Article 6: Legislative Power

[Todd McCloud]

This is the current Article for the legislature of TSP, taken verbatim from the <a class='bbc_url' href='http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/theSPacific/index.php?showtopic=8043'>Charter</a>:

<strong class='bbc'><em class='bbc'>Article 6 - Legislative Power

The Legislature</em></strong>



1. The South Pacific will be governed by a <a class='bbc_url' href='http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/theSPacific/index.php?showforum=24'>Code of Laws</a> that will detail the rules and regulations of the Region of The South Pacific.



2. All nations of The South Pacific may serve as legislators in the <a class='bbc_url' href='http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/theSPacific/index.php?showforum=7'>Assembly of the South Pacific</a>, through registration on the offsite forum of The South Pacific.



3. The Minister of the Region will act as Chair of the Assembly. The Chair of the Assembly is responsible for the administration of all aspects of the drafting, debate, and passage of laws.



4. Any nation may propose a bill.



5. A draft bill is discussed in the Assembly, the discussion being lead by the Chair of the Assembly. The discussion time may be not longer than 7 (seven) days.



6. After the discussion period is over, as indicated by the Chair of the Assembly, the nation who submitted the original proposal shall write the final draft of a bill. The nation may request assistance for this task, but must approve of the final draft and submit it to the Assembly in person, within 72 (seventy two) hours after closure of the discussion.



7. The Department of Justice will promptly examine the final draft of a bill for consistency with the Charter and address any concerns as soon as possible.



8. If a bill is found to be consistent with the Charter it may be debated during a Second Debate period of three days; during this time debate on the bill continues but no amendments can be made.



9. Following the Second Debate period on the bill, the Chair of the Assembly will close the debate and immediately open a poll in the voting chamber of the Assembly, following the guidelines below:

a. The poll will offer nations the choice to vote yes or no.



b. All citizens of The South Pacific may vote.



c. The ballot must specify the full name of the bill, the complete contents of the bill and the opening and closing dates and times for the vote.



d. Voting will continue for 7 (seven) days.



10. A bill becomes law if it receives the support of 60% (sixty) or more of those who voted and if a quorum of fourteen votes is met. A bill that receives the support of less than 60% (sixty) of those who voted, is defeated.



11. Once a bill has become law, it will be published in the <a class='bbc_url' href='http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/theSPacific/index.php?showforum=24'>Code of Laws</a> by the Minister of the Region.



12. Concerns over the legality of any aspect of the process described in <strong class='bbc'>Article 6</strong> must be addressed to the Minister of Justice.

Please state your opinion on this article, including any revisions you would like to see. You may also argue over the necessity of said article and any other directions this article should take.



Discussion for this article will end on <strong class='bbc'>Wednesday, October 20th</strong>, or on a later date if the Minister of Region determines the debate to require more time.

[Karatafasadi]

7. The Department of Justice will promptly examine the final draft of a bill for consistency with the Charter and address any concerns as soon as possible.

I think we need to put a time that is a little more specific than as soon as possible for this.

[Southern Bellz]

The one elected position we should have is the Chair of the Assembly.

[Guest]

Ok, since I wrote most of this I think I should comment on some bits. @SB: Yes, I agree that we need an elected chair. As you can see it is now written in such a way that only art. 3 needs to be changed to define another chair mechanism. We could even move it out of here and place it in another part dealing with elections and such. I don't know what makes more senseart. 7 seems to be logical, but is a logistic nightmare. The reason that it is "ASAP" rather than a specific time frame is that I firmly believe that one cannot demand of someone to be online at a certain time, as this is a hobby for us all. We used to have a specific time frame in a prior version, I think, and it did not work. We removed the specific time frame, and it still doesn't work. The only way it can be solved is by leaving any review out prior to voting and doing it afterwards, i.e., if someone has a concern they can file it with the highest juridical authority.art. 8 may look very odd. This time-out period was but in place, because I noticed during my period as MoR that there were only few comments on legislation during the official debating period (no matter how long it is), but suddenly when debating was closed and put up for vote, all kinds of people suddenly flooded comments in. This time-out period was an attempt to channel this.Art. 10. There is no quorum. The quorum was amended out but the text of the charter was never changed. DEATH TO THE QUORUM!!!111one11 :hammer: :none: :whip:

[kloister]

I probably have more to write on this particular article but am running out of time this evening...Having served for a lengthy time as MoR, I see that as sound a way as any to encourage activity through and by the Assembly...As MoR you are elected...

[Todd McCloud]

For what it is worth, I have suggested these changes:

<strong class='bbc'>Chapter III.

The Code of Laws



<em class='bbc'>Article 6 - Legislative Power

The Legislature</em></strong>



<del>1. The South Pacific will be governed by a <a class='bbc_url' href='http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/theSPacific/index.php?showforum=24'>Code of Laws</a> that will detail the rules and regulations of the Region of The South Pacific.</del>



2. All nations of The South Pacific may serve as legislators in the <a class='bbc_url' href='http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/theSPacific/index.php?showforum=7'>Assembly of the South Pacific</a>, through registration on the offsite forum of The South Pacific and publically agreeing to the Charter outlined in Article 1.



3. The Minister of the Region will act as Chair of the Assembly. The Chair of the Assembly is responsible for the administration of all aspects of the drafting, <del>debate, and passage</del> debating, and passing of laws.



4. Any nation may propose a bill.



5. A draft bill is discussed in the Assembly, the discussion <del>being</del> lead by the Chair of the Assembly. The discussion time may be not longer than 7 (seven) days.



6. After the discussion period is over<del>, as indicated by the Chair of the Assembly,</del> the nation who submitted the original proposal shall write the final draft of a bill<del>. The nation may request assistance for this task, but must approve of the final draft and submit it to the Assembly in person, </del> and submit it within 72 (seventy two) hours <del>after closure of the discussion</del>. If a final draft is not received in the allotted time, the Chair of the Assembly is charged with constructing a final draft for immediate submission.



7. The <del>Department</del> Minister of Justice will promptly examine the final draft of a bill for consistency with the Charter and address any concerns<del> as soon as possible. </del> in a 72-hour time frame. If the bill is not approved by the Minister of Justice, a further debate period of 72 hours shall occur in the Assembly.



8.<del> If a bill is found to be consistent with the Charter it may be debated during a Second Debate period of three days; during this time debate on the bill continues but no amendments can be made.</del>



9. <del>Following the Second Debate period on the bill,</del> the Chair of the Assembly will close the debate and immediately open a poll in the voting chamber of the Assembly, following the guidelines below:

a. The poll will offer nations the choice to vote yes or no.



b. All <del>citizens</del> legislators of The South Pacific may vote.



c. The ballot must specify the full name of the bill, the complete contents of the bill and the opening and closing dates and times for the vote.



d. Voting will continue for 7 (seven) days.



10. A bill becomes law if it receives <del>the support of</del> a 60% <del>(sixty) or more of those who voted and if a quorum of fourteen votes is met. A bill that receives the support of less than 60% (sixty) of those who voted, is defeated.</del> majority vote.



11. Once a bill has become law, it will be published in the <a class='bbc_url' href='http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/theSPacific/index.php?showforum=24'>Code of Laws</a> by the Minister of the Region.



12. Concerns over the legality of any aspect of the law-making process described in <strong class='bbc'>Article 6</strong> must be addressed to the Minister of Justice.

<strong class='bbc'>Article 6 ? Legislature and Legislative Power</strong>[*:pjwhs9i0] All nations of The South Pacific may serve as legislators in the <a class='bbc_url' href='http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/theSPacific/index.php?showforum=7'>Assembly of the South Pacific</a>, through registration on the offsite forum of The South Pacific and publically agreeing to the Charter outlined in Article 1.







[*:pjwhs9i0] The Minister of the Region will act as Chair of the Assembly. The Chair of the Assembly is responsible for the administration of all aspects of drafting, debating, and passing of laws.







[*:pjwhs9i0] Any nation may propose a bill.







[*:pjwhs9i0] A draft bill is discussed in the Assembly of The South Pacific sub-forum, the discussion lead by the Chair of the Assembly. The discussion time may be no longer than seven days.







[*:pjwhs9i0] After the discussion period is over, the nation who submitted the original proposal shall write the final draft of the bill and submit it within 72 hours after. If a final draft is not received in the allotted time, the Chair of the Assembly is charged with constructing a final draft for immediate submission.







[*:pjwhs9i0] The Ministry of Justice will promptly examine the final draft of a bill for consistency with the Charter and address any concerns in a 72-hour time frame. If the bill is not approved by the Ministry of Justice, a further debate period of 72 hours shall occur in the Assembly.







[*:pjwhs9i0] The Chair of the Assembly will close the debate and immediately open a poll in the voting chamber of the Assembly, following the guidelines below:[*:pjwhs9i0] The ballot must specify the full name of the bill, the complete contents of the bill and the opening and closing dates and times for the vote.





[*:pjwhs9i0] The poll will offer nations the choice to vote yes or no.





[*:pjwhs9i0] All legislators of The South Pacific may vote.





[*:pjwhs9i0] Voting will continue for 7 (seven) days.







[*:pjwhs9i0] A bill becomes law if it receives a 60% majority vote.







[*:pjwhs9i0] Once a bill has become law, it will be published in the <a class='bbc_url' href='http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/theSPacific/index.php?showforum=24'>Code of Laws</a> by the Minister of the Region.







[*:pjwhs9i0] Concerns over the legality of any aspect of the law-making process described in <strong class='bbc'>Article 6</strong> must be addressed to the Minister of Justice.



[/list]

Question though: are we having the MOR synonymous with the chair, or are we dumping that position? Either way is fine with me, and yes, I agree, the chair should be elected. It would probably make sense to put it in here.

[Guest]

I think the seperate duties of elected officials are still coming up for debate, aren't they?



So to be able to move on, I would suggest that we leave out in this part exactly who is chair of the assembly, and then define that in the bit where we decide who is going to be elected and who isn't, as that will probably need a bit more discussion.



Hm, I just noticed something...I remember to putting in a strict debate time of 7 days, to keep some speed in the assembly procedure and avoid endless debates that end in motions never being enacted. However, it's quite common that a longer debate time is needed. I solved that back in the days by making a distinction be starting a discussion and submitting a motion, the former being an unofficial procedure that could last as long or short as we like. Maybe we could put in something like



[quote name=""Suggestion""]4b. Any nation may submit to the chair of the assembly a request for elongation of the debate period for a motion. The request may be granted at the discretion of the Chair of the Assembly.[/quote]



Or does this give to much power to the chair?



Further, as I argued in a previous post (or at least I intended to :unsure: ) I think we should remove clause 6 (examination by the justice department <em class='bbc'>during</em> the law-making process) and have any revisions done afterwards:



[qoute="Suggestion"]

11. Any concerns over consistency of any motion or law with the charter must be addressed to the ministry of justice.[/quote]

(I think we have the supremacy of the charter further on, so it shouldn't be repeated here. Alternatively, something like this could be placed with the supremacy clauses)

[Todd McCloud]

Alright, I removed #6 and... I think #11 is the current #10 in this draft, now #9 in the article on the voting floor. I've also removed the distinction of who is the chair and altered #5 for the debate time