h. If after a general
election there is still lack of harmony, the ministry, as would be the
procedure in a similar situation in Great Britain, retires from
office, the sovereign calls upon an opposition party leader to assume
the premiership and to form a cabinet, and the remainder of the
ministers are selected from the dominant parties by this official, in
consultation with the king. By reason of the multiplicity of party
groups in Belgium, the king is apt to be allowed somewhat wider
latitude in the choice of a premier than is possible in Great
Britain.[752]

[Footnote 751: Arts. 63-64, 89. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, I., 137, 140.]

[Footnote 752: Dupriez, Les Ministres, I., 210-230;
O. Kerchove de Denterghem, De la responsabilite des
ministres dans le droit public belge (Paris,
1867).]

*592. The Exercise of Executive Powers.*--The powers of the executive,
exercised nominally by the king, but actually by the ministry, are
closely defined in the constitution; and there is the stipulation,
unusual in European constitutions, that the king shall possess no
powers other than those which the constitution, and the special laws
enacted under the constitution, confer explicitly upon him.[753] Under
the conditions that have been explained, the king appoints all
officials who are attached to the general administrative and foreign
services, but other officials only in so far as is expressly
authorized by law. He commands the forces by land and sea, declares
war, and concludes peace. He negotiates treaties, with the limitation
that treaties of commerce and treaties which impose a burden upon the
state, or place under obligation individual Belgian citizens, take
effect only after receiving the approval of the two houses; and with
the further condition that no cession, exchange, or acquisition of
territory may be carried through save by warrant of a law. The king
promulgates all legislative measures, and he is authorized to issue
all regulations and decrees necessary for the execution of the laws.
In theory he possesses the power of the veto, but in the Belgian, as
in parliamentary governments generally, there is no occasion for the
actual exercise of this power. The king convokes, prorogues, and
dissolves the chambers; though the provisions of the constitution (p. 538)
relating to the legislative sessions are so