Definition
Jus coronae (Latin: "right of the crown") is a term of English constitutional law referring to the right of succession to the throne — that is, the legal basis by which the sovereign office passes from one monarch to the next. It describes both the inherent legal character of the Crown as an institution capable of holding and transmitting rights, and the specific succession interest that vests in an heir by operation of law and constitutional custom.
The term carries two related but distinct senses: (1) the right belonging to the Crown as a legal entity, encompassing the prerogatives, dignities, and interests that attach to the sovereign office itself; and (2) the right of a particular person to succeed to that office, grounded in hereditary descent, statute, or parliamentary settlement.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter jus coronae primarily in materials concerning the English law of royal succession and prerogative, particularly texts predating and following the Act of Settlement 1701, which substantially reordered the statutory basis of succession. Earlier sources, including Blackstone's Commentaries (the reference underlying Black's citation to 1 Bl. Comm. 191), treat the concept as embedded in the common law of inheritance modified by feudal and constitutional overlay. Later sources, especially after 1701 and again after the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, reflect a more purely statutory character to succession rights.
The key research trap is conflating jus coronae with the broader category of royal prerogative. Jus coronae is a narrower term: it concerns succession and the rights of the Crown as a continuing institution, not the operational powers the monarch exercises once on the throne. Secondary sources occasionally blur this line.
Because the term appears almost exclusively in historical English constitutional law, researchers in American legal materials will find it only in treatises drawing on Blackstone or in foundational discussions of sovereignty and the Crown's legal personality as background to colonial-era and early republican doctrine. It has no direct operative role in American law.
Stephen's Commentaries (the source of the 2 Steph. Comm. 434 citation in Black's) elaborates on the hereditary nature of the succession interest in a way that connects jus coronae to the law of real property descent — a connection important for understanding how English lawyers historically conceptualized the transmission of the Crown as legally analogous to, but formally distinct from, the transmission of a fee simple estate.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) provides a concise and accurate definition: "the right of the crown, or to the crown; the right of succession to the throne," with supporting references to Blackstone and Stephen. The dual formulation — "of the crown" and "to the crown" — is deliberate and meaningful. "Of the crown" captures the Crown's own vested legal interests; "to the crown" captures the succession right held by an heir apparent or heir presumptive.
Black's entry is brief and does not develop the distinction between the natural-law and statutory foundations of succession that later constitutional historians treat at length. Blackstone's own discussion (1 Bl. Comm. 191) is more expansive, situating jus coronae within the hereditary monarchy framework and acknowledging that parliamentary intervention (as in the Glorious Revolution settlement) modified but did not wholly displace hereditary right. Historical dictionaries as a class offer limited guidance on the post-1701 statutory evolution; researchers should treat Black's entry as a pointer to primary sources rather than a complete account.
Jurisdictional Note
Jus coronae is a term of English constitutional law with no direct application in American, Scottish (by that name), or other common law jurisdictions. It appears in comparative and historical legal scholarship when discussing the constitutional foundations of monarchical sovereignty or the reception of English law in colonial contexts.