Royal assent is the formal approval by a monarch of an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarchs behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in others, it is a separate step. Royal assent is required to make a bill into an Act of Parliament. In a modern constitutional monarchy, royal assent is considered little more than a formality. Even in nations such as the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, and Monaco, which still permit their monarch to withhold assent to laws, the monarch almost never does so, except in a dire political emergency or on the advice of the government.

Royal assent is typically associated with elaborate ceremony. In the United Kingdom, the Sovereign may appear personally in the House of Lords or may appoint Lords Commissioners, who announce that royal assent has been granted at a ceremony held at the Palace of Westminster for this purpose. However, royal assent is usually granted less ceremonially by letters patent. Officially, assent is granted by the sovereign or by Lords Commissioners authorized to act by letters patent. Royal assent may be granted in parliament or outside parliament; in the latter case, each house must be separately notified before the bill takes effect. The Clerk of the Parliaments, an official of the House of Lords, traditionally states a formula in Anglo-Norman Law French, indicating the sovereigns decision.

Royal assent may be granted in one of two ways: written declaration procedure or the traditional royal assent ceremony. The written declaration procedure involves the Clerk of the Parliaments or his or her deputy meeting with the Governor General or his or her deputy to present the bills with a letter indicating that they have been passed by both Houses and requesting that the bills be assented to. The traditional procedure for royal assent involves a formal ceremony that takes place in the Senate chamber. Members of the Governor General’s staff announce the titles of the bills awaitin...