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A. What is the Royal Prerogative?In biblical times, the king, or sovereign, was granted very broad powers to govern the nation of Israel. Under Halachic law, the monarchy exists as an independent legal category. (304) The monarchy had special rights and privileges under Jewish law, sometimes referred to as the royal prerogative. The monarch is vested with the right to promulgate the laws of the kingdom and, in doing so, they are vested with certain legal authority to enforce those laws. 305 According to Ritva, one of the powers granted to the king under Talmudic law is the ability impose punishment. 306 While Ritva limits the imposition of punishment by a king to those acts that conform with the “law of the land.” 307 There are two possible explanations of this limitation. First, as Rabbi Bleich seems to suggest, Ritva’s limitation is only in regard to non-Jewish monarchs governing the Jewish people. The second limitation is that the King could not order one to do what even the court could not. 308 This is shown by his support of the King’s authority to impose capital punishment without following the procedural guidelines set forth in classical Talmudic law. 309 However, Ritva is not the only commentator to agree that the King may impose punishment outside of the court system.Maimonides too believes that extrajudicial punishment may be handed down by the king “by virtue of the law of monarchy and the perfection of the world.” 310 Even the Torah itself, in the book of Samuel, suggests that the monarch may impose “the King’s Justice” as it states “appoint for us a King to judge us like all nations.” 311 As Rabbi Nissim explained during this time, the monarch served two purposes: 1) as commander in chief of the army and 2) as magistrate in chief who could order extrastatutory laws when necessary. 312 He would agree then that the King had the authority to issue laws or impose punishment in order for the needs of the Jewish people.Thus, the royal prerogative allows the king to impose punishment and enforce laws in order to govern over the people. There have been times when the King’s authority was necessary to impose punishment on those who were unable to be tried in the courts. However, just because the King was granted the authority to impose punishment, do those same rights have any application today