Congress of the Isles
| Congress of the Isles Congrès des Îles (Alexandrian) Congreso de las Islas (Martino) Kongress der Inseln (Kydrian) | |
 Flag of the Isles of Caputia | |
| Type | |
|---|---|
| Type |
Unicameral |
| History | |
| Founded | 1687 AN |
| Preceded by | House of the Sealords |
| Leadership | |
President of the Congress |
Reinhardt Kessler, (non-partisan) |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 75 Deputies |
Length of term |
5 years |
| Authority | Regional and Local Government Organization Act, 1699 |
| Elections | |
Voting system |
At-large election |
| Meeting place | |
| Gotfriedplatz | |
The Congress of the Isles (Alexandrian: Congrès des Îles; Martino: Congreso de las Islas; Kydrian: Kongress der Inseln) is the unicameral legislature of the Isles of Caputia, a Region of Nouvelle Alexandrie. Its members sit as Deputies, are elected at large by the voters of the region, and serve five-year terms.[1] The Congress sits at the regional capital, Gotfriedplatz, and legislates alongside an elected Regional Governor, who heads the regional government and carries its laws into effect.[1][2]
The Congress is the successor of the House of the Sealords, the legislature of the Region of the Isles under the Commonwealth of Hamland. On the region's admission to the Federation its government was reconstituted on the common regional pattern, and the unicameral Congress replaced the House as an elected Regional Governor succeeded the Lord of the Isles.[1][3]
Establishment and constitutional position
The Isles of Caputia entered New Alexandrian sovereignty in 1687 AN, when the archipelago was integrated as a Region and the office of Regional Governor was established.[1][2] The regional legislature was placed on its modern statutory footing by the Local Government Act, 1694, which instituted a Regional Court and set its members a three-year term, and then by the Regional and Local Government Organization Act, 1699, which replaced that Act and raised the term to five years.[4][5]
The Isles of Caputia are one of the Regions of the Federation, and under the shared-sovereignty federalism of the Proclamation of Punta Santiago the region holds jurisdiction over its own territory alongside the federal government. The Congress exercises that regional jurisdiction as the lawmaking body of the Region, within the framework the Regional and Local Government Organization Act sets for the common pattern of regional government: a Regional Governor at the head of the executive, a unicameral legislature of Deputies, and a regional court.[1][5] The region also returns Deputies of its own to the Federal Assembly at Cárdenas, a separate delegation from the membership of the Congress.[1]
Composition
The Congress is a single chamber of seventy-five Deputies, elected at large by the voters of the region for a term of five years.[1] The Regional and Local Government Organization Act leaves the size, name, and form of each regional legislature to the Region itself, and the Isles gave its chamber the name it carries in memory of the House of the Sealords.[5] The Deputies choose a President of the Congress from among their own number to preside over the chamber and conduct its business. The presidency is held without regard to party, in the manner of the Speaker of the Federal Assembly.
The Federal Humanist Party holds the governorship of the region; Heinrich von Staufen of that party was elected Regional Governor in the 1749 election with 72 percent of the vote.[2][6]
Powers and functions
The Congress is the lawmaking body of the Region, and the Regional and Local Government Organization Act sets out the powers it exercises over the region's local government. It may charter Special City governments and create municipalities, burghs, and other localities, provided that local boundaries are settled in consultation with residents and approved by a simple majority in plebiscite or referendum. It may dissolve the localities it has created on the same condition, and it may review legislation adopted by its localities and declare it invalid where it conflicts with law.[5] The Congress also enacts the revenue measures the region requires, which take effect on the approval of the Cortes Federales or the Council of State, or are deemed approved if no decision follows within six months of their submission.[5]
The establishment of the region's Regional Court, one of the courts that form the middle tier of the federal judiciary, rests with the Congress under the same Act; the court had first been created for the region by the Local Government Act.[4][5][7] Below the regional level, the Local Government Act instituted Civic Assemblies and Youth Assemblies in every city, town, and burgh, deliberative bodies that meet to discuss community affairs, adopt resolutions, and receive petitions.[4]
History
The Congress descends from the House of the Sealords, the legislature of the Region of the Isles under the Commonwealth of Hamland, which sat at Ersoy in Taeland and in its later form seated 201 members drawn from the Iridian lands, Kydros, and the Liberty Islands.[3] Neither Ersoy nor the wider Taeland island lies within the modern region, and the House survives only in the region's history and in the name of the chamber that succeeded it.[1][3]
The Congress figures in several of the region's institutions from the years after admission. In 1698 AN it joined the federal Department in founding Port Karsten University, the older of the region's two universities and, until the founding of its rival, the leading university of the Isles.[8] In 1710 AN a memorandum between the Congress and Governor Gerhardt Eugen Seydlitz first proposed the fixed crossing of Karsten Sound that was eventually built as the Isles of Caputia Belt Bridge, though the work was not funded until 1729 AN or opened until 1734 AN.[9]
See also
- Isles of Caputia
- Regional Governor of the Isles of Caputia
- House of the Sealords
- Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Administrative divisions of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Regional and Local Government Organization Act, 1699
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Isles of Caputia, Politics.
- ^ a b c Regional Governor of the Isles of Caputia.
- ^ a b c House of the Sealords.
- ^ a b c Local Government Act, 1694.
- ^ a b c d e f Regional and Local Government Organization Act, 1699.
- ^ Heinrich von Staufen.
- ^ Judiciary of Nouvelle Alexandrie.
- ^ Port Karsten University.
- ^ Isles of Caputia Belt Bridge.
