'De facto' is a
Latin expression that means "in fact" or "in practice" but not spelled out by law. It is commonly used in contrast to ''
de jure'' (which means "by law") when referring to matters of
law,
governance, or technique (such as
standards), that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or against a regulation. When discussing a legal situation, ''de jure'' designates lawfully what the law says, while de facto designates action of what happens in practice.
The term ''de facto'' may also be used when there is no relevant law or standard, but a common practice is well established, although perhaps not quite universal.
Standards
A 'de facto standard' is a technical or other
standard that is so dominant that everybody seems to follow it like an authorized standard. The de jure standard may be different: one example is the act of speeding found on highways. Although the de jure standard is to drive at the speed limit or slower, in many places the de facto standard is to drive at the speed limit or slightly faster.
Another example: there is no law preventing a 27th letter such as
Þ (thorn) from being added to the standard 26-letter
Latin alphabet used for modern
English; indeed, letters were added centuries ago without much difficulty. But today one is prevented from doing so by the practical difficulties involved, and thus there is a de facto limit on modifications to the alphabet; it is impractical to add such a letter as no one will recognize it.
A de facto standard is sometimes not formalized and may simply rely on the fact that someone has come up with a good idea that is liked so much that it is copied. Typical creators of de facto standards are individual
companies,
corporations, and
consortia. In computing, de facto standards can sometimes become de jure standards due to their share of the relevant market. For example,
JavaScript by
Netscape was standardized as
ECMAScript and parts of
DOM Level 0 became standardized in DOM Level 1/2 HTML Specification.
National language
The acceptance of de facto national languages is sometimes used as a means of remaining unprejudiced or unbiased. This is true in several
English-speaking countries, including the
United States,
United Kingdom and
Australia. In
New Zealand, there are 3 official languages (English, Maori and sign). In the United States, twenty-five
U.S. States have declared English an official language, with
Hawaii using
Hawaiian and English as official languages. However, two states also have de facto second languages:
Spanish in
New Mexico and
French in
Louisiana.
Similarly, in the former
Soviet Union,
Russian was the official language de facto, but not de jure.
Sweden is another case of a country with no de jure language.
Politics
A 'de facto government' is a government wherein all the attributes of sovereignty have, by usurpation, been transferred from those who had been legally invested with them to others, who, sustained by a power above the forms of law, claim to act and do act in their stead.
[1]
In politics, a 'de facto leader' of a country or region is one who has assumed authority, regardless of whether by lawful, constitutional, or legitimate means; very frequently the term is reserved for those whose power is thought by some faction to be held by unlawful, unconstitutional, or otherwise illegitimate means, often by deposing a previous leader or undermining the rule of a current one. De facto leaders need not hold a constitutional office, and may exercise power in an informal manner.
Not all
dictators are de facto rulers. For example,
Augusto Pinochet of
Chile initially came to power as the chairperson of a
military junta, which briefly made him de facto leader of Chile, but then he later amended the nation's constitution and made himself
President, making him the formal and legal ruler of Chile. Similarly,
Saddam Hussein's formal rule of
Iraq is often recorded as beginning in
1979, the year he assumed the
Presidency of Iraq. However, in practice his de facto rule of the nation began at an earlier date, as during his time as
vice president he exercised a great deal of power at the expense of the elderly
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.
Another example of a 'de facto ruler' is someone who is not the actual ruler, but exerts great or total influence over the true ruler, which is quite common in monarchies. Some examples of these de-facto rulers are
Empress Dowager Cixi of China (for son
Tongzhi and nephew
Guangxu Emperors), Prince
Alexander Menshikov (for his former lover Empress
Catherine I of Russia),
Cardinal Richelieu of France (for
Louis XIII), and Queen
Marie Caroline of Naples and Sicily (for her husband King
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies).
Some notable true de facto leaders have been
Deng Xiaoping of the
People's Republic of China and General
Manuel Noriega of
Panama. Both of these men exercised near-total control over their respective nations for many years, despite not having either legal constitutional office or the legal authority to exercise power. These individuals are today commonly recorded as the "leaders" of their respective nations; recording their legal, correct title would not give an accurate assessment of their power. Terms like
strongman or dictator are often used to refer to defacto rulers of this sort.
The term '''
de facto head of state''' is sometimes used to describe the office of
governor general in the
Commonwealth Realms, since the holder of that office has the same responsibilities in their country as the de jure head of state (the
sovereign) does within the
United Kingdom.
In the
Westminster System of government,
executive authority is often split between a
head of state who is the nominal/de jure/theoretical executive authority, and a
Prime Minister and
Cabinet who implement executive powers in a de facto sense, in the name of the nominal/de jure executive authority. In the
United Kingdom, the
British Sovereign is the theoretical executive authority, even though executive decisions are made by the
Prime Minister and his
Cabinet on the Sovereign's behalf (hence the term "
Her Majesty's Government").
The 'de facto boundaries' of a country are defined by the area that its government is actually able to enforce its laws in, and to defend against encroachments by other countries that may also claim the same territory de jure; the
line of control in
Kashmir is an example of a de facto boundary. As well as cases of
border disputes, de facto boundaries may also arise in relatively unpopulated areas when the border was never formally established, or when the agreed border was never surveyed and its exact position is unclear. The same concepts may also apply to a boundary between provinces or other subdivisions of a
federal state.
Similarly, a nation with 'de facto independence', like
Somaliland, is one that is not recognized by other nations or by international bodies, even though it has its own government that exercises absolute control over its claimed territory.
Other usages
A 'de facto
monopoly' is a system where many suppliers of a product are allowed, but the market is so completely dominated by one that the others might as well not exist. (Similarly for related terms such as
oligopoly and
monopsony.) This is the type of situation that
antitrust laws are intended to eliminate, when they are used.
A
domestic partner outside
marriage is referred to as a 'de facto husband' or 'wife' by some authorities.
[2] In
Australia and
New Zealand ''defacto'' has become a term for one's domestic partner. It is a legally recognised relationship of a couple living together in Australian law, e.g. "This is my defacto, Rachel". This is equivalent to the term ''common-law'' husband or wife used in most other
English-speaking countries.
Countries sometimes receive de facto (informal) recognition from other countries which may lead to de jure (formal) recognition.
Notes
1. 30 Am Jur 181. Law Dictionary, James A. Ballentine, Second Edition, 1948, page 345.
2. Walker Lenore E.A. "Battered Woman Syndrome. Empirical Findings". ''Violence and Exploitation Against Women and Girls'', November 2006, page 142.
See also
★
List of Latin phrases
★
Status quo
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De jure
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