Belgian Federal Parliament in the context of "Arcade du Cinquantenaire"

The Rue de la Loi (French, pronounced [ʁy d(ə) la lwa]) or Wetstraat (Dutch, pronounced [ˈʋɛtstraːt]), meaning "Law Street", is a major street running through central and eastern Brussels, Belgium, which is famous due to the presence of several notable Belgian and European Union (EU) governmental buildings. The road runs from the Rue Royale/Koningsstraat in central Brussels to the Robert Schuman Roundabout in its European Quarter. It forms the first (westerly) part of the N3 road that runs to Aachen, Germany.

The terms Rue de la Loi in French or Wetstraat in Dutch are used metonymically for government in Belgian politics and media because the Belgian Federal Parliament building (Palace of the Nation) stands at the beginning of this street and the office of the Prime Minister is located adjacent to this building, at number 16. It is also where the Council of Ministers holds its meetings.

The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (French: État indépendant du Congo), was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by King Leopold II, the constitutional monarch of the Kingdom of Belgium. In legal terms, the two separate countries were in a personal union. The Congo Free State was not a part of, nor did it belong to, Belgium. Leopold was able to seize the region by convincing other European states at the Berlin Conference on Africa that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work and would not tax trade. Via the International Association of the Congo, he was able to lay claim to most of the Congo Basin. On 29 May 1885, after the closure of the Berlin Conference, the king announced that he planned to name his possessions "the Congo Free State", an appellation which was not yet used at the Berlin Conference and which officially replaced "International Association of the Congo" on 1 August 1885. The Free State was privately controlled by Leopold from Brussels; he never visited it.

The state included the entire area of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo and existed from 1885 to 1908, when the Belgian Parliament reluctantly annexed the state as a colony belonging to Belgium after international pressure.

The Palace of the Nation (Dutch: Paleis der Natie; French: Palais de la Nation; German: Palast der Nation) is a neoclassical palace in Brussels, Belgium, housing the Belgian Federal Parliament. The Parliament consists of both the Chamber of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house), which convene in two separate hemicycles.

The palace was built from 1778 to 1783 to a neoclassical design by the French architect Gilles-Barnabé Guimard and includes sculptures by Gilles-Lambert Godecharle. Under Austrian rule, it housed the Sovereign Council of Brabant before being used as a courthouse during the French period. During the Dutch period, it was one of two homes of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the other being in The Hague. The palace was partially rebuilt at that time by the architect Charles Vander Straeten. Following Belgian independence in 1830, the Provisional Government of Belgium and Belgian National Congress moved into the building and the first session of the Chamber of Representatives and Senate was held there a year later.

The Colonial Charter on the Belgian annexation of the Congo Free State (French: Charte coloniale de 1908) was approved by the Belgian Parliament on 18 October 1908. On 15 November 1908, Belgium assumed sovereignty over the territories comprising the Congo Free State, officially making the Belgian Congo a colony of Belgium.

Legislative Order (Dutch: Wet-besluit or Besluitwet, French: Arrêté-loi, literally translated in English as law-order) in Belgium refers to laws adopted by the Belgian Government during the First and the Second World War, when the Belgian Parliament was unable to meet.