A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the British (former) colonies. However, it has also been used as designation in other (non-Commonwealth) nations. A member of a legislative council is commonly referred to as an MLC and may use those letters as a post-nominal.
A legislative council was generally the first legislative body of a British colony, with members who were all appointed by the viceregal representative (who also presided over the council). Gradually, with the passage of time and increasing levels of self-governance, legislative councils were supplemented by a lower, elected chamber (often called a legislative assembly or house of assembly). This resulted in either the abolition of the council to form a unicameral and wholly elected legislature (as was done in Southern Rhodesia in 1923, Ceylon in 1931, New Zealand in 1951, and Singapore in 1955) or the democratisation of and a gradual decrease in powers exercised by the council, as done in India in 1919 and in some Australian states throughout the twentieth century.
In the United States, a legislative council has a different connotation, and means a council within a legislature which supervises nonpartisan support staff.
History
In the British Empire, the authority under which legislative councils have been constituted has varied: some under the royal prerogative, others by acts of parliament (that is, the Parliament at Westminster), and some by commission and royal instructions.
List of legislative councils
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Existing national legislative councils
!scope="col"|Country
!scope="col"|Body
!scope="col"|Type
!scope="col"|Established
!scope="col"|Notes
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1959||Suspended in 1984, reconvened in 2004
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!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1843||Established under the British Hong Kong era; Provisional Legislative Council 1997–98
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Upper House|| ||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1996||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral|| ||
|}
In India, the Vidhan Parishad is another name for the Legislative Council in those states with bicameral legislatures.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Existing sub-national legislative councils
!scope="col"|Country
!scope="col"|Region
!scope="col"|Body
!scope="col"|Type
!scope="col"|Established
!scope="col"|Notes
|-
!scope="row"|
|New South Wales||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1824||Unicameral until 1856
|-
!scope="row"|
|South Australia||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1840||Unicameral until 1857
|-
!scope="row"|
|Tasmania||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1825||Unicameral until 1856
|-
!scope="row"|
|Victoria||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1851||Unicameral until 1856
|-
!scope="row"|
|Western Australia||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1832||Unicameral until 1890
|-
!scope="row"|
|Andhra Pradesh||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1958||Abolished between 1985 and 2007
|-
!scope="row"|
|Bihar||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1912||Unicameral until 1920
|-
!scope="row"|
|Karnataka||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1956||
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!scope="row"|
|Maharashtra||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1960||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Telangana||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|2014||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Uttar Pradesh||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1935||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Zulia||Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1864||
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Defunct national legislative councils
!scope="col"|Country
!scope="col"|Body
!scope="col"|Type
!scope="col"|Established
!scope="col"|Disestablished
!scope="col"|Notes
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center| 1947||align=center| ||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center| ||align=center| ||Established under instructions to the governor
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center| 1841 ||align=center| ||Letters patent
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center| ||align=center| 1963 ||Established under instructions to the governor
|-
!scope="row"| Basutoland
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center| 1960 ||align=center| ||Established under instructions to the governor
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1961||align=center|1965||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Bicameral||align=center|1612 ||align=center|1980||Originally a single thirteen-member Council combined Executive (cabinet) and Legislative functions. Established under royal charters to the London Company in 1606, 1609, and 1612, and to the Somers Isles Company in 1615, transmitted via the Governor. Elected lower House of Assembly held first session in 1620, with council becoming upper house. The council split in 1888 into an Executive Council and a Legislative Council. Colonial legislature was updated to the Westminster system in 1968. Executive Council was renamed the Cabinet in 1973, and is now formed from Members of the majority party in the House of Assembly. Legislative Council was renamed the Senate of Bermuda in 1980, and is now composed of five Members recommended by the Premier, three by the Leader of the Opposition, and three by the Governor acting in his own discretion, all appointed by the Governor.
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1867||align=center|1871||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1928||align=center|1961||Established by an act of Parliament, the British Guiana Act 1928; abolished between 1953 and 1954.
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1853||Established under the prerogative
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1924 ||align=center| ||Established by the Saint Vincent, Tobago, and Grenada Constitution Act 1876
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1962 ||align=center|1970 ||Established under the prerogative
|-
!scope="row"|25px Sierra Leone
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center| ||align=center| ||Established under the British Settlements Act 1843
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!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1960||align=center|1970||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1898||align=center|1923||Established under the prerogative
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1867|| ||Established by an act of Parliament, the Straights Settlement Act 1866, and letters patent of 4 February 1867.
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1946||align=center|1953||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1964 ||align=center|1967 ||Established in the Constitution of 1964
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1925||align=center|1961||Established under the prerogative
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center| ||align=center| ||Established under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act 1843
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral|| ||align=center|2006||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1920||align=center|1962||Established under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act 1843
|-
!scope="row"| Upper Canada
|Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1791||align=center|1841||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1972||align=center|1990||
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Defunct sub-national legislative councils
!scope="col"|Country
!scope="col"|Region
!scope="col"|Body
!scope="col"|Type
!scope="col"|Established
!scope="col"|Disestablished
!scope="col"|Notes
|-
!scope="row"|
|Queensland||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1860||align=center|1922||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Bengal||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1861||align=center|1947||Unicameral until 1937
|-
!scope="row"|
|Eastern Bengal and Assam||Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1906||align=center|1912||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Manitoba||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1870||align=center|1876|| First province to eliminate upper chamber.
|-
!scope="row"|
|New Brunswick||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1785||align=center|1891||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Nova Scotia||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1838||align=center|1928||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Prince Edward Island||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1773||align=center|1893||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Quebec||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1867||align=center|1968|| Last province to eliminate upper chamber.
|-
!scope="row"|
|Assam||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1935 ||align=center|1969||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Bombay||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1861||align=center|1960||Unicameral until 1935
|-
!scope="row"|
|Cochin||Legislative Council||Unicameral||align=center|1925||align=center|1949||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Jammu and Kashmir||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1957||align=center|2019||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Madhya Pradesh||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1956 ||align=center|1969||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Punjab||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1956 ||align=center|1969||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Tamil Nadu||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1956||align=center|1986||
|-
!scope="row"|
|West Bengal||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1952 ||align=center|1969||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Delaware||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1776||align=center|1792||
|-
!scope="row"|
|Florida Territory||Legislative Council||Bicameral||align=center|1822||align=center|1845||
|-
!scope="row"|
|New Jersey||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1776||align=center|1844||
|-
!scope="row"|
|South Carolina||Legislative Council||Upper House||align=center|1776||align=center|1778||
|}
United States
In American English, the term "legislative council" has acquired a slightly different meaning since the 1930s. It refers to a joint committee with members from both houses of the state legislature, which supervises a staff of attorneys, accountants, and researchers charged with providing strictly nonpartisan support services to the legislature or to particular committees. The concept of the legislative council was first developed in Kansas and was implemented by the Kansas Legislature in 1933. Eventually, a majority of U.S. states adopted legislative councils, but under a variety of names.