Bedof Justice

Bed of Justice (French lit de justice), literally the covered throne which the French king occupied when present at the deliberations of Parliament. Hence the term was transferred to those meetings of Parliament at which the king was present. It was the accepted legal theory in France (derived to a great extent from misinterpretations of maxims of Roman law about the Roman Emperor) that the king of a nation was the source of all power in it; and that "on the arrival of the king the powers of the magistrates cease." Hence the decisions given in a bed of justice were held to have a more binding force than the ordinary decisions of Parliament, as proceeding from primary and not delegated authority. Beds of justice were held in order to compel the Parliament to register royal acts, to declare the age at which members of the royal family should be considered to attain their majority, to create new charges, etc. The last was held by Louis XVI. at Versailles in 1787.