1 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) © 2020 Sovereign Court of International Justice (SCIJ). All International Rights Reserved. The 1979 “Berne Convention” fully protects this proprietary collection as a selection and arrangement of works (Art. 2.5), and protects these documents as derivative works (Art. 2.3) and adaptations (Art. 12). All unauthorized republication or distribution including online is illegal (Art. 9). “Fair Use” does not permit infringement for unfair competition by another non-profit (17 USC 107), which is a criminal offense punishable by 10 years imprisonment (18 USC 241; UK Copyright Act §107). 2 Introductory Notes by the Independent Judiciary Download Sovereign Law Series – This “Sovereign Law Series” is presented by the Sovereign Court of International Justice (SCIJ), as a proprietary system for standardized reference and effective use of international law sources. It provides primary sources of the modern framework of “conventional international law”, which contains provisions to invoke “customary international law” which is the “Common Law”. Download the “Intro & Index” (with links to all documents in the collection) here: Introduction & Index Words of Rights in Red – Operative words and phrases most effective for invoking and enforcing Rights, which are the most used by Barristers and Judges, are printed in Red font for ease of visual reference. Some key words may be underlined for emphasis. Commentary in Green – [Expert commentary from Barristers and Judges may be added in Green font, in Brackets, to guide effective use to assert and enforce rights.] Official Text of this Law Source as Ratified This presentation of a United Kingdom Act constitutes Fair Use in Common Law as “fair abridgement” (UK Gyles v. Wilcox [1740], 26 ER 489, 3 Atk 143), adopted in the United States as “Fair Use” (US Folsom v. Marsh [1841], 9 F.Cas. 342, No. 4901, C.C.D. Mass.), codified as allowing use for “comment… teaching… scholarship, or research” (17 USC 107). 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: 3 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 4 (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; 5 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. 6 [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.