Legislatures serve three functions to varying degrees; they are: 1) lawmaking; 2) oversight; and 3) representation. How these functions are operationalized is dependent on the structure of the legislature (presidential, parliamentary or hybrid and unicameral vs. bicameral), as well as a country’s particular political, historical and economic context. Given these variations, it is still possible to pinpoint commonalities in the execution of legislative functions and, by extension, how legislatures are organized internally in order to expedite these functions. This essay examines these communalities and is based on a review of the internal workings of several legislatures, (including Australia, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and the United Kingdom. In addition, South Africa and the United States are used as illustrative case studies.)