Monarchies in Europe - Succession Laws

Succession Laws

The succession order is determined by primogeniture in most European monarchies. Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden now adhere to equal primogeniture, whereby the eldest child inherits the throne, regardless of gender; Monaco, Spain and the United Kingdom have the older system of male-preference primogeniture, while Liechtenstein uses agnatic primogeniture.

There are plans to change this in Spain through a rather complicated processes, as the change entails a constitutional amendment. Two successive parliaments will have to pass the law by a two-thirds majority and then put it to a referendum. As parliament has to be dissolved and new elections have to be called after the constitutional amendment is passed for the first time, the previous Presidente del Gobierno José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero indicated he would wait until the end of his first term in 2008 before passing the law, although this deadline passed without the referendum being called. The amendment enjoys strong public support.

There have also been suggestions to change the order of succession in the United Kingdom; however, as the Queen of the United Kingdom is also the Queen of the fifteen other Commonwealth realms, a change has to be agreed and made by all of the Commonwealth realms together, and since the need for change is not imminent yet (as Charles, Prince of Wales will succeed his mother Elizabeth II, and Charles' oldest son Prince William, Duke of Cambridge will succeed him in turn, with no older sisters who would be skipped under the current male primogeniture laws), the change has repeatedly been postponed to a later time. While the Equality Bill was at first expected to both abolish the preference for male heirs as well as the barring of Catholics from the throne at some point in 2008, this was later changed because of the complexity of agreeing simultaneous legislation in 16 states, and it seemed that there were no concrete plans to change the order of succession in the close future. It was later reported that the marriage between Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton might drive change. The heads of government of all sixteen states of which the monarch of the United Kingdom is head of state agreed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011 to go ahead and change the rules to equal primogeniture (also abolishing the ban against marrying a Roman Catholic).

Liechtenstein has an even older system of succession (agnatic primogeniture/Salic law), which completely excludes women from the order of succession unless there are no male heirs of any kind present, and was criticised for this by a United Nations committee for this perceived gender equality issue in November 2007.

The co-princes of Andorra are elected and appointed (the president of the French Republic and the Bishop of La Seu d'Urgell, respectively).

The absolute monarch of Vatican City, the Pope Benedict XVI, is elected by the College of Cardinals.

Luxembourg also used agnatic primogeniture until 20 June 2011, when equal primogeniture was introduced.