Legislative assembly is the name given in some countries to either alegislature, or to one of its houses.
The name is used by a number of countries, including member-states of theCommonwealth of Nations and other countries. It is also used by their sub-national divisions, such as theIndian states and union territories,Australian states andCanadian provinces.
Legislative assemblies in modern-day Commonwealth countries, either as national or sub-national parliaments, are in most cases an evolution of one of the legislative chambers of the previous colonial parliaments, whether the full legislature or alower house. In a number of jurisdictions, the nameHouse of Assembly is used instead. It is one of the main names used in everyday speech for parliament in many countries.
Three of the sixAustralianstates style theirlower houses asLegislative Assemblies; inSouth Australia andTasmania, they are styled asHouses of Assembly. The unicameral parliaments ofQueensland and the twoself-governing territories also style their legislature asLegislative Assemblies. Queensland originally had a Legislative Council as itsupper house, in line with the other states, until it was abolished leaving it the only state with a sole chamber of parliament.
The previously self-governing Norfolk Island had its ownLegislative Assembly until it was abolished and replaced with aRegional Council in 2015.
Members of these assemblies are referred to as MLAs (WA, ACT, NT) and MPs (NSW, QLD, VIC, SA, TAS).[1] Previously, MLA and MHA have been used in states that now use MP.
InCanada, seven of the tenprovinces and all three of theterritories style their legislatures aslegislative assemblies. All are unicameral. Manitoba was the first to abolishits Legislative Council in 1876. British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador abolished their Councils before becoming provinces. There was no Council for Alberta when it was created in 1905.TheLegislative Assembly of Quebec was renamed theQuebec National Assembly as part of the abolition of theLegislative Council of Quebec on December 31, 1968.
InIndia, thelower house or the only house of the State Legislatures are calledLegislative Assemblies. The same name is also used for the only house of the legislatures of three of the eightunion territories,Delhi,Jammu and Kashmir andPuducherry. Theupper house in states with abicameral legislature are calledLegislative Councils. Members of the former are called MLAs, and those of the latter are called MLCs.
Legislative Assembly is the name given to some national legislatures (or one of the houses of the national legislature) of the sovereign nations of:
Former assemblies include:
Legislative bodies of theUnited States include:
The legislatures of theStates of Brazil are called "legislative assembly", as are the legislatures of the two insularautonomous regions of Portugal,Azores (theLegislative Assembly of the Azores) andMadeira (theLegislative Assembly of Madeira), and theregional councils of threeItalian regions (Emilia-Romagna,Marche andUmbria). In Mexico, the legislative branch of government of Mexico City is theLegislative Assembly of Mexico City.
TheLegislative Assembly of Macau is the organ of the legislative branch of the Macau Special Administrative Region.