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Sovereign Law Series

United Kingdom
“Crown Office Act” of 1877


Short-Form Reference:

1877 United Kingdom “Crown Office Act”

In-Line Micro Reference:

1877 UK “Crown Office Act”

Ratification / Registration:

Chapter 41 Victoria Rex, London UK (10 August 1877)


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Official Text of this Law Source as Ratified

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United Kingdom “Crown Office Act” of 1877

An Act for making Provision with respect to the Preparation and Authentication of
Commissions and other Documents issued from the Office of the Clerk of the Crown in
Chancery; and for other purposes. [10th August 1877.]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and
consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament
assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:



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Preliminary

1.
This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Crown Office Act, 1877.

2.
This Act shall come into operation on the first day of January one thousand eight
hundred and seventy-eight, which day is in this Act referred to as the commencement
of this Act.

Rules by Queen in Council

3.
Her Majesty may, by Order in Council, make, and when made from time to time
revoke, add to, or alter rules –

(1)
Prescribing the form in which documents to which this Act applies, or any
of them, are to be worded; and

(2) Making regulations as to the publication of royal proclamations, and as to
the towns to which copies of such proclamations are to be sent, and generally as to
the best mode of making such proclamations known to the public:

[These Sections 3.1-3.2 evidence a rule of customary international law, that for all
official documents of State, the Sovereign has the right to establish the “form” of how
they are “worded”, and to determine the means and manner of “publication” which is
preferred as the “best mode” of “making known to the public”. Thus, no sovereign
document can be challenged by any foreign State, neither for its form nor its method
of publication.]

Provided that –

(1)
Acts of or Bills in Parliament may in all cases be cited by their short
titles; and

(2) Whenever convenient, the enumeration of Acts of or Bills in
Parliament, of names of persons, or other matters, shall be contained in a
schedule or schedules, and in particular in the case of commissions of the peace
the names of the justices shall, so far as seems to Her Majesty convenient, be
placed in a schedule, with space for additions to be made of the names of
justices to be appointed after the issue of such commission; and



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(3)
Any royal proclamation shall be valid in law if published as follows:

As respects England, in the London Gazette; and
As respects Scotland, in the Edinburgh Gazette; and
As respects Ireland, in the Dublin Gazette.

[This Section 3.3 evidences rules of customary international law, on the tradition of
“Gazetting” of a public legal notice in the official “Gazette”, as practiced for legalizing
restored or newly issued royal, nobiliary and chivalric peerage titles:

(A) The State has the right to declare which forum is its official register of public
record; (B) Publishing a notice in that official forum conclusively proves that Royal
Assent was given to that notice, as a mandatory prerequisite to its publication; (C) No
legal notice in a sovereign forum of record can be challenged by any foreign State,
neither for the type and format of the forum, nor denying the legal fact that Royal
Assent was granted.]

[The traditional British Royal protocol for publication of a legal notice in the London
Gazette is a precedent evidencing the practice in customary international law:

First, one must obtain a “certified Barristers Opinion” supporting and wording the
notice. Second, that Barristers Opinion with the proposed notice is submitted to the
Legal Department of the British Crown for review, through “Her Majesty’s Stationary
Office”. Third, it is referred to the “Queen of England’s Desk” in Buckingham Palace
for Royal Assent. Fourth, if approved with Royal Assent, the notice is published in the
London Gazette, thereby serving as legalization by “Gazetting”.]

Any rule purporting to be made in pursuance of this section shall be laid before
both Houses of Parliament within one month after it is made, if Parliament be then
sitting, or if not then sitting, within one month after the commencement of the then
next session of Parliament, and shall be judicially noticed, and shall be of the same
validity as if it had been enacted by Parliament.

4.
A Committee of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, consisting of the
Lord Chancellor of Great Britain for the time being, the Lord Privy Seal for the time
being, and one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State (in this Act referred to as
the Committee of Council), acting in case of difference according to the opinion of any
two of them, may from time to time direct impressions with the same device as the
Great Seal and of the Privy Seal to be taken in such manner and of such size or sizes as
they may from time to time prescribe, on embossed paper, wax, wafer, or any other
material;

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and any such impressions, in this Act respectively called a Wafer Great Seal and a
Wafer Privy Seal, shall be in the same custody as the seals of which they are
impressions, and when attached to or embossed on any document required to be or
usually authenticated by or passed under the Great Seal or Privy Seal, shall confer on
that document the same validity in all respects as if the document itself had been
authenticated by or passed under the Great Seal or Privy Seal.

[This Section 4 evidences a rule of customary international law, that the Privy
Councillor (Barrister for the Sovereign, i.e. Queen’s Counsel) leading a Sovereign
Council has the right to determine the “manner [and] sizes” of official Seals of State,
which may be “attached or embossed” in any manner so determined. Thus, no
sovereign document can be challenged by any foreign State, neither for its form or
type of Seal nor the manner of applying the Seal to the document.]

5.
The Committee of Council aforesaid, acting in case of difference according to
the opinion of any two of them, may by order make, and when made from time to
time revoke, add to, or alter rules –

(1)
Providing for a record to be kept at the Crown Office of all justices of the
peace appointed in pursuance of any commission of the peace issued by Her Majesty,
and for the rectification of such record from time to time; and

(2)
Prescribing the documents to which the Wafer Great Seal and the Wafer
Privy Seal respectively are to be attached; and

(3)
Prescribing the mode in which documents to which this Act applies are to
be prepared, whether to be printed or written, or partly printed and partly written,
and whether to be printed or written on paper, parchment, or any other fitting
material:

Provided that –

(a)
It shall not be necessary to the validity of any document to or on
which a Wafer Great Seal or Wafer Privy Seal is attached or embossed to prove
that the attachment or embossing of such wafer seals respectively was
authorised, and no evidence to the contrary shall be received; and

(b)
Engrossing may in all cases be dispensed with, and, so far as seems
to the Committee of Council convenient, printing shall be adopted in place of
writing.

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[This Section 5.3 evidences a rule of customary international law, that the Privy
Councillor leading a Sovereign Council has the right to determine the “mode in which
documents [are] prepared”, including “whether… on paper… or any other material” or
form of media, specifically “as seems… convenient” to those Crown Officers. Thus, no
sovereign document can be challenged by any foreign State, neither for whether a
paper original exists, nor for the choice of the type of medium used to constitute or
display the document. This historical rule directly establishes the validity of electronic
documents, and eliminates any requirement for paper originals in archives.]

Any rule purporting to be made in pursuance of this section shall be laid before
both Houses of Parliament within one month after it is made, if Parliament be then
sitting, or if not then sitting, within one month after the commencement of the then
next session of Parliament, and shall be judicially noticed, and shall be of the same
validity as if it had been enacted by Parliament.

6.
Nothing in this Act shall abridge or affect the prerogative of the Crown in
relation to the grant or withholding the grant of any document.

[This Section 6 confirms the rule of customary law in Section 3.3, that publication of a
legal notice in the declared forum of record is proof that Royal Assent was granted
authorizing that notice to be published.]

Definitions

7.
In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context, the following expressions
have the meanings herein-after respectively assigned to them:

“Great Seal” means the Great Seal of the United Kingdom;

“Document to which this Act applies” means any writ, commission, letters
patent, letters close, or document of such a character, or belonging to such a
class, as would, at the date of the passing of this Act, be required to be or
usually would be authenticated by being passed under the Great Seal;

“Crown Office” means the office of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery.