Proclamation, a public notice given by the sovereign or governing power to the people. The power of issuing proclamations is part of the prerogative of royalty as the fountain of justice. They sometimes consist of an authoritative announcement of some matter of state, or act of the executive government affecting the duties and obligations of subjects. The demise of the crown, and accession of a new sovereign, a declaration of war, and the issue of new coin are all occasions on which a royal proclamation is issued. In time of war, the crown by a proclamation may lay an embargo on shipping, and order the ports to be shut. But the most usual class of proclamations are admonitory notices for the prevention of offences, consisting of formal declarations of existing laws and penalties, and of the intention to enforce them; such as the proclamation against vice and immorality, formerly read at the opening of courts of assize and quarter sessions in England. In Scotland proclamations summon the Scottish peers to elect representatives to the House of Lords.
Proclamations are binding when they enforce the execution of laws already in being. Towards the end of Henry VIII.'s reign it was enacted that the king's proclamation should have the same force as an act of parliament; but this ill-judged law was repealed in the first year of Edward VI. It is now clear that the sovereign can neither make a new law, nor dispense with the existing law, unless by consent of parliament. A meeting which is proclaimed is not thereby rendered illegal; the proclamation is only a notice that, in the opinion of the government, the meeting is likely or certain to assume an illegal character. Proclamations are issued under the Great Seal, and are read aloud by heralds or other royal officers in the three capital cities of the United Kingdom; the reading is prefaced with the cry of 'O yes' (Fr. oyez, 'hear').