All Topics  
Municipal charter

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Municipal charter
 
 
  Topics Municipal charter Topic Home

A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document
Document

A document is a bounded physical representation of body of information designed with the capacity to communication. A document may manifest symbolic, diagrammatic or sensory-representational information....
 establishing a municipality
Municipality

A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them....
 such as a city
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 or town
Town

A town is a type of human settlement ranging from a few to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition....
. The concept developed in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 during the middle ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
.

Traditionally the granting of a charter gave a settlement and its inhabitants the right to town privileges
Town privileges

Town privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws....
 under the feudal system. Townspeople who lived in chartered towns were burghers
Bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie is a classification used in analyzing human societies to describe a social class of people. Historically, the bourgeoisie comes from the middle or merchant classes of the Middle Ages, whose status or power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those whose power came from being born into an aristocrati...
, as opposed to serfs who lived in villages.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Municipal charter'
Start a new discussion about 'Municipal charter'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document
Document

A document is a bounded physical representation of body of information designed with the capacity to communication. A document may manifest symbolic, diagrammatic or sensory-representational information....
 establishing a municipality
Municipality

A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them....
 such as a city
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 or town
Town

A town is a type of human settlement ranging from a few to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition....
. The concept developed in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 during the middle ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
.

Traditionally the granting of a charter gave a settlement and its inhabitants the right to town privileges
Town privileges

Town privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws....
 under the feudal system. Townspeople who lived in chartered towns were burghers
Bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie is a classification used in analyzing human societies to describe a social class of people. Historically, the bourgeoisie comes from the middle or merchant classes of the Middle Ages, whose status or power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those whose power came from being born into an aristocrati...
, as opposed to serfs who lived in villages. Towns were often "free", in the sense that they were directly protected by the king or emperor, and were not part of a feudal fief
Fiefdom

Under the system of feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud, feoff, or fee, often consisted of inheritance lands or revenue-producing property granted by a Allegiance lord, generally to a vassal, in return for a form of allegiance, originally to give him the means to fulfill his military duties when called upon....
.

Today the process for granting charters is determined by the type of government of the state in question. In monarchies, charters are still often a royal charter
Royal Charter

A royal charter is a charter granted by a Monarch to create institutions or other forms of incorporated bodies . In the United Kingdom legal tradition a royal charter is in the form of letters patent....
 given by the Crown
The Crown

Throughout the Commonwealth realms, the Crown is an abstract metonymy concept which represents the legal authority for the existence of any government....
 or the state authorities acting on behalf of the Crown. In federations, the granting of charters may be within the jurisdiction of the lower level of government such as a state
State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
 or province
Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state....
.

Canada

In Canada charters are granted by provincial authorities
Provinces and territories of Canada

The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the List of countries and outlying territories by total area. The major difference between a Canada province and a territory is that a province receives its power and authority directly from the Monarchy in Canada, via the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories derive their manda...
.

Philippines

Since the beginning of American colonial rule, Philippines cities were formally established through laws enacted by the various national legislatures in the country. The Philippine Commission
Philippine Commission

The Philippine Commission was a body appointed by the President of the United States to exercise legislative and limited executive powers in the Philippines....
 gave the city of Manila its charter in 1901, while the city of Baguio was established by the Philippine Assembly
Philippine Assembly

The Philippine Assembly was the legislative body of the Philippines during the earlier part United States colonial administration. It served as the lower house of the legislature with the Philippine Commission, headed by the Governor-General of the Philippines serving as the upper house....
 which was composed by elected members instead of appointed ones. During the Commonwealth era
Commonwealth of the Philippines

The Commonwealth of the Philippines was the political designation of the Philippines from 1934 to 1946 when the country was a Commonwealth with the United States....
, the National Assembly
National Assembly of the Philippines

The National Assembly of the Philippines refers to legislature of both the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 to 1941 and the Second Philippine Republic from 1943 to 1945....
 established an additional ten cities. Since achieving independence from the United States in 1946 the Philippine Congress
Congress of the Philippines

The Congress of the Philippines is the national legislature of the Republic of the Philippines. It is a bicameralism body consisting of the Senate of the Philippines , and the House of Representatives of the Philippines although commonly in the Philippines the term congress refers to the latter....
 has established 124 more cities (as of September 2007), the majority of which required the holding of a plebiscite within the proposed city's jurisdiction to ratify the city's charter.

Sweden

In Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
 until 1951, cities were established by royal charter
Royal Charter

A royal charter is a charter granted by a Monarch to create institutions or other forms of incorporated bodies . In the United Kingdom legal tradition a royal charter is in the form of letters patent....
; see City status in Sweden
City status in Sweden

The Swedish language stad, which is the equivalent of both city and town has since 1971 in Sweden no administrative or legal significance, and even no commonly accepted definition....
.

United Kingdom(UK)

In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, towns and cities are established by royal charter
Royal Charter

A royal charter is a charter granted by a Monarch to create institutions or other forms of incorporated bodies . In the United Kingdom legal tradition a royal charter is in the form of letters patent....
; see city status in the United Kingdom
City status in the United Kingdom

City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarchy to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city"....
.

United States

In the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, such charter
Charter

A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified....
s are established either directly by a state legislature by means of local legislation, or indirectly under a general municipal corporation
Municipal corporation

A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local government, including city, county, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs....
 law
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
, usually after the proposed charter has passed a referendum
Referendum

A referendum , ballot question, or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire Constituency is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal....
 vote of the affected population.

See also

  • German town law
    German town law

    German town law or German municipal concerns concerns town privileges used by many cities, towns, and villages throughout Central Europe and Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages....