Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, a decree (, ) is a form of

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...

passed by community or regional parliaments, except by the

Brussels Parliament The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (; ) is the governing body of the Brussels-Capital Region, one of the three federated regions of Belgium. It is als ...

. Decrees have the same legal force as laws, which can only be passed by the Federal Parliament. Even more, unlike other federal states, no hierarchy exists between (federal) laws and (community or regional) decrees, as each entity is supposed to have clearly defined subject-matter jurisdiction. The only difference is in terminology (and naturally in territorial applicability, as decrees are only valid in the jurisdiction of the parliament that passed it). The following five legislative assemblies have the power to pass decrees: * The

Flemish Parliament The Flemish Parliament (Dutch language, Dutch: , formerly called Flemish Council or ''Vlaamse Raad'') constitutes the legislature, legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic reg ...

and the

Parliament of the French Community The Parliament of the French Community ( ; PCF) is the legislative assembly of the French Community of Belgium, based in the Royal Quarter of Brussels. It consists of all 75 members of the Walloon Parliament except German-speaking members (curren ...

, being the parliaments of the two main communities, directly by virtue of Art. 127-129 of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

* the Parliament of the German-speaking Community, directly by virtue of Art. 130 of the Constitution * the regional assemblies referred to in Art. 39 of the Constitution, being de facto the Walloon Parliament only, as the Flemish regional matters are exercised by the Flemish (Community) Parliament, and as Brussels is a separately organised matter (with ordinances instead of decrees). The power to pass decrees for regional assemblies is only indirectly granted by the Special Law on Institutional Reform of 1980, and is referred to as the "rules meant in Art. 134" in the Constitution. * the Assembly of the French Community Commission, which is informally known as the Brussels Francophone Parliament. Both Communities (Flemish and French) may transfer legislative powers to their Commissions in Brussels, but only the French Community has done this. The Flemish counterpart, the Council of the Flemish Community Commission, does not have the power to pass decrees and remains under full control of the Flemish Parliament. Instead, it legislates by

regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...

. This power was introduced in the first state reform in 1970, to the then-established Dutch and French cultural councils, the precursors to the present-day parliaments of the two main communities. Unlike laws, decrees are not subject to

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

. Decrees are not signed and promulgated by the

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

but instead are promulgated by the executive body, being the community or regional government or, in the case of the Brussels Francophone Parliament, the College of the French Community Commission. Decrees and ordinances are published in the

Belgian Official Journal The Belgian official journal (, , ) is the official journal or gazette of the Belgium, Kingdom of Belgium. It is where the official publication of laws, royal decrees, decrees, ordinances, and official notices are published. The publication is h ...

. Unlike ordinances, decrees are not subject to judicial review or to supervision by the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

. The

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

is however responsible for supervising the division of power between the federal state, the communities and regions and may annul laws, decrees and ordinances. Variants of decrees: * Special decrees exist equivalent to special laws: such legislation requires a two-thirds majority in parliament and is required for certain matters (mostly relating to education and institutional matters). * Multiple of the above-mentioned entities may adopt a joint decree (nl. ''gezamenlijk decreet'', fr. ''décret conjoint''), which is a decree approved by multiple entities and applying to each of them. This cooperation mechanism is possible per article 92bis/1 of the Special Law on Institutional Reform, introduced in 2014 as part of the sixth state reform. The first such decree was the joint decree of the Walloon Region and the French Community of 19 July 2017 regarding an open data policy. Additionally, there are three historical forms of legislation called decrees: * Decrees adopted under French rule (1792–1815), such as the 1791 " Allarde Decree". * Decrees adopted by the constitutive

National Congress of Belgium The National Congress (, ) was a temporary legislature, legislative assembly in Belgium, convened in 1830 in the aftermath of the Belgian Revolution. Its purpose was to devise a Constitution of Belgium, national constitution for the new state, w ...

(1830–31), such as the decree of 24 November 1830 eternally excluding the

House of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau (, ), also known as the House of Orange because of the prestige of the princely title of Orange, also referred to as the Fourth House of Orange in comparison with the other noble houses that held the Principality of Or ...

of any power in Belgium. * Colonial decrees governing

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

(1908–1960), issued by Belgium's executive branch as authorised by law of 18 October 1908.Loi du 18 octobre 1908 sur le gouvernement du Congo belge
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References

{{reflist Belgian legislation

See also

References