Is there a University of Leeds? Prove it!
Just to give one more example of the unpredictability and range of the work of a Notary, here is a brief record of an instruction I received during the summer.
I work in Leeds which is of course one of the big cities of England (third largest after London and Birmingham in fact) and The University of Leeds is well known around the world. The idea of having to prove that there is a University here had not occurred to me until I received a call from the University administrators asking me to do just that.
The background is that because of the excellence of the University and the technical knowledge and ability within it, it is able to forge links with industries and governments all around the world wishing to take advantage of its capabilities. However in order to make legally binding contracts and to comply with their own laws and tax regulations these foreign partners need to know as a matter of legal status, exactly what the University is. Is it a limited company? Is it a partnership, a member’s Club, an incorporated individual, an arm of government, a public school, a private school, a Council owned facility like a swimming pool – what is it?
It therefore fell to me to explain after due research, in the form of my Notarial Certificate, just exactly what it is and I must say that I found my research very interesting.
The answer is that the University of Leeds is an Independent Educational Institute. It is the consequence of an Order of the King. In 1904 King Edward VII was petitioned by the then Yorkshire College in Leeds (which was itself the creature of an earlier Resolution of the Royal Court) to create a University in Leeds. By his Royal Charter of that year he brought the University into existence.
In the course of my work I was privileged to be shown the actual 1904 Charter by Liza Giffen, the Archivist for the University. It is important to realise that the 1904 Charter is a historical document, but the University is an organic entity – it grows. So the terms of the Charter – which is the de facto constitution of the University, have had to change over the years to accommodate different requirements and circumstances. These changes are made first by decisions of the Council of the University which are then ratified by Orders of the Privy Council which is the senior constitutional link in the UK between the Crown and the Government – in effect, the legal advisors to the Queen.
Therefore the present day Charter defining the present day University is not the 1904 Charter, but the document into which that first Charter has evolved. It is this evolved wording which I have incorporated into my Certificate
After all of this enquiry I was then able to prepare my Certificate.
If you would like to see the present Charter, here it is on the website of the University of Leeds, to which I am most grateful for its permission to publish this blog