Law of heraldic arms

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.

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.

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.

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.^{[citation needed]}