In public law, the promulgation is the act by which the Head of the State notes that a Loi was regularly adopted by the Parlement. As from the moment when a decree of promulgation took place, the text is integrated in legal scheduling, and between into force.

The promulgation makes the text executory: it must be carried out. On the other hand, the publication of the legal text makes the text opposable, i.e. the courts can sanction the failure of it.

In France

The competent authority to promulgate a text is the President of the Republic, under the terms of article 10 of the Constitution of October 4th, 1958, which lays out:

The President of the Republic promulgates the laws in the fifteen days which definitively follow the transmission to the Government of the law adoptée.

Il can, before the expiry of this time, to request from the Parliament a new deliberation of the law or some of these articles. This new deliberation cannot be refused.

In the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the texts adopted by the House of Commons must receive the royal approval ( royal assent ). Nevertheless, competence is considered automatic, since the last refusal of this approval took place at the 18th century