cannot be changed by legislative action in a way that impairs the original intent of the founder, even if the corporation consents.