Royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta 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. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organisations such as boroughs, universities and learned societies, and were historically used to establish companies.
Charters should be distinguished from royal warrants of appointment, grants of arms, and other forms of letters patent, such as those granting an organisation the right to use the word "royal" in their name or granting city status, which do not have legislative effect. The British monarchy has issued over 1,000 royal charters. Of these about 750 remain in effect.
The earliest charter recorded on the UK government's list was granted to the University of Cambridge by Henry III of England in 1231, although older charters are known to have existed including to the Worshipful Company of Weavers in England in 1150 and to the town of Tain in Scotland in 1066. Charters continue to be issued by the British Crown, a recent example being that awarded to the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, and the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, in 2014.
Historical development
Charters have been used in Europe since medieval times to grant rights and privileges to towns, boroughs, and cities. During the 14th and 15th centuries the concept of incorporation of a municipality by royal charter evolved. Royal charters were used in England to make the most formal grants of various rights, titles, etc. until the reign of Henry VIII, with letters patent being used for less solemn grants. After the eighth year of Henry VIII, all grants under the Great Seal were issued as letters patent.Among the past and present groups formed by royal charter are the Company of Merchants of the Staple of England, the British East India Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China, P&O, the British South Africa Company, and some of the former British colonies on the North American mainland, City livery companies, the Bank of England and the BBC.
Corporations
Between the 14th and 19th centuries, royal charters were used to create chartered companies – for-profit ventures with shareholders, used for exploration, trade, and colonisation. Early charters to such companies often granted trade monopolies, but this power was restricted to Parliament from the end of the 17th century. Until the 19th century, royal charters were the only means other than an act of parliament by which a company could be incorporated; in the UK, the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 opened up a route to incorporation by registration, since when incorporation by royal charter has been, according to the Privy Council, "a special token of Royal favour or... a mark of distinction".The use of royal charters to incorporate organisations gave rise to the concept of the "corporation by prescription". This enabled corporations that had existed from time immemorial to be recognised as incorporated via the legal fiction of a "lost charter". Examples of corporations by prescription include Oxford and Cambridge universities.
Universities and colleges
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, of the 81 universities established in pre-Reformation Europe, 13 were established ex consuetudine without any form of charter, 33 by Papal bull alone, 20 by both Papal bull and imperial or royal charter, and 15 by imperial or royal charter alone. Universities established solely by royal charter did not have the same international recognition – their degrees were only valid within that kingdom.The first university to be founded by charter was the University of Naples in 1224, founded by an imperial charter of Frederick II. The first university founded by royal charter was the University of Coimbra in 1290, by King Denis of Portugal, which received papal confirmation the same year. Other early universities founded by royal charter include the University of Perpignan and the University of Huesca, both by Peter IV of Aragon; the Jagiellonian University by Casimir III of Poland; the University of Vienna by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria; the University of Caen by Henry VI of England; the University of Girona and the University of Barcelona, both by Alfonso V of Aragon; the University of Valence by the Dauphin Louis ; and the University of Palma by Ferdinand II of Aragon.
British Isles
Both Oxford and Cambridge received royal charters during the 13th century. However, these charters were not concerned with academic matters or their status as universities but rather about the exclusive right of the universities to teach, the powers of the chancellors' courts to rule on disputes involving students, and fixing rents and interest rates.The University of Cambridge was confirmed by a papal bull in 1317 or 1318, but despite repeated attempts, the University of Oxford never received such confirmation. The three pre-Reformation Scottish universities were all established by papal bulls: St Andrews in 1413; Glasgow in 1451; and King's College, Aberdeen in 1494.
Following the Reformation, establishment of universities and colleges by royal charter became the norm. The University of Edinburgh was founded under the authority of a royal charter granted to the Edinburgh town council in 1582 by James VI as the "town's college". Trinity College Dublin was established by a royal charter of Elizabeth I in 1593. Both of these charters were given in Latin.
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. But, as concluded by Edinburgh's principal, Sir Alexander Grant, in his tercentenary history of the university, "Obviously this is no charter founding a university". Instead, he proposed, citing multiple pieces of evidence, that the surviving charter was original granted alongside a second charter founding the college, which was subsequently lost. This would also explain the source of Edinburgh's degree awarding powers, which were used from the foundation of the college.
The royal charter of Trinity College Dublin, while being straightforward in incorporating the college, also named it as "mother of a University", and rather than granting the college degree-awarding powers stated that "the students on this College... shall have liberty and power to obtain degrees of Bachelor, Master, and Doctor, at a suitable time, in all arts and faculties". 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.
Following this, no surviving universities were created in the British Isles until the 19th century. The 1820s saw two colleges receive royal charters: St David's College, Lampeter in 1828 and King's College London in 1829. Neither of these were granted degree-awarding powers or university status in their original charters. The 1830s saw an attempt by University College London to gain a charter as a university and the creation by Act of Parliament of Durham University, but without incorporating it or granting any specific powers. These led to debate about the powers of royal charters and what was implicit to a university.
The essence of the debate was firstly whether the power to award degrees was incidental to the creation of a university or needed to be explicitly granted and secondly whether a royal charter could, if the power to award degrees was incidental, limit that power – UCL wishing to be granted a royal charter as "London University" but excluding the power to award degrees in theology due to the secular nature of the institute. Sir Charles Wetherell, arguing against the grant of a royal charter to UCL before the Privy Council in 1835, argued for degree-awarding powers being an essential part of a university that could not be limited by charter. Sir William Hamilton, wrote a response to Wetherell in the Edinburgh Review, drawing in Durham University and arguing that the power of universities, including the power to award specific degrees, had always been explicitly granted historically, thus creating a university did not implicitly grant degree-awarding powers. Other historians, however, disagree with Hamilton on the point of whether implicit grants of privileges were made, particularly with regard to the ius ubique docendi – the important privilege of granting universally-recognised degrees that was the defining mark of the studium generale. 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". Similarly, Patrick Zutshi, Keeper of Manuscripts and University Archives in Cambridge University Library, writes that "Cambridge never received from the papacy an explicit grant of the ius ubique docendi, but it is generally considered that the right is implied in the terms of John XXII's letter of 1318 concerning Cambridge's status as a studium generale."
UCL was incorporated by royal charter in 1836, but without university status or degree-awarding powers, which went instead to the University of London, created by royal charter with the explicit power to grant degrees in Arts, Law, and Medicine. Durham University was incorporated by royal charter in 1837 but although this confirmed that it had "all the property, rights, and privileges which... are incident to a University established by our Royal Charter" it contained no explicit grant of degree-awarding powers. This was considered sufficient for it to award "degrees in all the faculties", but all future university royal charters explicitly stated that they were creating a university and explicitly granted degree-awarding power. Both London and Durham later received supplemental charters allowing the granting of degrees to women, which was considered to require explicit authorisation. After going through four charters and a number of supplemental charters, London was reconstituted by Act of Parliament in 1898.
The Queen's Colleges in Ireland, at Belfast, Cork, and Galway, were established by royal charter in 1845, as colleges without degree awarding powers. The Queen's University of Ireland received its royal charter in 1850, stating "We do will, order, constitute, ordain and found an University ... and the same shall possess and exercise the full powers of granting all such Degrees as are granted by other Universities or Colleges in the faculties of Arts, Medicine and Law". This served as the degree awarding body for the Queen's Colleges until it was replaced by the Royal University of Ireland.
The royal charter of the Victoria University in 1880 started explicitly that "There shall be and is hereby constituted and founded a University" and granted an explicit power of awarding degrees.
From then until 1992, all universities in the United Kingdom were created by royal charter except for Newcastle University, which was separated from Durham via an Act of Parliament. Following the independence of the Republic of Ireland, new universities there have been created by Acts of the Oireachtas. Since 1992, most new universities in the UK have been created by Orders of Council as secondary legislation under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, although granting degree-awarding powers and university status to colleges incorporated by royal charter is done via an amendment to their charter.