A decree is a legal rule or regulation, having all the power of parliamentary legislation, but issued directly by a minister or department of state under direct authority granted either by a constitution or enabling legislation. They are a particular feature of continental European constitutional law, particularly in France. The constitution of the French Fifth Republic was intended to limit parliamentary power, and thus the ability to make binding law in many areas had to be transferred to the administrative branch of government. This is a rather wider transfer of power away from an elected body than is to be found in common law systems. Although parliamentary government in the United Kingdom often allows ministers to add details to legislation, these have to be presented to Parliament, which could alter them; the French National Assembly, in contrast, does not have the power to query a minister about decrees.
The real difference is one of subjective tone. Decree carries with it the suggestion of autocratic power, suggesting a superior administrative or governmental judgment which is not to be challenged by the public. There is a stronger sense than with the law that the people have decided, however indirectly, to bind themselves to some behaviour out of their own concern for the common good. However intangible they may be, these subjective distinctions are important, not only in indicating differences in perspectives on regulatory power between the European civil law and Anglo-American common law systems, but also in explaining why European attitudes to governmental power, especially in France and Italy, often involve seeing the state as a hostile and disinterested body. However, problems of parliamentary instability, or difficulties in getting parliamentary majorities make some recourse to decrees inevitable at times. Italy, again, is an example of a country forced at times to rely heavily on such governmental instruments, as are several of the new East European democracies, notably Romania.
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