Head of State de facto

The Head of State De facto is a political station which fulfills the functions of a Head of State. So legally he is not the Head of State, it acts however as its name during its absence, or when the Head of State is known as Of swears. Though the expression “Head of State de facto ” does not have a constitutional range, it is used informellement in the monarchies of the Commonwealth to describe the role of the General governor.

Monarchies which belong to the the Commonwealth are legally constitutional monarchies, they divide however the same monarch, that which reigns with the the United Kingdom. The general governors are thus the representatives of the monarch in their State, of whom they hold all their capacities, their functions and their duties.

The constitutional statute of a Head of State de facto

The Heads of State de facto have usually certain characteristics which are common for them:

the monarch is registered in the constitutional law, usually like an element of the Législature;
the executive power can be assumed by the monarch, or the general governor in the name of the monarch;
the general governor is named by the monarch;
the general governor lends oath to the monarch;
the letters of accreditation or the letters of recall are received or produced in the name of the monarch. To the Canada, however, the letters of accreditation and recall refer to the monarch, but are produced in the name of the general governor;
Généralement, when the general governor is present at an event, it is with diplomatic conventions that the diplomat in visit or the Head of State raises his glass to the “king” or the “queen”, not with the general governor and without necessary subsequent reference to this one.

Diplomatic convention

Though a Head of State de facto is not necessarily treated like a Head of State with the international level, it is treated as as a Head of State when it is in visit of State, not according to diplomatic conventions, but by courtesy. The Palais of Buckingham in the past suggested that when a general governor travels abroad, it does it as a direct representative of the queen, and, thus, it must be treated as the queen would be it.

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