Lit What exactly were the powers of the Imperial Senate?

Probably exactly the same as the north Korean parliment..........to sit there and agree with everything dear leader says.

 

But yes, basically I think Palpatine used the Senate to keep things running while he did his projects behind the scenes. It was a convenience.

 

Pestage is not Palpatine's Vice-Emperor but merely one of his advisors and court of advisors. Palpatine's position as Emperor depends entirely on his appointment as dictator for life from the Galactic Senate, which has been "temporarilly" dissolved. Legally, they have to convene the Senate again to appoint a New Emperor.

 

Tarkin says that the Senate has been dissolved permanently, which suggests that the action is legally dubious since the Senate appears to have a de jure central position in the apparatus of state.

 

Well I don't have the Impeiral Constitution, but I suspect that the Senate can't just be legally dissolved permanently.

 

Yes I know there is no actual basis for the assertion, but with no Constitution, or judicial common law, you don't have any evidence either. I doubt the Senate would have approved a constitution that so blatantly imperilled them, or else Palpatine wouldn't have kept them around but so long.

People disagree with the constitutionality of things in RL, nevermind without any actual extensive legal framework.

 

Couldn't that be said about most discussion about the legal framework of the Empire or the New Republic? I mean, I've heard the New Republic isn't the legal continuation of the Old Republic, despite there being evidence for that in the new canon. Most of our opinions on these matters are based upon our assumptions - I simply put forward an interpretation of the Senate, unless the Emperors powers are so extensive it can be dissolved permanently simply by the executive, not subject to such arbitrary use of executive power. By central organ of state, and perhaps that's a cluncky phrase, I mean an organ of state that has itself and its powers enumerated in the Constitution, and unless stated otherwise, couldn't be destroyed by the executive.

 

It's cute you think that's a reference everybody's just going to get right away, Latin and all. lol

 

So regarding imperial succession and legimitacy did http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ederlathh_Pallopides have a legitimate claim to the imperial throne?

 

In Legends, Ars Dangor's proclamation is that the Senate is dissolved only for the duration of the military emergency.

 

Ultimately assumptions about the legal framework and makeup of these states are only prima facie, but even the most obvious assumption is only as valid as something which makes a few curious inferences. 'Grounded theory' is only viable so far as we have the legal framework. For instance treaty law on the succession of states can't really inform anything unless we have a legal framework - any assumptions are based upon such thin evidence they may as well just be a unfounded guess. The New Republic appears to consider itself the continuation of the Old Republic from some point before the declaration of the Empire since the appear to reactivate the Galactic State at a point where the Chancellor has emergency powers (which the Chancellor then relinquishes). Is this legally baseless and just for show, or is there a legal basis for this? Was the Empire totally illegal, or only illegal after a certain point and the Chancellor is essentially the temporary Emperor before the election of a new one? This doesn't seem to jive with Mon Mothma resigning from the Senate - unless her 'resignation' was only from the illegal Senate and she retained her Senatorship of 'legitimate' Senate (which is why she's still called Senator). Following the extinction of the Empire does the New Republic have a legal continuation from the previous legal personality (much like the complicated legal continuation of Germany, Turkey and Russia with their historical states) or is it a completely new state and is only a successor state. Any assumptions we make about this are based upon such thin evidence they all may as well be unfounded guesses in my opinion.

 

There are ways to interpret Tarkin's statement that "the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently." No doubt that was the intended effect and would be seen as such by pretty much everyone (save for the talking heads on the Fake HoloNet News Media) but it doesn't necessarily mean that the official statement dissolving the Senate used those words or explicitly stated it was permanent (WEG even went this route).

One thing I like about the post-ROTJ era that the new canon handled over the old canon was that the Senate pretty much gets brought back immediately, and it's essentially recognized by everyone (even the Imperials in Aftermath) as being the Senate, with continuity to the Senate of the Old Republic and Empire. I think that approach highlights the historical importance of the Senate and at least its cultural authority even under the Empire.

What was that cancelled Bantam novel that the author posted here a few years ago? Heart of the Jedi? I thought it was interesting that he took pretty much the same course in it.

 

IIRC the empire did have a succession plan but palpatine derived amusement from making it complex and unclear as possible.

He also never planned on dying so that impacted the empire's succession policy.

 

If you take the long view of the old EU, it seems like the Senate never really recovered its status as a result of being dissolved in ANH (if not defanged under the Empire). We have an Alliance to Restore the Republic which does in fact restore the Republic, only to then take years to restore the Senate supposedly at the heart of the Old Republic. The Senate itself is completely absent during the most formative years of the New Republic (capture of Coruscant, Thrawn, Dark Empire). It gets a reputation of being completely riddled with venality, corruption, and dishonesty; in either Planet of Twilight or New Rebellion (I forget) there is even a majority of pro-Imperial senators within it. And then it bungles the Vong invasion, basically gets completely sidelined for the next few decades thanks to various coups and soft-coups, and by the Legacy era is totally absent.

 

Yeah, the fact that the Senate is restored immediately and folks refer to it as the "Galactic Senate" shows how much that body is really part of the fabric of galactic civilization. As you say, it's almost irrelevant if the Senate under the New Republic is a direct successor or not. The fact remains that the worlds that constituted the New Republic chose to elect senators and send them to Chandrila.

As much as I'd love to see someone tackle the question of the Imperial constitution and what rights/powers the Senate had under Palpatine, I don't think we'll ever get that. Suffice to say, Palpatine probably deftly reworked the role of the Senate and little by little chipped away at it's authority. Instead of being a sudden change, he'd probably work with allies in the Senate to undermine the institutions actual powers.

Besides, for all we know, the "emergency powers" grant Palpatine the authority to do anything in a crisis. Palpatine then ensured that the galaxy was always in a state of "crisis".

--Adm. Nick

 

I don't think Palpatine wanted the galaxy to always be in a state of crisis. One of the things that we've been told about him from the ANH novelization on was that his claim to power rested at least partly on the fact that he had restored the peace and stability to the galaxy that the corrupt Republic was unable to. His entire reign as Emperor begins with the resolution of the most severe crisis to face the Republic in a thousand years and the end of the first galactic war in that period.