Editing Constitution of the Netherlands (section)

=====§1: Laws and other prescripts=====
The Legislative is formed by Government (i.e. King and ministers) and the States General in cooperation (Article 81), although the term "legislative" is not actually used: the article simply states that government and the States General together make laws. This means that the Dutch concept of "formal law" cannot simply be equated to "Act of Parliament", as government and parliament act in unison in creating laws. In the Dutch constitutional system there is no decisive [[referendum]], although sometimes consultative referendums are held, like the one in 2005 in which the people advised to reject the [[Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe|European Constitution]]; the Dutch people is thus not a direct lawgiver.

Bills are presented by the King or by the House of Representatives, which thus has the [[right of initiative]] (Article 82). Some bills have to be presented by the States General in United Assembly (subarticle 2). The Senate cannot propose law. The ministers can but in fact act through the King who sends a Royal Missive (Article 83), containing the proposal, which is only signed by himself, thus without countersign. The House of Representatives has the [[Amend (motion)|right of amendment]]; government too may [[amend (motion)|amend]] (Article 84). The Senate only can pass or reject laws in full (Article 85), defended by the responsible minister or by members of the House of Representatives having taken the initiative to propose the law; however, in practice it can send the proposal back asking for a ''novelle'' to be passed by the House of Representatives, in fact an amendment of law. Bills may be withdrawn by the proposer until passed (Article 86), but only by a majority of the House of Representatives if the bill has been presented by some members of the House of Representatives and has been passed by the House of Representatives. Bills become valid law once they have been passed by Parliament and have been affirmed by the King (Article 87). It is generally assumed that this also fulfills the demand of signature by Article 47.  The affirmation needs sign and ministerial countersign but also the older Royal Order has to be signed and countersigned, ordering to publish the law in a special publication, the ''Staatsblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden'' (''Bulletin of Acts, Orders and Decrees of the Kingdom of the Netherlands'', also called ''Bulletin of Acts and Decrees''). Only after such publication the law has an external binding force (Article 88).

In the Dutch constitutional system there is not only formal law; also other general governmental regulations are recognised, binding the citizen; the overarching concept is called "material law". These other regulations are the "other prescripts" mentioned in the heading of §1. Only the most important subcategory of these is explicitly mentioned in the constitution, in Article 89: the ''Algemene maatregelen van bestuur'', "General Administrative Orders". To avoid doctrinal strive over what orders exactly are covered by this concept, a consensus has developed that a strict formal definition can be applied: all general orders made by Royal Decree (Subarticle 1) that have been submitted to the Council of Ministers and to the Council of State and have been published by the ''Staatsblad'', are General Administrative Orders. Since the Second World War a doctrinal consensus has gradually developed that all general Royal Decrees have to conform to these conditions to be valid and that earlier practices to issue general Royal Decrees without meeting these three formalities — such Decrees, general or otherwise, are called "minor Royal Decrees" — can no longer result in regulations with binding force towards the citizen. Since 1889 the constitution determines that all prescripts with a penal character have to be based on formal law and that this law imposes the penalty (Subarticles 2 and 4). This includes the Royal Decrees and thus the General Administrative Orders. A doctrinal consensus has developed, however, that all General Administrative Orders, not just those with penal content, have to be based on formal law to be valid, with the competence to regulate delegated by such law.