Parliament of Catalonia

The Parliament of Catalonia is the unicameral legislature of Catalonia (autonomous community of Spain). It is formed by 135 members ("diputats"), who are elected every four years or after extraordinary dissolution, chosen by universal suffrage in lists with four constituencies, the Catalan provinces. The Parliament building is located in Ciutadella park, Barcelona.The most recent parliamentary elections were held on 27 September 2015. As a consequence of latest electoral results, the legislative chamber passed the Declaration to start the independence process of Catalonia. In this document, the Parliament of Catalonia «declares the start of the process to create an independent Catalan state in the form of a republic» and is declared «as the repository of sovereignty and the expression of the constituent power».HistoryCatalan CourtsThe first representative and legislative bodies in Catalonia were the Peace and Truce of God Assemblies (assemblees de pau i treva), of which the earliest record dates from 1027. These were originally ad hoc, local meetings convened by the Church (Oliba, Bishop of Vic, who died in 1046, was a notable instigator) but progressively became subsumed into the court of the Counts of Barcelona. The first Catalan legal code, the Usatges de Barcelona, was promulgated by Count Ramon Berenguer I based on the decisions of these assemblies.