Administration of the Local Universe

33:8.1On Sal­ving­ton, the head­quar­ters of Neb­a­don, there are no true leg­isla­tive bod­ies. The uni­verse head­quar­ters worlds are con­cerned largely with ad­ju­di­ca­tion. The leg­isla­tive as­sem­blies of the lo­cal uni­verse are lo­cated on the head­quar­ters of the one hun­dred con­stel­la­tions. The sys­tems are chiefly con­cerned with the ex­ec­u­tive and ad­min­is­tra­tive work of the lo­cal cre­ations. The Sys­tem Sov­er­eigns and their as­so­ciates en­force the leg­isla­tive man­dates of the con­stel­la­tion rulers and ex­e­cute the ju­di­cial de­crees of the high courts of the uni­verse.

33:8.2While true leg­is­la­tion is not en­acted at the uni­verse head­quar­ters, there do func­tion on Sal­ving­ton a va­ri­ety of ad­vi­sory and re­search as­sem­blies, var­i­ously con­sti­tuted and con­ducted in ac­cor­dance with their scope and pur­pose. Some are per­ma­nent; oth­ers dis­band upon the ac­com­plish­ment of their ob­jec­tive.

33:8.3The su­preme coun­cil of the lo­cal uni­verse is made up of three mem­bers from each sys­tem and seven rep­re­sen­ta­tives from each con­stel­la­tion. Sys­tems in iso­la­tion do not have rep­re­sen­ta­tion in this as­sem­bly, but they are per­mit­ted to send ob­servers who at­tend and study all its de­lib­er­a­tions.

33:8.4The one hun­dred coun­cils of su­preme sanc­tion are also sit­u­ated on Sal­ving­ton. The pres­i­dents of these coun­cils con­sti­tute the im­me­di­ate work­ing cab­i­net of Ga­briel.

33:8.5All find­ings of the high uni­verse ad­vi­sory coun­cils are re­ferred ei­ther to the Sal­ving­ton ju­di­cial bod­ies or to the leg­isla­tive as­sem­blies of the con­stel­la­tions. These high coun­cils are with­out au­thor­ity or power to en­force their rec­om­men­da­tions. If their ad­vice is founded on the fun­da­men­tal laws of the uni­verse, then will the Neb­a­don courts is­sue rul­ings of ex­e­cu­tion; but if their rec­om­men­da­tions have to do with lo­cal or emer­gency con­di­tions, they must pass down to the leg­isla­tive as­sem­blies of the con­stel­la­tion for de­lib­er­a­tive en­act­ment and then to the sys­tem au­thor­i­ties for ex­e­cu­tion. These high coun­cils are, in re­al­ity, the uni­verse super­leg­is­la­tures, but they func­tion with­out the au­thor­ity of en­act­ment and with­out the power of ex­e­cu­tion.

33:8.6While we speak of uni­verse ad­min­is­tra­tion in terms of “courts” and “as­sem­blies,” it should be un­der­stood that these spir­i­tual trans­ac­tions are very dif­fer­ent from the more prim­i­tive and ma­te­rial ac­tiv­i­ties of Uran­tia which bear cor­re­spond­ing names.

33:8.7[Pre­sented by the Chief of the Arch­an­gels of Neb­a­don.]