What is the role of the keyword throws in exception handling in Java?

The keyword throws in Java is used in a method declaration to indicate that this method may throw certain checked exceptions. It is a requirement for the calling code to either handle these exceptions with a try-catch block or declare them in its own throws.

Example:

public void readFile(String path) throws IOException {
    // code that may throw IOException
}

Here, the readFile method indicates that it may throw an IOException. This helps the compiler and developers understand which exceptions need to be handled, ensuring more reliable error handling.