The law of heraldic arms, sometimes simply laws of heraldry, governs the possession, use or display of arms, called bearing of arms. That use includes the coats of arms, coat armour or armorial bearings. Originally with the sole function of enabling knights to identify each other on the battlefield, they soon acquired wider, more decorative uses. Today they are used by countries, public and private institutions or individuals. The first laws regarding arms were written by Bartolus de Saxoferrato and the officials who administer these matters today are called pursuivants, heralds, or kings of arms. The law of arms is part of the law in countries which regulate heraldry, although not part of common law in England and in countries whose laws derive from English law. In most European countries without monarchies, much like in the United States, there are no laws against assuming arms, with the closest legal authenticity mechanism being a pictorial copyright protection.
Right to bear arms
According to the usual description of the law of arms, coats of arms, armorial badges, flags and standards and other similar emblems of honour may only be borne by virtue of ancestral right, or of a grant made to the user under due authority. Ancestral right means descent in the male line from an ancestor who lawfully bore arms. Due authority has, since late medieval times, been the Crown or the State.
In the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, the Crown's prerogative of granting arms is delegated to one of several authorities depending on the country. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the authority to grant arms is delegated to the Kings of Arms of the College of Arms, under the direction of the Earl Marshal. In Scotland, this authority is delegated to Lord Lyon King of Arms at his or her own discretion. In Canada, it is exercised by the Canadian Heraldic Authority under the direction of the Governor General of Canada.
In Ireland, unlike the position in the United Kingdom, a grant of arms from an official authority is not a legal prerequisite to the use of arms. For example, heraldic symbols and coats of arms that existed pre-1552 and afterwards belonged to the Gaelic tradition may continue in use, as well as arms without any official basis.
In Spain, whilst the power to grant new arms is restricted to the king, the Cronistas de Armas (Chroniclers of Arms) have the power to certify arms within the province(s) of their appointment. As of 2008, there is currently only one, with authority only in the provinces of Castile and León.
Law of arms as part of the general law
While the degree to which the general law recognises arms differs, in both England and Scotland a grant of arms confers certain rights upon the grantee and his (or her) heirs, even if they may not be easily protected. No person may lawfully have the same coat of arms as another person in the same heraldic jurisdiction although in England the bearing of identical arms without differencing marks by descendants from a common armigerous ancestor has been widespread and tolerated by the College of Arms.
Although the common law courts do not regard coats of arms as either property or as being defensible by action, armorial bearings are a form of property nevertheless, generally described as tesserae gentilitatis or insignia of gentility. Armorial bearings are incorporeal and impartible hereditaments, inalienable, and descendable according to the law of arms. Generally speaking (there have been very rare examples of patents in which the arms are granted to descend with some different limitation), this means they are inherited by the issue (male and female) in the male line of the grantee, though they can be inherited as quarterings by the sons of an heraldic heiress, where there is no surviving male heir, provided her issue also have a right to bear arms in their own male line.
Belgium The Belgian law of arms is now regulated by the country's three heraldic authorities: the Council of Nobility, the Council of Heraldry and Vexillology, and the Flemish Heraldic Council.
Canada The Canadian law of arms is now regulated by the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
Denmark In Denmark the unlawful use of coats of arms and other insignia of Danish and foreign authorities is a criminal offence (Danish Criminal Code §§ 132–133). Non-official coats of arms are not protected. A specific rendition of a coat of arms is protected through copyright law and a coat of arms can be used as a trademark and will thus be protected by trademark law. There is no official heraldic authority for private arms in Denmark. Most insignia used by municipalities are regulated by the Heraldic Consultant to the Danish State (an office under the Danish National Archives). Registration by the Heraldic Consultant to the Danish State is a prerequisite for protection of official Danish insignia under the Criminal Code's §§ 132–133. Protection of an insignia in terms of trademark law requires registration by the trademark authorities. If an insignia is registered by the Heraldic Consultant, trademark rights are automatically acquired as well.
During the Absolutist era, arms of nobility were granted by the King's herald, but this office was dissolved in 1849 when the absolutist era ended. Since then, the only way to acquire coats of arms in Denmark is through assumption. The Danish state has never claimed any exclusive right to grant arms and families and individuals has always had the freedom to assume arms.
England and Wales In England, the exclusive jurisdiction of deciding rights to arms, and claims of descent, is vested in the Court of Chivalry. As the substance of the common law is found in the judgments of the common law courts, so the substance of the Law of Arms can only be found in the customs and usages of the Court of Chivalry. However, the records of this are sparse, not least because the court never gave reasoned judgments (the Lord Chief Justice who sat in 1954 offering the sole exception to this, no doubt because of his professional background as a common law Judge). The procedure was based on that of the civil law, but the substantive law was recognised to be English, and peculiar to the Court of Chivalry.
Until 1945, the display of coats of arms (engravings, public paintings, etc.) were taxed, with no distinction made in the statute between arms granted by the College of Arms or those which were self-assumed.
France
In France, according to consistent case law, since 1949 and to this day: "Coats of arms differ essentially from titles of nobility in that they are merely marks of recognition accessory to the family name to which they are indissolubly attached, whether that family is noble or not. It follows that coats of arms are the attribute of the entire family and enjoy the same protection as the name itself, and that the judicial courts competent to hear disputes relating to family names are likewise competent to hear disputes that may arise concerning coats of arms". Administrative courts are, for their part, competent to hear disputes concerning coats of arms of public bodies.
Germany In Germany the arms relate to a family, and so a name, and not to an individual. The right to the arms passes from the original bearer to those of his legitimate direct descendants by a male line. Since 1918 heraldic affairs are handled under the Civil Law. The right to arms is now considered analogous to the right to names, expressed in the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch § 12; this interpretation was confirmed in 1992 by the Federal Court of Justice of Germany. Thus, if one has the right to certain arms, that right is protected by the courts . Personal arms are protected as a part of the name if the arms are officially recorded and published .
Ireland In Ireland the granting of arms to Irish citizens or to those who can prove Irish ancestry is considered to be a cultural tradition which is allowed through the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland. This office was established under the English Crown in 1552 as the Ulster King of Arms and was converted to the Chief Herald's Office after the 1937 Constitution of Ireland.
The Office of Chief Herald was given statutory force in the National Cultural Institutions Act 1997.See http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0011/sec0013.html#sec13 However some doubts remained as to the effectiveness of the 1997 Act and proposals for further legislative amendment have been made by individual public representatives. For example, on 8 May 2006 Senator Brendan Ryan introduced the Genealogy & Heraldry Bill, 2006, in Seanad Éireann (Irish Senate) to this end.
Italy Speaking very generally, Italian coats of arms may be said to be familial rather than personal. A formal system for indicating cadency is unknown outside the House of Savoy. In Italy there has been no official regulation of familial coats of arms or titles of nobility since abolition of the Consulta Araldica in 1948, and that body addressed itself primarily to state recognition of titles of nobility rather than the heraldry of untitled armigers such as nobili (untitled nobles) and patrizi (of the patriciates in the former city-states). Until the unification of the country in the decade leading to 1870, the issuance and use of familial coats of arms was exercised rather loosely in the various Italian states, with each region applying its own laws, and the principal focus was titles of nobility or (before ) feudal rights. Indeed, upon ennoblement, a count or baron not from an armigerous family might actually assume his own, original coat of arms without recourse to any authority. For this reason, actual grants of arms were very rare. There is no complete armory of Italian coats of arms, though certain authors, most importantly Giambattista Crollalanza, compiled references which appear to be nearly complete. Until the establishment of the republic (1946) and its constitution two years later, most coats of arms in Italy appertained to noble families, whether titled or not, although a number of blazons were identified with cittadini (burghers) whose families had used these for a century or more. The Blasonario contemplated by the Consulta Araldica would have been an official compilation of blazons (i.e. an armory), but it was still in a very early draft stage when the monarchy was abolished in 1946. In 1967 the Constitutional Court ruled that nobiliary and heraldic matters were "outside the scope of the law". Italy's concordat with the Vatican in 1984, revising the Lateran Treaties, abrogated the article whereby Italy recognises papal titles.
Norway
The national arms and the royal arms sort under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and military arms are a matter of the heads of each branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces.Hans Cappelen:The Heraldry of the Norwegian Armed Forces,Genealogica & Heraldica Lisboa 1986, Lisboa 1989, Vol. 2, p. 179-185 The National Archives of Norway are the heraldic authority for the royal approbation of municipal arms.Hans Cappelen: Règles pour utilisation des armoiries communales en Norvège", Archivum Heraldicum (1-2) 1976. Public arms are protected by the Norwegian Penal Code, article 328.Straffeloven, § 328 at Lovdata. The same article prohibits as well unauthorised use of foreign public arms and some distinctive signs of international organizations.Hans Cappelen:The Concept of the Coat of Arms in Norwegian Legislation", Kongressbericht, Stuttgart 1978.
There exists no official authority for private arms and the question of legal protection of private arms has not been asked to a Norwegian legal court.Hans Cappelen:"On taking the family arms of others", Genealogica et Heraldica – Wien 14.19. September 1970 (Congress Report) Vienna 1972