Charter
A charter is a document bestowing certain rights on a town, city, university, land or institution; sometimes used as a loan of money. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights. The term derives from a root word meaning "paper".
Origin
As John Fiske described in his 1890 treatise on the Origin of Civil Government in the United States:
- The word "charter" originally meant simply a paper or written document, and it was often applied to deeds for the transfer of real estate. In contracts of such importance papers or parchment documents were drawn up and carefully preserved as irrefragable evidences of the transaction. And so, in quite significant phrase the towns zealously guarded their charters as the "title-deeds of their liberties."
- After a while the word charter was applied in England to a particular document which specified certain important concessions forcibly wrung by the people from a most unwilling sovereign. This document was called Magna Carta, or the "Great Charter," signed at Runnymede, June 15, 1215, by John, king of England.
History
In Anglo-Saxon England charters were used to grant land rights.
Charters were issued in medieval times by Royal decree, perhaps giving a particular town the right to hold a weekly market, or to levy a toll on a road or bridge. This pledged to the King.
Legal status
A charter is a legally binding document incorporating an organization or institution and specifying its purpose, remit or bylaws. Organizations such as the Institution of Civil Engineers in the UK is chartered to maintain and advance the science and practice of civil engineering in the UK, and by this charter has the right to regulate the business of civil engineering in the UK; this gives rise to a status of a chartered engineer - one who satisfies the requirements of the charter holding organization. Royal Charters also exist and may have legal status in the case of Universities & similar bodies the power to award degrees normally comes from a Royal Charter.
Example of a Charter
The United Nations Charter
"We the Peoples of the United Nations... United for a Better World"
| United Nations Charter | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Opened for signature | June 26, 1945 in San Francisco | ||
| Entered into force | October 24, 1945 | ||
| Conditions for entry into force | Ratification by the Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America, and by a majority of the other signatory states. | ||
| Parties | 192 | ||
The United Nations Charter is the treaty that forms and establishes the international organization called the United Nations. While this document is often misconstrued as a constitution it is, in fact, an agreement between states and not a compact among the individual peoples to create a government. It was signed at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco California, 1945 by 50 of the 51 original member countries (Poland, the other original member, which was not represented at the conference, signed it later). It entered into force on October 24, 1945, after being ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council—the Republic of China (later replaced by the People's Republic of China), France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (later replaced by the Russian Federation), the United Kingdom, and the United States—and a majority of the other signatories.
Types of charters
Charter schools
In education, charter schools are becoming quite common.
Charter buses
Chartered buses are used by some groups of individuals who use a common bus in order to go on a trip or go on a tour of a certain location.
Charter flights
Charter flights are organised on behalf of a group of individuals who share seats on a plane to travel together to another destination. These flights can be organised by individuals on behalf of other individuals or by tour companies. These companies are commonly referred to as tour operators or inclusive tour (IT) companies. The latter term is used to refer to companies whose charter arrangements include accommodation as well as flights. These arrangements are also known as package holiday or package tours. Firms that charter aircraft without offering any accommodation are "seat-only" operators. In the UK any company or individual organising charter flights - with or without accommodation - on a commercial basis must obtain Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (ATOL) from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and must lodge a bond with it, which will be used to repatriate charter airline passengers whose tour organiser has failed and who are stranded abroad. The term charter flights generally refers to flights and seats on large jets such as those produced by Boeing or Airbus, and is usually a cheap way for individuals to fly on a set route at a set time. In contrast air charter typically involves smaller planes, where one individual or company wants to use the whole plane for a very specific flight at a time of their choosing, and is a much more expensive way to fly.
Charter colony
A charter colony is a type of colony that was established by a group of settlers that received a charter.
Charter member
The term charter member refers to a person or group who was among those participating in the creation of any chartered organization.
The Charter of Goods and Services
The term charter can refer to the letting, renting or hire of an object or a service. For instance yacht charter concerns the renting of a yacht and it's crew for a set period of time. Also, aircraft are chartered in the same way.
Newsgroup charter
On Usenet, newsgroups in the Big-8 and some other hierarchies must have a newsgroup charter spelling out the purpose of the newsgroup, what constitutes on-topic discussion, and whether or not the newsgroup is moderated.
Royal charter
A Royal Charter is a charter granted by the Sovereign on the advice of the Privy Council, to legitimize an incorporated body, such as a city, company, university or such. In medieval Europe, cities were the only place where it was legal to conduct commerce, and Royal Charters were the only way to establish a city. The year a city was chartered is considered the year the city was "founded", irrespective of whether there was settlement there before. A Royal Charter can also create or give special status to an incorporated body. It is an exercise of the Royal Prerogative.
At one time a Royal Charter was the only way in which an incorporated body could be formed, but other means such as the registration of a limited company are now available. Among the historic bodies formed by Royal Charter were the British East India Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), and the American colonies.
United Kingdom
Among the 400 or so organizations with Royal Charters are cities; the BBC; theaters such as the Royal Opera House and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; Livery Companies; Britain's older universities; professional institutions and charities such as Toc H.
A Royal Charter is the manner in which a British town is raised to the rank of British city. Most recently Inverness, Brighton & Hove and Wolverhampton were given their charters to celebrate the millennium, and Preston, Stirling, Newport, Lisburn and Newry to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2002.
Some of the older British universities operate under Royal Charters, which give them the power to grant degrees. The College of William and Mary in Virginia was granted a Royal Charter in 1693 and Dartmouth College was granted a Royal Charter in 1769, marking the first and last collegiate grants in the present-day U.S.. The most recent generation of U.K. universities were granted the power to grant degrees by the Further and Higher Education Act, 1992 instead of by Royal Charter, while some other universities operate under Acts of Parliament.
The BBC operates under a Royal Charter which lasts for a limited period of ten years, after which it is renewed.
Most Royal Charters are now granted to professional institutions and to charities. For example, the six accountancy institutes which make up the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies each have a Royal Charter which allows their members to call themselves Chartered Accountants. A Charter is not necessary for them to operate, but one is often sought as a recognition of "pre-eminence, stability and permanence".
Canada
In Canada, there are hundreds of organizations under Royal Charters. Such organisations include charities, businesses, colleges, universities, and cities. Today, it is mostly charities and professional institutions who receive Royal Charters.
Application for a charter is a petition to the Queen in Council. To receive a Royal Charter, the organization must have corporate members who have at least first degree level in a relevant field, consist of 5,000 members or more, be financially sound, and it must be in the public interest to regulate the institution under a charter. However, meeting these benchmarks does not guarantee the issue of a Royal Charter.[1]
Companies
Canada's oldest company, the Hudson's Bay Company, was founded under a Royal Charter issued by King Charles II in 1670. By that charter, to this day the Company is required to give two elk skins and two black beaver pelts to the Sovereign or his or her heirs and successors when they visit the area originally called Rupert's Land.[2]
Cities
Cities under Royal Charter are not subject to municipal Acts of parliament applied generally to other municipalities, and instead are governed by legislation applicable to each city individually. The Royal Charter codifies the laws applied to the particular city, and lays out the powers and responsibilities not given to other municipalities in the province concerned.
Canada has four Royal Charter cities: Saint John, (the oldest, having received its charter in 1786 from King George III), Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Montreal. [3]
Universities and colleges
Image:UCC-duke.jpg|thumb|200px|The Queen's consort [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh speaks with UCC First Football team members at the Upper Canada College's 150th anniversary celebrations, 1979]]
A number of Canadian universities and colleges were founded under Royal Charter.
From King George III:
- 1802: King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia — now University of King's College in Halifax
From King George IV:
- 1821: McGill University
- 1827: King's College — superseded by the University of Toronto
- 1829: Upper Canada College
From Queen Victoria:
- 1841: Queen's University
- 1852: Université Laval
Ireland
A number of Irish institutions still have a "Royal" prefix, even though the country has been a republic since 1949.
External links
- Privy Council website
- Royal Charter of the BBC
- Royal Charter of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
- Charter of the University of Birmingham
- Royal Charter of Rhode Island (1663)
External links
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