To-do list: Legal and Constitional Reform

With lots of discussion about reform and change on the horizon, I thought a thread to collect everyone's ideas and priorities might be useful. What stays? What goes? What changes?

My Priority:

1) Democratic and Electoral Reform - (CLICK HERE to see my original proposal, with some great contributions from others, for the basic idea) Basically, expanding Citizen rights to vote and run for office. Others have expressed a desire for some kind of majority-based electoral system.

I in particular want to increase the linkage between the forum and government, and the region itself. The relatively new permanence of RMB messages should be highly useful to this purpose.

Anyone who really understands the current membership system in the R.A. could tell you very easily that there are no real barriers to entry now, other that having a nation in TNP at all.times, and taking an oath as part of thr application.The only other legal requirement is the ”One player, one vote.rule whi,h is part of the reason for the restriction against ise of.proxy servers, as well aa.enforcing a policy against multiple forum accounts unless.disclosed.in advance in order.to.prevent duplicate votes and duplicate membership.

Claiming that there is a.restriction in voting is false.statement. Care to show what you're even talking about?

What is this barrier you infer from your comments?

Grosseschnauzer:

Claiming that there is a.restriction in voting is false.statement. Care to show what you're even talking about?

What is this barrier you infer from your comments?

Click to expand...

Truthfully, Grosse, it wasn't my intention to have this thread turn into a debate - more like a list of things to debate in the future. But the general idea that people outside of the RA should be able to run for election and vote has been been pretty thoroughly discussed already, and should be a simple enough idea to understand.

I personally believe that someone should be in the RA in order to run for office, but that the seniority rules need to be abolished.

The seniority rules were devised solely to designate a Speaker Pro Tempore when the Speaker is absent for more than 24 hours and that devie can be avoided altogether if the Speaker has chosen an Acting Speaker during his absence. Seniority is based on the most recent date of admission for that member because that date is easily ascertainable in the application thread.

There is nothing else that is based on seniority within the R.A.

I meant those laws which prevent the newer members of the RA from running for any offices.

I think everybody should be allow to vote, but that only R.A. member can run for office. It is just my opinion that those who are running should at least be partially involve in legislative assembly. This will also give them opportunities to learn how the region work.

On debating: Maybe we can avoid a debate in this thread and stick to a declaration of our own positions followed by later discussion in other, specifically related threads. I like that idea.

So far we have ... (some of these are my thoughts).

Changes:

1) Electoral / Democratic Reforms (including voting systems and the question of whether RA membership should be required of candidates)

2) Linkage between region-gov't-forum (I'm not 100% sure of what this means, maybe you could elaborate a bit Eluvatar?)

3) General Reorganization (This is a general sentiment I've picked up on - not sure if anyone has a particular idea or vision of what the finished product should look like?)

4) Legal Code - there is a surprising amount of confusion about what is legal around here, and what isn't. Clearly, we need to take stock of offenses. (Currently Law 22) Should Oath-breaking be there, for example?

5) The Legal Process - there isn't much there at all about the proper procedure for criminal cases, and only a small amount about constitutional challenges. I think there is room for a little more detail, without getting overly prescriptive.

Things that need to be kept (which is not to say there isn't room for reform in these areas)

1) The Security Council - is an absolute requirement in order to control the delegate, and ensure that the constitution and law is respected. As I understand it, most of these rules are based on game-play issues, which doesn't leave too much wiggle room)

2) A Bill of Rights - in some form, this is a non-negotiable. I think most of what is there is alright, personally.

I'd say the current procedures and rules of evidence for the judiciary aren't that they're not detailed enough, it's that they're nigh unreadable and impractical, and we've seen the consequences of that in recent court cases. They need to be rewritten entirely in a fashion that's better organized, more to the point and written more plainly. While I'm rambling about judiciaries, directly elected judges are a terrible, terrible thing.

I think the lawbook generally needs be pared back a bit. I'm no slouch in the legal department, as any number of people can tell you, but I'm damn well daunted by what I need to read through to really become conversant in TNP law.

Add to the list: SECURITY - endo law clarity, security threats, what the delegate/SC can and cannot do.

I am already working on Endorsement Cap Law. I will post it here for feedback later today when I'm done with it.

As part of internal affairs, we need to have laws regulating IRC code of conduct for the #tnp channel. Yes I'm calling for the regulation of the channel under TNP law so that ops do not abuse their privileges out of personal malice of users, or allow trolls to go through the channel because they're friends with them. Additionally, not giving ops to people who are not RA members or trusted SC members. People may not like it but it is a necessity that must be done.

Endo Cap proposal: http://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/6843824/1/

Also at above post: I think there is many more urgent issue on internal affairs such as how to attract new nations to join the forum, organizing and creating the role-play and spams section to keep the forum alive, and update the welcoming area of the forum for newcomer, but I guess it's too much to ask for a government official to think about the region before himself.

Topic spilt.