General Assembly (Laeral)

The General Assembly is the upper house of the National Assembly of Laeral, which comprises the national legislature of Laeral alongside the Assembly of Commons. It meets at Assembly Hall in Laeralsford.

The General Assembly is an elected body, with two Delegates elected from each of Laeral's 33 provinces to comprise a body of 66, alongside non-voting members from the territory of Xianjiapo and the Xueyan Special Administrative Region. Members are elected via single transferable vote, a form of proportional representation, within each province on a staggered election schedule to serve six-year terms.

The General Assembly was established in 1954 with the Second Allied Provinces of Laeral, and is the upper and weaker house of the National Assembly—a form of imperfect bicameralism. In contrast to the Assembly of Commons, the General Assembly's approval is not required to elect a prime minister. Although the General Assembly may reject legislation passed by the Assembly of Commons, a three-fifths majority in the Commons and the president's concurrence are sufficient to override the General Assembly's veto. Legislation may only be introduced in the General Assembly if it pertains to matters involving the provincial governments; all other legislation, including the budget, must be introduced in the Assembly of Commons. The General Assembly is also responsible for confirming, by three-fifths majority, a Justice to the Laeralian Constitutional Court upon the president's nomination every odd-numbered year.

History

The General Assembly was a feature of the First Allied Provinces of Laeral (1859-1922), which operated under a decentralized, highly-federalized parliamentary system. The General Assembly was co-equal to the Assembly of Commons, and possessed the sole power to ratify treaties, while its members were appointed by provincial legislatures. Abolished under the Republic of Laeral, the General Assembly was reconstituted under Laeral's 1954 constitution. The system of equal representation in the General Assembly by province was a major point of contention during the drafting of the new constitution, given that it would guarantee malapportionment, but was ultimately endorsed as a workable compromise by the convention's left (Gramontist) wing, seeing that although this would depart from the unitary vision espoused by Gramontists, the strength of Social Democratic Party machines in rural western provinces was expected to preserve Gramontist political power in the chamber.

The 1982 Laeralian Constitutional Court case Tian Yan-lin v. Article 14, filed by Laeralsford Governor Tian Yan-lin, challenged the constitutionally-established malapportionment of seats in the General Assembly as violating the constitution's guarantee to racial equality. The court found against the plaintiff in an 8-4 ruling. This issue was revisited in the November 2022 case Liu Mei-han v. Article 14, when the Constitutional Court chose to overturn this malapportionment on the basis that it violated the racial equality eternity clause through its discrimination against Desi Laeralites. The Court, in a 7-5 opinion authored by Justice Zhang, compelled the National Assembly and President Liu to enact legislation to rectify this malapportionment.

Procedure

Procedural matters in the General Assembly are managed by its President, elected by the Assembly from among its members at the start of each session. The President is responsible for enforcing the rules of procedure of the body, with the National Assembly Police at their disposal to do so.