by Max Barry

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Welcome to Spiritus!

I've sent you a Telegram with the basics

Forbidden in heaven and useless in hell

http://tinypaste.com/59ee1a0b

Forbidden in heaven and useless in hell

With the intent to create a democratic region that upholds the values of liberty, democracy, and justice, the people of the region of Spiritus have convened to establish this constitution. It shall serve as the absolute law of the region for all intents, constructs, and purposes.

Article I: The Regional Assembly

1. The legislative duties of Spiritus shall hereby be perpetually vested into the Regional Assmebly, which shall be a unicameral legislature.

2. The Regional Assmebly shall consist of one representative for every five citizens of the region who are elected on the fifteenth day of every month.

3. The representatives in the Regional Assmebly shall be elected using the first-past-the-post method of voting. In example, if there are five seats available in the Regional Assembly, the five candidates with the most votes take office.

4. If a vacancy has been created in the Regional Assembly for any reason, the President shall be required to issue a writ of election within five days of that vacancy being created. A special election for the vacant seat must be held within five days of a writ of election being made.

5. The Regional Assembly shall be presided over by the Vice-President, who shall organize its debates and procedure. He shall have no vote in the Regional Assembly
unless the total number of votes in favor and the total number of votes against are equal.

6. No person shall become a member of the Regional Assmebly who holds another public office in government, with the exception of positions created in the executive branch of government. Furthermore, no person shall become a member of the Regional Assmebly who is not a citizen of the region.

Article II: The President and Vice-President

1. The executive duties of Spirtus shall hereby be perpetually vested into the President and any other position in the executive branch that shall be made under his tenure.

2. The President shall be elected on the fifteenth day of fourth month.

3. The official method of electing the President shall be Instant-run off voting.

4. If a vacancy has been made in the office of the Presidency, the Vice-President shall assume all responsibilities of the Presidency until the former President has returned, or the next election has been conducted.

5. The Vice-President shall be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Regional Assmebly with a majority vote.

6. No person shall become President or Vice-President who holds another public office in government, with the exception of positions created in the executive branch of government. Furthermore, no person shall become President or Vice-President who is not a citizen of the region.

Article III: The official powers, duties, and responsibilities vested into the Regional Assembly

1. The Regional Assembly shall have the power, duty, and responsibility to pass bills, repeal previously passed bills, make amendments to the constitution, and any other activity that is deemed nessecary and required to perform the powers vested into it by the constitution.

2. The Regional Assembly must approve of all nominations to the executive branch made by the President with a simple majority vote.

3. The President may send a request to the Regional Assembly requesting that they declare war upon another region. In order for a declaration of war to be declared, two-thirds of the Regional Assembly must vote in favor.

4. The Regional Assembly shall have the power to create, maintain, and regulate a regional military with the purpose of protecting the region from all threats, foriegn and domestic.

5. The Regional Assembly must approve of all treaties, embassies, agreements with other regions by a simple majority vote.

6. The Regional Assembly shall have the power to create standards and rules regarding the process of attaining citizenship status in Spiritus. These standards and rules must be equally applied to all of those who apply for citizenship.

7. The Regional Assembly shall have the power to issue condemnations and commendations to other regions.

8. The Regional Assembly shall have the responsibility to draft a code of law, which shall outline all crimes and the resulting consequences of being found guilty of that crime. These laws must not be political in nature, be equally applied, and must conform to the Declaration of Rights.

9. The Regional Assembly shall have the power to set a location for casting votes in elections. These locations must be open and available to all who wish to vote, and most not discriminate based off any ideology, perceived or stated.

Article IV: The official powers, duties, and responsibilities vested into the President.

1. The President shall, from time to time, issue addresses to the citizens of the region and the Regional Assembly regarding the state of the region.

2. The President shall appoint cabinet members to assist him in his duties and management of the region, ambassadors to other regions with the purpose of furthering ties and friendly relations, and other positions in the executive with the purpose of helping him in the duties granted to him by this constitution.

3. The President shall have the power to issue writs of elections, as well as the power to issue executive orders with the consent and approval of Congress.

4. The President shall have the power to nominate a candidate for the position of Vice-President, who shall serve alongside the President for his full term.

5. The President shall be the commander-in-chief of the regional military, and lead it during times of war and peace.

6. The President shall have the power to veto bills presented to him by the Regional Assembly.

Article V: How a Bill becomes a Law

1. All bills must be proposed by a representative in the Regional Assembly, the Vice-President, the President, or a petition with 25% of citizens signing.

2. When the Regional Assembly has received a bill, they shall debate and discuss the merits of the bill, as well as making any amendments and edits to the bill they would like to make. The majority of the Regional Assembly must approve of the bill, and the Vice-President shall deliver it to the President within two days of its passage.

3. Once the President has received the bill from the Vice-President, he shall either choose to veto or sign the bill. If he shall sign it, then it shall become an operative law of the region. If he shall veto it, it will be returned to the Regional Assembly with his objections.

4. In the event of a veto, the Regional Assembly shall consider all objections made the President, and may overturn the veto of the President with a two-thirds vote.

5. If the President has not signed or vetoed a bill within one week of it being delivered to him by the Vice-President, it shall immediately become law as if he had signed it.

6. All propose treaties and agreements, embassies, and bills must all be delivered to the President for signing or veto.

Article VI: Amendments to the Constitution

1. The Regional Assembly may call a constitutional convention with the consent of both Houses. During this convention, they may discuss potential amendments and
revisals to the constitution. once the convention has been completed, amendments may be proposed, and they must pass in the same order as outlined in Article V.

2. Once an amendment has been made into law, it must first be approved by the majority of the region in a referendum called within one week of the bills passage. If the majority of the electorate approves of the amendment, it shall be put in the constitution. If the majority of electors do not approve of the amendment, it shall not be put in the constitution.

Article VII: Declaration of Rights

1. The Regional Assembly shall make no law infringing upon or restricting the right to free speech, the right to protest, the right to petition, or the right to free press.

2. The Regional Assembly shall make no law that respects any established faith or religion, or prevents the practicing of any established faith or religion.

3. The Regional Assembly shall make no post ex facto law, and shall make no Bill of Attainder.

4: Every citizen is entitled to manage their respective nation as they desire, and the Regional Assembly shall make no law respecting any type of government, or prohibiting any type of government.

5. The Regional Assembly shall make no law requiring membership in the WA, or any other international or regional organization of any form

6. No citizen of the region shall be ejected or banned from the region without a fair, speedy, and public trial, with guilt or innocence being decided by an impartial jury of their peers.

7. No citizen of the region shall be put on trial for a crime that they have already previously been charged with.

8. The right for every citizen to vote shall not be infringed upon or restricted by any law passed by the Regional Assembly.

9. The Regional Assembly may not expand the power of any government position beyond what is prescribed in this constitution.

10. The rights granted by this constitution shall not be construed to deny other rights.

Article VIII: Ratification

1. This constitution shall be ratified into law when the majority of the citizens of the region have approved of it through referendum.

Article XI: Signers

Approved by the people of Spirtus through referendum, this constitution has been made into law to establish a more perfect region for our citizens to live in, and to serve as a haven from the victims of dictatorships and oppression.

Forbidden In Heaven and Useless In Hell
Author of the Constitution

Why is representative democracy of merit to a player-created region likely to peak at no more than a few hundred members and perhaps fifty citizens?
Where are terms like instant run-off voting defined in terms of what they mean to Spiritus?
Where on earth is the Judicial Branch?

Forbidden in heaven and useless in hell

1: You're acting as if I planned on having a huge legislative body. I don't. Fifty citizens is plenty for a good legislature.

2: I think Instant-run off is self-explanatory, but I will define it in further detail if you want.

3: A Judicial Branch will be added later. The region is not prepared for that yet.

Forbidden in heaven and useless in hell

(Removed instant-run off and replaced it with whoever gets the most votes wins. It's more simple.)

I like most. Except for President = Commander in Chief

If we go raider, I would prefer a Commander be Commander because he's good at the military game, not because he was elected president.

1: Okay. So then why do you propose a plan that limits that legislature to ten?
2: A constitution is the supreme law of a region. You can't leave room for ambiguity in things like that unless you want some fool to argue about it.
3: The Judicial Branch is the single most important branch of government.

Forbidden in heaven and useless in hell

Spirit, the President doesn't have to be commander-in-chief completely. There's nothing stopping him from making cabinet positions to lead the war for him, which is perfectly fine, because they are allowed to ''assist him in his duties''.

Malistar:
1: My plan does not limit the number of representatives to ten. The number of representatives is based off the number of citizens, not a fixed amount.

2: I scrapped instant-run off for a more simple system, with it being defined as well. Thank you for the suggestion.

3: I agree, but there is no point in establishing a Judiciary at this point, because nobody can fill it. Once we have enough qualified people, I would gladly back an amendment creating it.

I did #3 in my last region, and it worked out fine.

1: "2. The Regional Assmebly shall consist of one representative for every five citizens of the region who are elected on the fifteenth day of every month." It's my projection that this region will peak at maybe 200 residents and perhaps 50 citizens. That's 10 members of your Regional "Assmebly".
2: You're very welcome.
3: So what happens when, at the very first election, you have a dispute about whether the consitution allows for someone to change their vote which nearly dismantles the new government because there's essentially no judiciary? Minus the part about there being no Judiciary, this is a real crisis that happened in The South during the first election following the raitification of the constitution there. The major difference in what I've said and what really happened is that the system pulled through because there was a Judiciary branch in place to settle that dispute.

At the rate we're growing, we'll get enough people for a Judiciary branch plenty soon. We just need one or three justices.

Forbidden in heaven and useless in hell

1: Thanks for spotting the spelling error! Writing all of that and catching all the errors is hard. It appears correct in all other instances, however.

Your projections on the population of this region are speculative. You can't say that it limits the legislature, because it just simply doesn't. It's found nowhere in the text of the constitution. Your speculative and unfounded projections on the population have no relevance. While you can say the legislature will end up having ten people, you cannot say it's required to have that many people.

2: The issue of editing votes after you cast them is de facto legal, since there's no law against it. I see no issue with counting the votes as is, posting the results, and anything past that doesn't count. The Constitution is only meant to establish a structure for our government and the rights of our people, not make laws regarding election procedure. It's an issue for the Regional Assembly once it's assembled.

Forbidden in heaven and useless in hell

3: Having more people doesn't mean that we can have a full bench. Out of all those people, how many do you think will be citizens? And of that amount, how many will be qualified as Justices on our Supreme Court? It is better to wait when we are ready than hastily create a court plagued by inexperience.

2: That's not what I was saying. It doesn't have to be that exact dispute. But, mark my words, we will have something that comes up and can be solved no other way than with a Judiciary.
BTW, the issue in the court in The South was not whether or not you could change your vote, at the heart, but whether the constitution intended for things not stated illegal to be legal or vice versa.
3: Then why are there enough citizens to have a representative legislature? ;) Besides, you only need one Justice, perhaps three (certainly not two, even numbers are never good in matters like this). Which reminds me, does the provision against people serving in more than one government position apply to members of the Assembly as well? It shouldn't.

Forbidden in heaven and useless in hell

The qualifications for a regional court, which will likely serve for a long time, and as you yourself said, is very important, are much greater than that of the Regional Legislature. The Regional Legislature has checks on it. The Regional Court wouldn't. The Regional Court wouldn't be elected. The Regional Legislature would. Because of the nature of the position, you can't just be appointing people to fill the positions because you need to. With elections on the Regional Legislature, the bad candidates will be weeded out, and the good candidates will take office.

Yes, you cannot serve in the Regional Assembly and be President, Vice-President, or in the hypothetical court. It would violate the separation of powers to have one person serving in either of the two offices.

1: Why shouldn't the court be elected? This might not work for the uninformed voter in a nation, but in a much closer setting like an NS region, it could work admirably.
2: Why should we deny the very people we've said are among our best from having a voice, then, in what I feel should be a public forum? (Alternately, would you still support such a thing if all citizens were free to serve in the Assembly and there wasn't indirect representation?)

Hello Everyone! Sorry for not noticing the RMB popped up until now, But I thought I should still say hi! Also, on the off-site forums, what is the difference between a "Citizen' and a "Free Spirit" ??

Hey Dalmascus.

Free Spirit is like visitor
Citizen is... citizen.. you see more stuff

@ Constitution discussion.

For court system. I would support 3 justices. One chief justice and two justices. Chief Justice would make all the in-court room rulings, but all 3 justices would decide verdicts together. Preferably the panel would be something of an impartial one. So for example it would consist of an Invader, a Defender, and a Neutral. That would be the best example for a court. An elected court would probably best. As for elected court. I would support that. Elect the initial 3 Justices. Then when one justice steps down, the other two appoint a new one. So only the first 3 original ones would be elected.

Yet I would not support President being a Justice. I would say you pick one or the other. So if you're President you're not Justice, and if you're Justice. You have to resign from the courts to become President. Ideally, the President should only be able to hold the President position, but we could allow him/her to hold a Legislative position again.

The Legislature numbers would have to be adjusted constantly if we keep growing like this, but I can see a 25% of citizens be a good number.

And Congratulations to our first WAD: New Age Land

Oh, ok, thanks!

And I like how you want the Justices.. at first you get an accurate veiw of public opinion, and later, you have the insulation of the courts from the people that we have now in the U.S.

Also. After reading, I do not feel that the regional assembly should have the right to regulate the military. They could officially disband the military.

Also, as a raider, I would say that the military should be used for military purposes (invading). If it is voted that we have a defender military, than that could work as well. Yet we do not need it to protect the region, for I will be around for a long time. With a founder, and a non-executive delegate, we need not worry yet.

And what exactly does it mean by: "7. The Regional Assembly shall have the power to issue condemnations and commendations to other regions."

I know it's a bit early, but perhaps for the legislature, political parties can be based off of the Plazas on the off-site forum.
(i.e. Senator "______" , Air Plaza)
Also, I'd like to help construct the forum, if you'd like.

And each plaza could have a different basic set of political opinions. (for fire, it could be a "Raider" Mentality, for earth, "defender", For Air, "neutral", and for Water, a sort of "catch-all" for those that don't agree with the other three) I'm just throwing ideas around :P

I don't think were using a multi-partisan system yet. As for the Plazas. I created them to be parts of the region. Some of them are not built yet

Plaza of Water is the fun and spammish forum area
Plaza of Fire shall contain the Legislature and the Court
Plaza of Air is the discussion area
Plaza of Earth shall contain the President and Cabinets that he makes.

And I do not plan on handing you out admin :P
Sorry. I've had run-ins with regions who's forums got destroyed by someone getting admin.
Forum Crashers are common here.

oh... that's too bad, but I understand.

Thank you for understanding. :)

Here's my proposal for the Constitution. It is based largely on the Constitutions of The South and the United States of America, and even more largely on FIHAUIH's wonderful proposal.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CymnsrzV0AqkrMwyOdn7Pgd3TwjF04282YX0h5nx50Y/edit

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