At His Majesty's pleasure (when the reigning monarch is female, at Her Majesty's pleasure), sometimes abbreviated to the King's pleasure (or the Queen's pleasure), is a legal term of art referring to the indeterminate or undetermined length of service of certain appointed officials or the indeterminate sentences of some prisoners. It is based on the proposition that certain government officials are appointed by the Crown and can be removed for policy reasons, unlike employees. Originating in the United Kingdom, the phrase is now used throughout the Commonwealth realms, Lesotho, Eswatini, Brunei, and other monarchies, such as Spain, the Netherlands, and Oman. In realms where the monarch is represented by a governor-general, governor, or administrator, the phrase may be modified to be at the governor's pleasure or variations thereof, since the governor-general, governor, lieutenant governor, or administrator is the king's personal representative in the country, state, or province.
The term is used to describe detention in prison for an indefinite length of time;[3] a judge may rule that a person be "detained at His Majesty's pleasure" for serious offences or based on a successful insanity defence.[4] This is sometimes used where there is a great risk of re-offending. However, it is most often used for juvenile offenders, usually as a substitute for life sentencing (which might be much longer for youthful offenders). For example, section 259 of England's Sentencing Act 2020 (which only applies to England and Wales) states, "where [...] a person convicted of murder, or any other offence the sentence for which is fixed by law as life imprisonment, and the person appears to the court to have been aged under 18 at the time the offence was committed. The court must sentence the offender to be detained during Her Majesty's pleasure."[5]
Prisoners held at His Majesty's pleasure are periodically reviewed to determine whether their sentence can be deemed complete; although this power traditionally rested with the monarch, such reviews are now made in lieu by others—the secretary of state for justice in England and Wales, for instance. Minimum terms are also set, before which the prisoner cannot be released; in England and Wales, these were originally set by the home secretary, but, since 30 November 2000, have been set by the trial judge.[6] Prisoners' sentences are typically deemed to be complete when the reviewing body is "satisfied that there has been a significant change in the offender's attitude and behaviour".[6]
In the United States, Russia, and the Philippines, the equivalent standard for political appointments is called "at the pleasure of the president" (Russian: по усмотрению президента, romanized: po usmotreniyu prezidenta; Filipino: Sa kasiyahan ng Pangulo).[15]
^Blackstone, William (1836). Commentaries on the Laws of England: in four books; with an analysis of the work, Volume 2. 24. London: Law Booksellers & Publishers.