Assembly of Nobles

The Assembly of Nobles is the former upper house of the Parliament of Darnussia, which legislated in conjunction with the Assembly of Commoners (Gemeinsam/Gemeensamen). With the creation of the Darnussian First Republic in 1966, the Assembly of Commoners became the single unicameral legislature of the country, while the Assembly of Nobles lost almost all of its powers. During this period, the Assembly's only role was the casting of one-third of the vote in the election of the Secretary General of Darnussia, alongside the Parliament of Darnussia and the Church of Darnussia.

History
The reason for the Assembly's retention despite it being stripped of its status and all its lawmaking powers was due to the compromise between the Darnussian nobility and the commoners during the transition to a republic. While the nobility were sceptical of the monarchy, they were understandably deeply against the creation of a fully-fledged republic. In order for the nobility to retain some form of official stake in the future of the country, the current set-up was created in which the commoners, nobility and church all had an equal voice in the election of the Darnussian head-of-state.

Function
Today, the Assembly has no legal role whatsoever. During the First Republic, it occasionally informally advised the Government on lesser matters of policy (being careful not to overstep its jurisdiction for fear of being labelled unconstitutional), yet its only major role was the election of the Secretary General.

As a result, the Assembly only ever met in a full capacity every seven years when electing a new Secretary General. Since the stripping of its legal status, this has occurred even less, with meetings usually only ever attended by a maximum of 100 members at any one time.

By tradition, the Secretary General was usually an elder noble elevated from the Assembly into the position and who subsequently agreed to rule impartially and in a non-partisan manner.

Membership
All Dukes, Counts and Barons are entitled to a seat in the Assembly; however in practice, many nobles delegate their seat to younger members of their family. The total current membership is 931, having declined from 1,229 when it was first formed due to the extinction of certain noble lines and there no longer being a monarch to appoint new titles.