Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom

Legislative Assembly of the Kingdom of Hawaii
Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1845 to 1893
Type
Type	Bicameral (1840–1864) Unicameral (1864–1893)
Houses	House of Nobles3 House of Representatives3
History
Established	1840
Disbanded	1893
Preceded by	Council of Chiefs
Succeeded by	Legislature of the Republic of Hawaii
Elections
House of Nobles voting system	Appointed by the monarch with the advice of the Privy Council
House of Representatives voting system	Elected by popular vote
Meeting place
Aliiolani Hale, Honolulu
Footnotes
1Name of Parliament from 1852 to 1864 2Name of Parliament from 1864 to 1893 3Structure in place from 1840 to 1864

The Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii was the bicameral (later unicameral) legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii. A royal legislature was first provided by the 1840 Constitution and the 1852 Constitution was the first to use the term "Legislature of the Hawaiian Islands", and the first to subject the monarch to certain democratic principles. Prior to this the monarchs ruled under a Council of Chiefs.

The Legislature from 1840 to 1864 was bicameral and originally consisted of a lower House of Representatives and an upper House of Nobles as provided for under the Constitutions of the Kingdom of 1840 and 1852, until abolished by the 1864 Constitution which then provided for a unicameral Legislature.

The members of the upper House of Nobles were appointed by the Monarch with the advice of his Privy Council. It also served as the court of impeachment for any royal official. Members were usually Hawaiian aliʻis, nobles, and royal or wealthy individuals. The position had no salary. It originally consisted of the King (or Queen) plus five women and ten men (contrastingly, women did not universally get the right to vote in the mainland U.S.A. with women's suffrage until 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution). After the overthrow of the Kingdom and the subsequent United States annexation in 1898, this body was reconstituted as a Senate under the territorial constitution of the Territory of Hawaii.