Federal Palace of Switzerland in the context of "National Council (Switzerland)"

Salus populi suprema lex esto (Latin: "The health [welfare, good, salvation, felicity] of the people should be the supreme law"; "Let the good [or safety] of the people be the supreme [or highest] law"; or "The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law") is a maxim or principle found in Cicero's De Legibus (book III, part III, sub. VIII).

The Federal Assembly, also known as the Swiss Parliament, is the federal bicameral parliament of Switzerland. It comprises the 200-seat National Council and the 46-seat Council of States. It meets in Bern in the Federal Palace.

The houses have identical powers. Members of both houses represent the cantons, but, whereas seats in the National Council are distributed in proportion to population, each canton has two seats in the Council of States, except the six 'half-cantons', which have one seat each. Both are elected in full once every four years, with the last election being held in 2023.

Eidgenossenschaft (Swiss Standard German pronunciation: [ˈaɪdɡəˌnɔsn̩ʃaft] ) is a German word specific to the political history of Switzerland. It means "oath commonwealth" or "oath alliance", in reference to the "eternal pacts" formed between the Eight Cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy of the late medieval period. In Swiss historiography, this relates most notably to the Rütlischwur (Rütli Oath) between the three founding cantons Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, which traditionally dates to 1307. In modern usage, Eidgenossenschaft is the German term used as an equivalent to "Confederation" in the official name of Switzerland, Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (rendered, respectively, as Confédération suisse and Confederazione svizzera in French and Italian). Its corresponding adjective, eidgenössisch—officially translated as "Swiss federal"—is used in the name of organisations such as the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, or Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.The term Eidgenosse (literally: comrade by oath) refers to individual members of the Eidgenossenschaft. It is attested as early as 1315 in the Pact of Brunnen (as Eitgenoze), referring to thecantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. The abstract noun Eidgenossenschaft (mostly contracted to eidgnoszschaft or eidgnoschaft) is attested in the 15th century.In modern usage, Eidgenosse is sometimes used in archaic or ironic usage for "Swiss citizen", especially for those citizens of purely Swiss origin and not from immigration.

In a historical context, Eidgenossenschaft refers to the medieval Swiss Confederacy, which grew from the 13th to the 16th century in central Europe, persisted until 1798 and then evolved into a federal state in the 19th century. When used in this sense, the eternal nature of the pact is necessary—the members of the Dreizehn Orte (Thirteen Cantons), frequently made time-limited alliances sworn by oath with other partners, but such pacts were not considered an Eidgenossenschaft.

Hans Wilhelm Auer (26 April 1847 – 30 August 1906) was a Swiss-Austrian architect best known for his design of the Swiss Bundeshaus (1894–1902) in Bern.

Auer was born in Wädenswil. A pupil first of Gottfried Semper at the ETH Zurich and then staff assistant for Theophil Hansen in Vienna, Auer established his own office in 1887 and enjoyed a rich and varied career as a practicing architect, educator, and theorist. He died at Konstanz.