Spiralline
The governing body that rules over the Jewel Box. Formed of seven individuals from each of the Pairs, and eight from Quartz-Diamond. Having been built by expatriates of the Empire, it is allied with the Empire, although it remains neutral in all conflicts. It consists of a judicial and a legislative branch.
The Spiralline is the main and only legislative body of the Jewel Box. Every law passed goes through the Spiralline.
It is important to note that the Spiralline is a meritocracy and not a democracy of any sort, representative or not. Representatives are selected not by the people but by technology and magic working off of two criteria: one, political ability; and two, similarity to the people they govern. A representative is, therefore, not always a member of the judiciary, law enforcement, or a town council but could be a history teacher at a high school, a union member, or the head of a thespian society. Public opinion has little to no effect on re-election.
The only vote that matters in the passage of a law is the vote of the representatives. The people affected by the law also vote, but note that their vote is considered advice and not binding, so that the representative can vote in the peoples' best interest even if they do not. In practice, the representatives largely follow the will of the people, but they are not required to. Additionally, votes are kept confidential. The people cannot see the way their representative votes.
Law enforcement is more localized than legislation. Local police departments handle the vast majority of infractions. If jurisdictions are crossed, the case goes to a jurisdiction court which hears the case and assigns jurisdiction to one department or another. If there is no clear answer to the question, the case is handled by a higher tier of law enforcement, likely the planetary branch.
Friendly
The Spiralline and the Jewel Box tend to regard the Empire as beneath them, or somehow a disappointment. The Empire is an example of a civilization gone wrong.
The Empire has no beef with the Jewel Box but tends to see them as elitist assholes if they aren't busy portraying them as 'wow, they're so cool'.
