Note (Back) — Chapter XXIII

473. Powers of the National Assembly.—In the constitution it is stipulated that the National Council and the Council of the States shall have the right to consider all subjects placed within the competence of the Confederation and not assigned to any other federal authority.[629] The range of this competence is enormous. There are, in the first place, certain functions which the two houses perform while sitting jointly under the direction of the president of the National Council. These are electoral and judicial in character and comprise (1) the election of the Federal Council, or executive committee of the Confederation, the federal judges, the chancellor,[630] and the generals of the federal army; (2) the granting of pardons; and (3) the adjustment of jurisdictional conflicts between different branches of the federal governmental system.