Artikel 82: Submission of legislative proposals; initiative
- Bills may be presented by or on behalf of the King or by the Lower House of the States General.
- Bills which require consideration by a joint session of the States General may be presented by or on behalf of the King or by a joint session of the States General insofar as this is consistent with the relevant articles of Chapter 2.
- Bills to be presented by the Lower House or by a joint session of the States General shall be introduced in the House or the joint session as the case may be by one or more members.
Explanation
Please note: Only the Dutch-language version of the Constitution has legal effect.
Legislative proposals can be submitted by the government and by the House of Representatives. The latter is called the right of initiative.
The right of initiative is regulated in such a way that one or more members of the House of Representatives, the initiators, present a legislative proposal to the House of Representatives for consideration. This is called 'bringing a bill before the House'. The House of Representatives considers the legislative proposal in the presence of the government. The initiator or initiators defend the proposal. The House of Representatives then decides whether the proposal will be submitted. If this is decided, the House of Representatives sends the legislative proposal to the Senate (Article 85).
Several articles in the section on the King mention legislation for which consideration in joint session is mandatory. In that case, too, the right of initiative applies, unless that article states that such a legislative proposal can only be submitted by the government (on behalf of the King). An example of this is Article 29.
The Senate does not have the right of initiative.