TheKing-in-Council or theQueen-in-Council, depending on thegender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it refers to the monarch exercisingexecutive authority, usually in the form of approving orders, on theadvice of the country'sprivy council orexecutive council.
In countries where the reigning monarch is represented by aviceroy, derivative terms are used instead, such asGovernor in Council orLieutenant Governor in Council.
In Norway, the King in Council (Norwegian:Kongen i statsråd) refers to the meetings of the king and theCouncil of State (the Cabinet), wherein matters of importance and major decisions are made. The council meets at theRoyal Palace, normally every Friday. These meetings are chaired bythe monarch or, if he is ill or abroad,crown prince (the monarch's heir). In Norway's constitution,King in Council refers to the formalGovernment of Norway, whereas merelyKing means the appointedministry that the law refers to may alone act with complete authority on the matter assigned in the particular law.[1]
A decision that is taken in the State Council under the sovereign's leadership is considered to be a royal decree. If the crown prince chairs, they are crown prince resolutions. When neither the monarch nor the crown prince chairs, resolutions adopted are called government resolutions.
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In Sweden, the King in Council (Swedish:Konungen i Statsrådet), more commonly known asThe Royal Majesty (Swedish:Kunglig Majestät or the short formsKungl. Maj:t orK.M:t) was a concept of constitutional importance until 1974.
The Royal Majesty was the commonly used term to refer to the supreme executive authority under the1809 Instrument of Government, under whichthe monarch made all decisions of state in the presence of his Cabinet ministers. The1974 Instrument of Government removed the monarch from all exercise of formal political powers, which were passed to the newly createdgovernment (Swedish:Regeringen), chaired and led in all aspects by theprime minister. The monarch continues to head the Cabinet councils (the sovereign plus the members of the government) and the Council on Foreign Affairs, recognizing new cabinets (in the Council of State).
The King-in-Council is the technical term ofconstitutional law for the exercise ofexecutive authority in aCommonwealth realm, denoting themonarch acting by and with theadvice and consent of his or her privy council (in theUnited Kingdom andCanada's federal jurisdiction) orexecutive council (in most other Commonwealth realms and theAustralian states andCanadian provinces). In those realms and dependencies where the sovereign's powers and functions are delegated to agovernor-general,lieutenant governor, orgovernor, the termGovernor-General-in-Council,Lieutenant Governor-in-Council, orGovernor-in-Council may be used instead ofKing-in-Council, all of these terms describing the same technical process within constitutional law.The government of [jurisdiction] is commonly used as a synonym for any of the aforementioned terms, though the phrase may mean more than one thing in certain areas.
An order made by the King-in-Council is known as anorder-in-council and such actions are subject tojudicial review.[a] Orders-in-council may be used to implementsecondary legislation, such as Britishstatutory instruments. In practice, decisions made by the King-in-Council are almost always the formal approval to decisions made by thecabinet, a subcommittee of the privy or executive council that includes the seniorministers of the Crown and often meets without the monarch or his local representative present.
Former Commonwealth realms and dependencies often retain a similar constitutional concept; for example,President-in-Council inIndia[3][4] orChief Executive-in-Council inHong Kong.[5] Similar concepts can also be found in some non-Commonwealth countries.[6]