Chamber of Peers of Nouvelle Alexandrie
| Chamber of Peers of Nouvelle Alexandrie Pares Wasi Wechua | |
| 13th Cortes Federales | |
 Coat of Arms of Nouvelle Alexandrie | |
| Type | |
|---|---|
| Type |
Upper house of the Cortes Federales of Nouvelle Alexandrie |
Term limits |
Peers of the Realm: for life or hereditary, at the King's pleasure Distinguished citizens: term-limited by law |
| History | |
| Founded | 1693 AN |
New session started |
12.I.1755 AN |
| Leadership | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | Peers (number unfixed by law) |
Political groups |
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| committees |
|
Joint committees |
|
| Elections | |
Voting system |
Royal appointment on the advice of the Government, candidates proposed by the Royal Peer Selection Committee |
| Meeting place | |
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The Chamber of Peers (Alexandrian: Chambre des Pairs; Martino: Cámara de Pares; Wechua: Pares Wasi) is the upper house of the Cortes Federales, the legislature of Nouvelle Alexandrie. It sits in the Legislative Palace in Cárdenas alongside the Federal Assembly; together with the King, the two houses make up the Cortes Federales.
Unlike the elected Federal Assembly, the Chamber is an appointed house. It is composed of the Peers of the Realm, nobles holding their dignity for life or by inheritance, and of distinguished citizens drawn from various sectors of society, including academia, science, culture, education, health care, religion, public service, and the arts. The number of peers is not fixed by law but rests with the King, who under the Cortes Federales Act, 1694 may appoint peers at his pleasure. New peers are appointed on the recommendation of the 28-member Royal Peer Selection Committee through a public nomination process. The presiding officer is the Lord President, who is required to be impartial.
The Chamber regulates its own proceedings through its Standing Orders, a resolution of the house first adopted under the 1st Cortes Federales and amendable only by a two-thirds vote. Peers may organize into parliamentary parties, though a large body of peers sit as independents or on the crossbench.
The Chamber is the revising house of the Cortes Federales. In the legislative process the Federal Assembly holds supremacy: the Chamber may scrutinize, amend, and delay the bills sent to it, but it cannot prevent them from becoming law, and a bill on which it takes no decision within 60 AN days is deemed to have passed. The Lord President since the 8th Cortes has been the Lord Anglés, Marquess of Alpamayo.
Constitutional position
The Chamber of Peers is established by Chapter IV of the Proclamation of Punta Santiago, the constitutional instrument of the Federation, and its composition and powers are further set out in the Cortes Federales Act, 1694. Under Article 38 of the Proclamation, the Cortes Federales consists of the King, the Federal Assembly, and the Chamber of Peers. The Chamber is the revising, or upper, house, and the Assembly the elected and originating chamber for most legislation.
Article 38 also fixes the balance between the two houses. The Assembly holds supremacy in the legislative process, and a bill it has passed that receives no action in the Chamber within 60 AN days of receipt is deemed to have passed and is dispatched to the King for Royal Assent. Within that framework the Chamber examines, revises, and may delay legislation, but it cannot in the end prevent a bill supported by the Assembly from becoming law.
Composition
Article 39 of the Proclamation provides that the Chamber is composed of the Peers of the Realm and of distinguished citizens drawn from various sectors of New Alexandrian society, including academia, science, culture, education, health care, religion, public service, and the arts. The distinguished-citizen category was added by the Democratization Act of 1721, which opened a house formerly confined to the nobility. The senior hereditary peers, drawn from the old Wechua and Alexandrian nobility, are known as Grandees (Wechua: achulla mintasqa), while the religious benches seat clergy of the Alexandrian Nazarene, Bovic, Melusinian, and other faiths alongside the scholars, scientists, and artists appointed as distinguished citizens. The process for appointing peers and the term limits applying to them are established by law.
The number of peers is not fixed. Under Section 15 of the Cortes Federales Act, 1694, the appointment of peers belongs to the King, whose power to appoint is unlimited: he may at his pleasure alter their dignities, appoint them for life, or make their peerages hereditary. Peers of the Realm accordingly hold their seats either for life or by inheritance, while distinguished citizens serve for the term the law prescribes. Membership continues until death or removal from the Peerage, and a peer aged at least 25 has the right to speak in debate, to vote on questions put to the house, and to submit legislation. Princes and princesses of the blood are peers by birth; they take no deliberative part in the Chamber's business before the age of 25 and take their places only at the King's order.
Appointment and the Royal Peer Selection Committee
Article 39 directs that a bipartisan committee be established by law to propose candidates for the Chamber and to strive for a balanced and diverse representation of the New Alexandrian people. That body is the Royal Peer Selection Committee, constituted under the Royal Peer Selection Committee Act, 1721. It has 28 members: four appointed by the King, nine by the Federal Assembly (of whom at least two are named by the Official Opposition and one by the smallest party), four by the Chamber of Peers, five by recognized civil-society organizations, and six by the High Court of Justice.
The Committee runs a public process of nomination, screening, interview, and public comment before recommending candidates of good character and competence, weighing geography, gender, age, and professional background so that the house reflects the country it revises. It reviews the composition of the Chamber each year and reports to the Cortes Federales and the King whenever it proposes candidates. Its members serve five-year terms and elect a chairperson annually.
Rights and privileges of peers
Peers are not bound by any compulsory mandate and enjoy immunity for opinions expressed in the exercise of their functions, an immunity that does not extend to criminal acts committed outside their legislative duties. During their term of office peers may not be arrested save by order of the Chamber, except when arrested for murder, corruption, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. No person may sit in both houses of the Cortes Federales at once, though a peer may be appointed to the Council of State and hold both functions together.
Standing Orders and organization
The Chamber regulates its business through the Standing Orders of the Chamber of Peers, made under Article 38(4) of the Proclamation, which directs each house to lay down its own rules of procedure. The Standing Orders take the form of a resolution of the Chamber rather than an Act of the Cortes Federales, and so require neither Royal Assent nor the concurrence of the Federal Assembly. They were first adopted under the 1st Cortes Federales and may be adopted or amended only by a two-thirds vote of the house.
The Lord President
The Lord President is the sole presiding officer of the Chamber, charged with applying the Standing Orders, keeping order and discipline, and conducting the business of the house. The Lord President must be wholly impartial and must give up any affiliation with a parliamentary party or outside body for the duration of the office. Election takes place on the first day of the Chamber's sitting, in proceedings presided over by the King or a royal designate. A motion of no confidence in the Lord President may be moved by any two peers and carried by a majority of the house, but only once in a session year. When the Lord President is absent or incapacitated, a peer appointed by the King presides in his place; the Chamber keeps no standing office of deputy president.
The Clerk
The Chamber's only standing administrative office is that of the Clerk of the Chamber of Peers, assisted by any Associate Clerks. The Lord President appoints and may dismiss the Clerk and Associate Clerks with the consent of a majority of the Chamber, and they too must be impartial and free of party affiliation while they serve. The Clerk must be a Peer of the Realm who sits in the house, a requirement from which the Associate Clerks are exempt. A Clerk or Associate Clerk may be removed by a motion of no confidence moved by any two peers and carried by a majority, again no more than once in a session year. When the Clerk is absent or incapacitated, an Associate Clerk may serve as Acting Clerk.
Parliamentary parties
Peers may organize into parliamentary parties. Each party regulates its own membership and internal procedure, notifying the Lord President of changes, and is represented in procedural business and policy debate by a leader chosen from among its members or a designated spokesperson announced in advance. The Lord President, or the Clerk where the task is delegated, keeps a public register of the Chamber's parties, their members, and their rules. Peers who join no party sit as independents.
Conduct of business
Legislation reaches the floor through the Hopper, into which any peer may place a bill in the prescribed form to await debate. Government bills are brought forward as government business at the request of the President of the Government or a designated government member; in an ordinary week the government may bring up to two bills, with a further slot reserved for a private member's bill endorsed by at least 35 percent of peers. Once each session the President of the Government designates an Opposition Week, in which the Official Opposition presents two bills and the third-largest party one, and the government introduces none of its own except by leave or unanimous consent. Parties together commanding a majority of the Chamber may also bring bills forward.
The Chamber likewise considers resolutions expressing its opinion, taken as government business or, for private members, with the endorsement of at least 35 percent of peers. A bill is debated on the question that it be read and do pass, the Chamber first calling the sponsoring peer to speak in its defense; any peer may move an amendment, which is put to a vote unless the sponsor accepts it as friendly.
Voting
The Chamber follows a set sequence in deciding a bill. On its introduction to the floor a 24-hour window opens in which peers register an intention to speak or move to vote without further discussion; a move to vote without discussion, once seconded, brings an immediate vote, and the bill then passes only with the affirmative votes of two-thirds of the peers in the Chamber. If it does not, the bill remains for discussion, which the Lord President opens for a further 48 hours before the question is put. Peers in favor say "Aye", "Oui", or "Sí", those against "Noe" or "Non", and may instead indicate an abstention. Unless otherwise provided, a question is carried by a simple majority of the peers voting. Procedural motions, among them points of order, parliamentary inquiries, appeals from a ruling of the Lord President, motions to reconsider, and motions to adjourn, are taken in the order of precedence fixed by the Standing Orders.
Powers and functions
The Chamber's function is to revise. Under Section 15 of the Cortes Federales Act, 1694 it scrutinizes, reviews, and may amend the bills the Federal Assembly sends up, but it cannot prevent a bill from passing into law; it may only delay a bill and oblige the Assembly to reconsider it. The 60-day rule of Article 38 secures the Assembly's supremacy, since inaction by the Chamber passes a bill by default. Where the two houses cannot agree on the text of a bill, a Mediation Committee of equal numbers of Deputies and peers attempts to reconcile them, and if its text is not approved the Cortes Federales decides the question by overall majority.
Beyond legislation, the Chamber shares in the general work of the Cortes Federales: the two houses review and scrutinize each other's actions, and peers put questions to the Government and take part in the anti-corruption and ethics procedures the Proclamation requires of the legislature.
Committees
The Standing Orders establish no committee system of their own. The Chamber's committees rest instead on Section 11 of the Cortes Federales Act, 1694, which provides for standing legislative committees, committees of inquiry, and a Mediation Committee between the two houses. Either house may appoint a committee of inquiry into any matter of public interest, whose conclusions do not bind the courts but may be referred to prosecutors. The Chamber may delegate to a standing legislative committee the approval of a bill, subject to recall by the plenary and excepting constitutional reform, international affairs, other important acts, and the Budget.
The Chamber constitutes its committees by resolution. Those it maintains include the Committee on Privileges, the Committee on Standards, and the Legislative Review Committee, together with joint bodies shared with the Federal Assembly, among them the Mediation Committee, the Joint Legislative Committee for Transparency and Openness, and the Joint Anti-Corruption and Ethics Committee.
Composition of the 13th legislature
The 13th Cortes Federales opened on 12.I.1755 AN. As in every legislature, the size of the Chamber is not fixed by law, and no set number of peers is returned; the house is composed of the Peers of the Realm and the distinguished citizens appointed to it at the time. A large share of peers sit as independents or on the crossbench, with the recognized parliamentary parties forming smaller blocs.
The Lord President is the Lord Anglés, Marquess of Alpamayo, who has presided over the upper house since the 8th Cortes and sits without party affiliation. The Lord Protector, Sayri Tʼito Waman, Baron of Ausangate (Wechua: Apu Kalanayak), sits in the Chamber ex officio as sergeant-at-arms of the Cortes Federales, confirmed in office by a plurality vote of the peers. At the State Opening he ceremonially unlocks the doors of the chamber and bears the Mace of State into the legislature, opening the session with an address that traditionally begins in Wechua, Huk sunqulla, huk yuyaylla ("with one heart, with one mind").
| Office | Holder | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| Lord President | The Lord Anglés, Marquess of Alpamayo | Independent |
| Lord Protector | Sayri Tʼito Waman, Baron of Ausangate | Non-partisan |
See also
- Cortes Federales of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Standing Orders of the Chamber of Peers of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Lord President of the Chamber of Peers of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Lord Protector of the Cortes Federales
- Mace of State of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Royal Peer Selection Committee
- Nobility of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- 13th Cortes Federales
- Opening of the Cortes Federales
- Proclamation of Punta Santiago
- Cortes Federales Act, 1694
