Legislative Assembly

Examples of Legislative Assembly in the following topics:

• The Legislative Assembly

  • The Legislative Assembly first met on October 1, 1791 under the Constitution of 1791.
  • From the beginning, relations between the king and the Legislative Assembly were hostile.
  • The royal family became prisoners and a rump session of the Legislative Assembly suspended the monarchy.
  • By the same token, the Legislative Assembly ceased to exist.
  • The Legislative Assembly was driven by two opposing groups.

• Structure of the Republic

  • The Roman Republic was composed of the senate, a number of legislative assemblies, and elected magistrates.
  • The democratic element took the form of legislative assemblies, the aristocratic element took the form of the Senate, and the monarchical element took the form of the many term-limited consuls.
  • However, the power of the senate expanded over time as the power of the legislative assemblies declined, and eventually the senate took a greater role in civil law-making.
  • The optimo jure elected assemblies, and the assemblies elected magistrates, enacted legislation, presided over trials in capital cases, declared war and peace, and forged or dissolved treaties.
  • There were two types of legislative assemblies.

• Politics within the Revolutionaries

  • Its successor body, the Legislative Assembly, operating under the Constitution of 1791, lasted until September 20, 1792.
  • The Legislative Assembly first met on October 1, 1791.
  • The National Convention was a single-chamber assembly in France from September 20, 1792 to October 26, 1795 that succeeded the Legislative Assembly.
  • Similarly to its predecessor, it was fractured into factions although the divisions proved to be more extreme than at the Legislative Assembly.
  • When the National Assembly was replaced in 1791 by the Legislative Assembly comprising entirely new members, the divisions continued.

• The National Convention

  • The National Convention (1792-95), the first French assembly elected by universal male suffrage, transitioned from being paralyzed by factional conflicts to becoming the legislative body overseeing the Reign of Terror, and eventually accepting the Constitution of 1795.
  • It succeeded the Legislative Assembly and founded the First Republic after the Insurrection of August 10, 1792.
  • The Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI and the convocation of a National Convention which was to draw up a constitution.
  • The universal male suffrage had thus very little impact and the voters elected largely the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in 1791. 75 members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly and 183 in the Legislative Assembly.
  • For both legislative and administrative purposes, the Convention used committees, with powers regulated by successive laws.

• Governors and Assemblies

  • Colonial governors were appointed by the Crown, while assemblies were elected by local colonists.
  • This representation could come in the form of an Executive Council to help with the colony's administration or, in a further stage of self-government, Legislative Councils and Assemblies in which the governor often played a role.
  • In some colonies, the colonial assembly shared power with a royally appointed governor.
  • The colonial assemblies had a variety of titles, such as House of Delegates, House of Burgesses, or Assembly of Freemen.
  • Laws could be examined by the Board of Trade, which also held veto power over legislation.

• English Administration of the Colonies

  • The governor was invested with general executive powers and authorized to call a locally elected assembly.
  • The governor's council would advise the governor and sit as an upper house when the assembly was in session.
  • Assembly members included representatives elected by the freeholders and planters (landowners) of the province.
  • The governor had the power of absolute veto and could prorogue (i.e., delay) and dissolve the assembly at will.
  • Laws could be examined by the Board of Trade, which also held veto power of legislation.

• The Rise of the Assemblies

  • Charter governments were political corporations created by letters patent which gave the grantees control of the land and the powers of legislative government.
  • The charters provided a fundamental constitution and divided powers among legislative, executive, and judicial functions, with those powers vested in elected officials.
  • Enfranchised voters elected the General Assembly; by 1750, most free men of property could vote.
  • The Assemblies had a variety of titles, such as House of Delegates, House of Burgesses, or Assembly of Freemen.
  • However, most assemblymen saw this power as a way to check the governor's power to institute oppressive taxes, rather than an opportunity to negotiate legislation designed to benefit their constituents.

• Calling the Estates-General

  • The Estates-General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm summoned by Louis XVI to propose solutions to France's financial problems but it ended when the Third Estate formed into a National Assembly, signaling the outbreak of the French Revolution.
  • In 1787, the King convened an assembly pressured by France's desperate financial situation.
  • While the Assembly had no legislative power in its own right, Calonne hoped that if it supported the proposed reforms, parlement would be forced to register them.
  • On June 17, with the failure of efforts to reconcile the three estates, the Communes - or the Commons, as the Third Estate called itself now - declared themselves redefined as the National Assembly, an assembly not of the estates, but of the people.
  • The Estates-General ceased to exist, becoming the National Assembly.

• Freedom of Assembly and Petition

  • The First Amendment establishes the right to assembly and the right to petition the government.
  • The Petition Clause in the First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law… abridging … the right of the people… to petition the government for a redress of grievances. " The Petition Clause prohibits Congress from restricting the people's right to appeal to government in favor of or against policies that affect them or about which they feel strongly, including the right to gather signatures in support of a cause and to lobby legislative bodies for or against legislation.
  • Petition can be used to describe, "any nonviolent, legal means of encouraging or disapproving government action, whether directed to the judicial, executive, or legislative branch.
  • Freedom of assembly and freedom of association may be used to distinguish between the freedom to assemble in public places and the freedom of joining an association, but both are recognized as rights under the First Amendment's provision on freedom of assembly.
  • The right of assembly was originally distinguished from the right to petition.

• Legislative Agendas

  • In parliamentary procedure, an agenda is not binding upon an assembly unless its own rules make it so or unless it has been adopted as the agenda for the meeting by majority vote at the start of the meeting.
  • If an agenda is binding upon an assembly, and a specific time is listed for an item.