Council of States-General

The Council of the States-General (sometimes reffered to as Estates or Étas General) is a traditional government branch. Every department of the Batavian Empire can appoint a number of Statesmen to sit in the States-General. The States-General has 2500 seats and is located in the Central Upper-Ring of the Imperial Palace of Amsterdam.

Statesmen
The Statesmen are not elected, but each represent one estate. The first estate (the religious), the second estate (the nobility) and the third estate (the people). The Statesmen are appointed by the Imperial-Governor of their departments. Appointments are for life (or untill resignation) and can not be withdrawn. Departments can send a number of Statesmen to the States-General based on population. The largest department, Nigeria, can send 600 Statesmen (about a quater of all the Statesmen) and the smallest departments like Falkland, Dutch Atlantic and Bermuda can only send 3. The State Senate of each department chooses the division between religious, nobility and people but all departments must at least send one of them. These divisions are very different. For example, Nigeria has 390 seats for the people, 200 for the religious and 10 for the nobility but the Netherlands has only 3 seats for the people, 3 for the religious and 24 for the nobilty.

Duties of the States-General
The States-General mostly have a symbolic function. They gather once a year for a debate with the Emperor about the situation of the country just before the State of the Empire. The debate is however symbolic as the States-General has no legislative powers. The only real power of the States-General is appointing justices for the Grand Jury. This is very important as the Grand Jury is the highest political judiciary. The Prime-Minister nominates a justice which can be confirmed or declined by the Council. Justices are appointed for life.

Composition
Because Statesmen are appointed for life the composition changes hardly ever. The only changes can be made if the State Senate wants to change the division between the three estates, but can only do this with approval of the national Senate.

The composition of the Council of States-General: