In the
United Kingdom, the government and command of the armed forces is vested in
the sovereign. Under the sovereign, direct control of the armed forces is divided between the
government and the
Defence Council. However, a constitutional convention has developed regarding
parliamentary approval for military action. There has been a long-running debate regarding whether
Parliament alone should have the power to declare war and more widely to commit British forces to armed conflict. This was attempted (to the limited extent of possible war against
Iraq) in 1999 with the introduction of the
Military Action Against Iraq (Parliamentary Approval) Bill. However Queen
Elizabeth II, acting upon the advice of her government at the time, refused to grant her consent to allow the bill to be debated in Parliament and so it was dropped (
Queen's Consent was needed before debate could take place because the bill affected the royal prerogative). though
British Armed Forces have taken part in armed conflict on numerous occasions nonetheless. A committee of the House of Lords opined that the prohibition on initiating violent conflict in the
Charter of the United Nations has made declaration of war redundant as a formal international legal instrument. The procedure for a declaration of war is set out in a letter dated 23 August 1939 from
Gerald Fitzmaurice. It reads: ==Declarations of war by the Kingdom of Great Britain==