The Constellations

43:2.1The con­stel­la­tions are the au­ton­o­mous units of a lo­cal uni­verse, each con­stel­la­tion be­ing ad­min­is­tered ac­cord­ing to its own leg­isla­tive en­act­ments. When the courts of Neb­a­don sit in judg­ment on uni­verse af­fairs, all in­ter­nal mat­ters are ad­ju­di­cated in ac­cor­dance with the laws pre­vail­ing in the con­stel­la­tion con­cerned. These ju­di­cial de­crees of Sal­ving­ton, to­gether with the leg­isla­tive en­act­ments of the con­stel­la­tions, are ex­e­cuted by the ad­min­is­tra­tors of the lo­cal sys­tems.

43:2.2Con­stel­la­tions thus func­tion as the leg­isla­tive or law­mak­ing units, while the lo­cal sys­tems serve as the ex­ec­u­tive or en­force­ment units. The Sal­ving­ton gov­ern­ment is the su­preme ju­di­cial and co-or­di­nat­ing au­thor­ity.

43:2.3While the su­preme ju­di­cial func­tion rests with the cen­tral ad­min­is­tra­tion of a lo­cal uni­verse, there are two sub­sidiary but ma­jor tri­bu­nals at the head­quar­ters of each con­stel­la­tion, the Mel­chiz­e­dek coun­cil and the court of the Most High.

43:2.4All ju­di­cial prob­lems are first re­viewed by the coun­cil of the Mel­chiz­e­deks. Twelve of this or­der who have had cer­tain req­ui­site ex­pe­ri­ence on the evo­lu­tion­ary plan­ets and on the sys­tem head­quar­ters worlds are em­pow­ered to re­view ev­i­dence, di­gest pleas, and for­mu­late pro­vi­sional ver­dicts, which are passed on to the court of the Most High, the reign­ing Con­stel­la­tion Fa­ther. The mor­tal di­vi­sion of this lat­ter tri­bu­nal con­sists of seven judges, all of whom are as­cen­dant mor­tals. The higher you as­cend in the uni­verse, the more cer­tain you are to be judged by those of your own kind.

43:2.5The con­stel­la­tion leg­isla­tive body is di­vided into three groups. The leg­isla­tive pro­gram of a con­stel­la­tion orig­i­nates in the lower house of as­cend­ers, a group pre­sided over by a fi­nal­i­ter and con­sist­ing of one thou­sand rep­re­sen­ta­tive mor­tals. Each sys­tem nom­i­nates ten mem­bers to sit in this de­lib­er­a­tive as­sem­bly. On Eden­tia this body is not fully re­cruited at the pres­ent time.

43:2.6The mid-cham­ber of leg­is­la­tors is com­posed of the se­raphic hosts and their as­so­ciates, other chil­dren of the lo­cal uni­verse Mother Spirit. This group num­bers one hun­dred and is nom­i­nated by the super­vis­ing per­son­al­i­ties who pre­side over the var­i­ous ac­tiv­i­ties of such be­ings as they func­tion within the con­stel­la­tion.

43:2.7The ad­vi­sory or high­est body of con­stel­la­tion leg­is­la­tors con­sists of the house of peers—the house of the di­vine Sons. This corps is cho­sen by the Most High Fa­thers and num­bers ten. Only Sons of spe­cial ex­pe­ri­ence may serve in this up­per house. This is the fact-find­ing and time­sav­ing group which very ef­fec­tively serves both of the lower di­vi­sions of the leg­isla­tive as­sem­bly.

43:2.8The com­bined coun­cil of leg­is­la­tors con­sists of three mem­bers from each of these sep­a­rate branches of the con­stel­la­tion de­lib­er­a­tive as­sem­bly and is pre­sided over by the reign­ing ju­nior Most High. This group sanc­tions the fi­nal form of all en­act­ments and au­tho­rizes their pro­mul­ga­tion by the broad­cast­ers. The ap­proval of this su­preme com­mis­sion ren­ders leg­isla­tive en­act­ments the law of the realm; their acts are fi­nal. The leg­isla­tive pro­nounce­ments of Eden­tia con­sti­tute the fun­da­men­tal law of all Nor­la­ti­adek.