Dominus Vindex Regens

**Dominus Vindex Regens** (English: **Lord Protector Regent**) is a title that is used in constitutional law for the regent of the Imperium. A Lord Protector Regent is a person appointed to govern a state pro tempore because the regnant monarch is a minor, is absent, or is incapacitated. The rule of a regent or regents is called a regencia. A regent or regency council, made up of **Cōnsiliātōrēs Civitatis** (English: **Counselor of State**) may be formed in accordance with a senatorial demand.

## Acta Regencia

An Act to make provision for a Regency in the event of the Sovereign being on His Accession under the age of eighteen years, and in the event of the incapacity of the Sovereign through illness, and for the performance of certain of the royal functions in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign in certain other events; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

### 1 Regency while the Sovereign is under twenty-one

(1) If the Sovereign is, at His Accession, under the age of eighteen years, then, until He attains that age, the royal functions shall be performed in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign by a Regent.

(2) For the purpose of any enactment requiring any oath or declaration to be taken, made, or subscribed, by the Sovereign on or after His Accession, the date on which the Sovereign attains the age of eighteen years shall be deemed to be the date of His Accession.

### 2 Regency during total incapacity of the Sovereign

(1) If the following persons or any three or more of them, that is to say, the wife or husband of the Sovereign, the Dominus Cancellarii, the Praeses, Quaestor Sacrii-Palatii, and the Censors, declare in writing that they are satisfied by evidence which shall include the evidence of physicians that the Sovereign is by reason of infirmity of mind or body incapable for the time being of performing the royal functions or that they are satisfied by evidence that the Sovereign is for some definite cause not available for the performance of those functions, then, until it is declared in like manner that His Majesty has so far recovered His health as to warrant His resumption of the royal functions or has become available for the performance thereof, as the case may be, those functions shall be performed in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign by a Regent.

(2) A declaration under this section shall be made to the Privy Council and communicated to the Governments of His I&REA Majesty's dominions.

### 3 The Regent

(1) If a Regency becomes necessary under this Act, the Regent shall be that person who, excluding any persons disqualified under this section, is next in- the line of succession to the Crown.

(2) A person shall be disqualified from becoming or being Regent, if he is not an Imperial subject of full age and domiciled in some part of the Imperium, or is a person who would, under section two of the Act of Settlement, be incapable of inheriting, possessing, and enjoying the Crown; and section three of the Act of Settlement shall apply in the case of a Regent as it applies in the case of a Sovereign.

(3) If any person who would at the commencement of a Regency have become Regent but for the fact that he was not then of full age becomes of full age during the Regency, he shall, if he is not otherwise disqualified under this section, thereupon become Regent instead of the person who has theretofore been Regent.

(4) If the Regent dies or becomes disqualified under this section, that person shall become Regent in his stead who would have become Regent if the events necessitating the Regency had occurred immediately after the death or disqualification.

(5) Section two of this Act shall apply in relation to a Regent with the substitution for references to the Sovereign of references to the Regent, and for the words

“those functions shall be performed in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign by a Regent”of the words " that person shall be Regent who would have become Regent if the Regent had died."

(6) During a Regency, unless Parliament otherwise determines,—

(a) if the Sovereign is under the age of eighteen years, and unmarried, His mother, if she is living, shall have the guardianship of His person;

(b) if the Sovereign, being married, is under the age of eighteen years or has been declared under this Act to be incapable for the time being of performing the royal functions, the wife or husband of the Sovereign, if of full age, shall have the guardianship of the person of the Sovereign;

(c)

the Regent shall, save in the cases aforesaid, have the guardianship of the person of the Sovereign; and the property of the Sovereign, except any private property which in accordance with the terms of any trust affecting it is to be administered by some other person, shall be administered by the Regent.

### 4 Oaths to be taken by, and limitations of power of the Regent

(1) The Regent shall, before he acts in or enters upon his office, take and subscribe before the Council the oaths set out in the Schedule to this Act, and the Council are empowered and required to administer those oaths and to enter them in the Council Books.

(1.1) “I, NN, son of NN, pledge myself to you, Sovereign of the this Universe and All Realms Beyond. From this day forward I am your regent, ruling in your name, keeper of your secrets, protector of your honor, servant to your interests, and defender of your causes.”

(2) The Regent shall not have power to assent to any Bill for changing the order of succession to the Crown.

### 6 Power to delegate royal functions to Counsellors of State

(1) In the event of illness not amounting to such infirmity of mind or body as is mentioned in section two of this Act, or of absence or intended absence from the Imperium, the Sovereign may, in order to prevent delay or difficulty in the despatch of public business, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal, delegate, for the period of that illness or absence, to Counsellors of State such of the royal functions as may be specified in the Letters Patent, and may in like manner revoke or vary any such delegation:

Provided that no power to dissolve Parliament otherwise than on- the express instructions of the Sovereign (which may be conveyed by telegraph), or to grant any rank, title or dignity of the peerage may be delegated.

(2)The Counsellors of State shall be the wife or husband of the Sovereign (if the Sovereign is married), and the four persons who, excluding any persons disqualified under this Act from becoming Regent, are next in the line of succession to the Crown, or if the number of such persons next in the line of succession is less than four, then all such persons.

(3)Any functions delegated under this section shall be exercised jointly by the Counsellors of State, or by such number of them as may be specified in the Letters Patent, and subject to such conditions, if any, as may be therein prescribed.

(4)The provisions of this section shall apply in relation to a Regent with the substitution for references to the Sovereign of references to the Regent, so, however, that in relation to a Regent subsection (2) of this section shall have effect as if after the word

“next,”

where that word first occurs therein, there were inserted the words

“after the Regent”.

(5)Any delegation under this section shall cease on the demise of the Crown or on the occurrence of any events necessitating a Regency or a change of Regent.

1. The Emperor is a minor until he has fully completed twenty-one years; during his minority there is a regent of the Empire.
2. The regent must be at least fully twenty-one years of age; Women are excluded from the regency.
3. The Emperor designates the regent from among the French princes who are of the age required by the preceding article, and in default of them, from among the titular grand dignitaries of the Empire.
4. In default of designation on the part of the Emperor, the regency is bestowed upon the prince the nearest in degree in the order of inheritance, who has fully completed twenty-five years.
5. If, the Emperor not having designated the regent, none of the French princes have fully completed twenty-five years, the Senate elects the regent from the titular grand dignitaries of the Empire.
6. If, by reason of the minority in age of the prince summoned to the regency in the order of heredity, it has been bestowed upon a more remote kinsman, or upon one of the titular grand dignitaries of the Empire, the regent who has entered upon his functions continues until the majority of the Emperor.
7. No organic senatus-consultum can be issued during the regency, nor before the end of the third year which follows the majority.
8. The regent exercises, until the majority of the Emperor all the attributes of the imperial dignity. Nevertheless, he cannot make appointments to the high dignities of the Empire, nor to the places of the grand officers, which may be vacant at the time of the regency, or which may become vacant during the minority, nor use the prerogative reserved to the Emperor to raise citizens to the rank of senator. He cannot dismiss the grand judge nor the secretary of state.
9. He is not personally responsible for the acts of his administration.
10. All the acts of the regency are in the name of the minor Emperor.
11. The regent does not propose any project of law or of senatus-consultum, nor adopt any rule of public administration until after he has taken the opinion of the council of regency, composed of the titular high dignitaries of the Empire. He cannot declare war, nor sign treaties of peace, alliance, or commerce until after deliberation over it in the council of regency, whose members, for this case alone, have deliberative voice. The decision is by a majority of the votes; and if there is an equal division, it passes, according to the opinion of the regent. The minister of foreign affairs takes a seat in the council of regency, when this council deliberates over matters relative to his department. The grand judge minister of justice can be summoned there by order of the regent. The secretary of state keeps the register of its deliberations.
12. The regency does not confer any right over the person of the minor Emperor.
13. The stipend of the regent is fixed at one-fourth of the sum of the civil list.
14. The guardianship of the minor Emperor is confided to his mother, and in her default, to the prince designated for that purpose by the predecessor of the minor Emperor. In default of the mother of the minor Emperor and of a prince designated by the Emperor, the Senate confides the guardianship of the minor Emperor to one of the titular grand dignitaries of the Empire. Neither the regent and his descendants nor women can be chosen for the guardianship of the minor Emperor.
15. In case Napoleon Bonaparte shall make use of the power conferred upon him by article 4, title II, the document of adoption shall be drawn up in the presence of the titular grand dignitaries of the Empire, received by the secretary of state and transmitted immediately to the Senate in order to be transcribed upon its registers and deposited in its archives. When the Emperor designated either a regent for the minority or a prince for the guardianship of a minor Emperor, the same formalities are observed. The documents of designation, either of a regent for the minority or a prince for the guardianship of a minor Emperor, are revocable at will by the Emperor. Every document of adoption, of designation or of revocation of designation, which shall not have been transcribed upon the registers of the Senate before the decease of the Emperor shall be null and void.