Faculty Office

{{short description|Tribunal of the Archbishop of Canterbury}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{More citations needed|date=August 2009}}

__NOTOC__

The Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury is a regulatory body in English law, which also exercises some adjudicatory functions. Its responsibilities include:

• the regulation of notaries public;
• the issue of special marriage licences{{cite web|title=Faculty Office – Special Licences|url=https://www.facultyoffice.org.uk/special-marriage-licences/couples/how-do-i-get-a-licence/|website=Faculty Office|accessdate=2021-07-06}} (but not common marriage licences);{{efn|Special licences permit the parties to marry before a member of the clergy and according to an Anglican order of service otherwise than in a church: for example, in a school, college or university chapel;{{cite web | url=https://www.facultyoffice.org.uk/special-marriage-licences/couples/general-information-about-marriage-in-the-church-of-england/| title= Faculty Office : Special Marriage Licence – Marriage Law Information – School, College and University Chapels | access-date=2021-06-20}} or anywhere, if one of the parties to the intended marriage is in danger of imminent death.{{cite web |url= http://www.facultyoffice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Emergency-marriage-in-hospital-for-issue-April-2020.pdf| title= Faculty Office : Emergency Marriages in Hospital, Hospice or At Home (England and Wales) | access-date=2021-06-20}}}}
• the conferral of Lambeth degrees.

The Faculty Office is presided over by the Master of the Faculties, who is appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury subject to approval by the Crown. Its jurisdiction is exercised by the Court of Faculties and applies to England and Wales. The jurisdiction was conferred upon the Archbishop by the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 (25 Hen. 8. c. 21) as part of the Reformation in England. This Act transferred to the Archbishop of Canterbury powers which had until then been exercised by the Papal Legate to England. For this reason, they are sometimes called the "legatine powers". They are exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury not only in the Province of Canterbury but also in the Province of York{{cite book

|last=Moore

|first=E. Garth

|author-link=

|date=1967

|title=An Introduction to English Canon Law

|location=Oxford

|publisher=Clarendon Press

|page=29

}}

and the area covered by the Church in Wales.

Notaries public in New Zealand and the State of Queensland, Australia are still appointed by the Faculty Office.{{cite web|title=Welcome to the New Zealand Society of Notaries|url= https://notarypublic.org.nz/|website=Society of Notaries of New Zealand|accessdate=2021-07-06}}{{cite web|title=What is the Notary Public?|url=https://societyofnotariesqld.org/what-is-the-notary-public//|website=The Society of Notaries of Queensland Inc |accessdate=2021-07-06}}