Security Council

[Eluvatar]

A Bill to Amend the Constitution of the North Pacific and enact a Law

Section One

Article IV of The North Pacific Constitution shall be replaced with the following:

Article IV: Security Council

Section 1: Membership

1. The Security Council (Council) shall be composed of trusted Assembly members of The North Pacific with an influence level above Minnow.
2. The Vice Delegate shall serve as Chair of the Council.
3. Assembly members may apply to join the Council if they meet the minimum Influence and endorsement levels prescribed by law.
4. The Council shall admit by majority vote those applicants who the Council determines are not a Security Risk to the North Pacific.
5. The Assembly may require the Council to admit an applicant by a two thirds supermajority vote.

Section 2: Powers

1. The Council shall enforce any approved motion of the Assembly to recall the Delegate.
2. The Council shall approve the removal of Assembly status from a nation for security reasons, and the denial of Assembly status for a nation for security reasons.
3. The Council shall have the power to impose an emergency halt to any action by the Executive and to submit legislation for a vote of the Assembly on an emergency basis.
4. The Vice Delegate as President of the Council shall keep record of members of the Council and Auxiliary and remove members if empowered to do so by law.

Section 3: Responsibilities

1. Members of the Council shall be responsible for maintaining an endorsement level and influence level consistent with laws concerning endorsement and influence levels.
2. The Council shall submit to the Assembly a proposal to update endorsement level and influence level requirements for the Council on a regular basis, when required by law.
3. Each member of the Council shall execute an oath of office.
4. Members of the Council are required to remain members of the Assembly.

Section 4: The Auxiliary

1. There shall be an Auxiliary to the Council composed of members of The North Pacific who do not participate on the official off-site forum.
2. Members of the Auxiliary shall be those nations in The North Pacific with an Influence Level above Vassal that accept membership in it, and whom the Council determines, by a three-quarters majority vote, to be long standing trustworthy residents of The North Pacific who would not back any coup.
3. Members of the Auxiliary shall be responsible for maintaining endorsements in a range set by law.

Section Two

Article I, Section 3 of The North Pacific Constitution shall be amended as follows:

Section 3: Miscellany

   1. Upon passage of this document as an amendment to the previous Constitution, all legislation previously passed is nullified, except for TNP Laws 1, 2, 6, 14, 22, and 23 (previous to the passage of this Constitution), which shall each be entered into the Legal Code as laws.
   2. The Constitution and Declaration of Rights shall share full, constitutional authority with all the rights and privileges that come with that authority. The Legal Code is second only to the previous in legal force. In case of conflict in wording, the Constitution and Declaration of Rights take precedence. Any and all other regulations and guidelines are lower in authority than the Legal Code unless otherwise specified.
   3. All Government bodies are allowed to create rules for itstheir own governance.
   4. The Speaker of the Assembly, CLO members, and the Delegate and Vice Delegate shall each be elected to 4-month terms.
   5. The members of the Judiciary (including the Chief Justice) shall each be elected to 6-month terms.
   6. All elections shall be held on the region's official off-site forum.
   7. Candidates for these elected officialses must be members of the Assembly for 30 days before nominations begin.
   8. Election of the Speaker of the Assembly, CLO, and Judiciary officials shall require a plurality vote of the Assembly.
   9. Election of the Delegate and Vice Delegate shall require a majority vote of the Assembly.

Section Three

A new Law shall be enacted as part of the North Pacific Legal Code:

The Council and Auxiliary Regulation Act

Section One: Requirements

1. Members of the Security Council (Council) and the Auxiliary shall adhere to an influence requirement of having influence greater than Vassal.
2. Members of the Council shall maintain at least 130 endorsements and no more than 200.
3. Members of the Auxiliary shall maintain at least 100 endorsements and no more than 150.


Section Two: Updating

1. The Council shall submit a proposal to update the provisions of Section One of this Law for an immediate vote of the Assembly within two weeks of the enactment of this Law.
2. Thereafter, the Council shall submit a proposal to update the provisions of Section One of this Law no less frequently than every two months after this Law takes effect, for an immediate vote of the Assembly.
3. It is the ongoing responsibility of the Council to assure this Law is consistent with the state of affairs of The North Pacific.


Section Three: Enforcement

1. The Vice Delegate may remove members of the Council who violate the requirements of this Act.

 

[Eluvatar]

Some Explanation:

The idea behind this bill is as follows:

What has saved the collective bacon of the region in the past has been the continued presence of nations like Great Bights Mum and Former English Colony with high endorsements and, more importantly, high influence. It is these members of the region who's very presence discourages attack and who have the capacity to, with popular support, stand against a rogue delegate.

This bill would create a formal regional body for this purpose, setting up a reasonable system of regulation of endorsements, as well as the means to check on the Delegate. These nations are the nations who actually can check on the Delegate, so I believe it logical to assign them the legal powers involved in checking the Delegate.

Questions? Comments? Calls for me to get out of here?

 

[Outer Kharkistania]

No offense, but this is elitist and would encourage greater endoswapping by people.

In addition, it is HIGHLY discriminatory to the people who are actually fighting for the region's security by routinely sending WA's outside the region.

This will not have my vote.

 

[Grosseschnauzer]

I would note that this proposal has been in development for several months, and sought to reecognize the reality that there are long-time nations in the region with considerable influence who have elected not to be involved directly in the governments of the day, and as a result have tended not to be involved with this forum.
This fact was one of the reason why we how have a TNP Citizen member group at these forums and a corresponding permission mask, so there is a way to broaden participation within the region at these forums.
I don't consider the endorsement ranges for the Council and the Auxillary members to be a change from the policy that we in TNP do not set a fixed endo cap for outsiders, but look at the overall situation in identifying those who are endo tarting and present security issues.
I support this proposal as a way to address some of the security and check-and-balance issues that exist in the current constitution,

 

[Heft]

2. The Council shall approve the removal of Assembly status from a nation for security reasons, and the denial of Assembly status for a nation for security reasons.
3. The Council shall have the power to impose an emergency halt to any action by the Executive and to submit legislation for a vote of the Assembly on an emergency basis.

No.

 

[Eluvatar]

No offense, but this is elitist and would encourage greater endoswapping by people.

In addition, it is HIGHLY discriminatory to the people who are actually fighting for the region's security by routinely sending WA's outside the region.

This will not have my vote.

I do not believe that it would encourage endorsement swapping any more than Influence already does.

The Army is a separate issue, but the Assembly remains the fundamental source of authority and legitimacy in this system.

 

[Eluvatar]

2. The Council shall approve the removal of Assembly status from a nation for security reasons, and the denial of Assembly status for a nation for security reasons.
3. The Council shall have the power to impose an emergency halt to any action by the Executive and to submit legislation for a vote of the Assembly on an emergency basis.

No.

Why?

Why do you oppose clause 2 and why do you oppose clause 3?

 

[Outer Kharkistania]

The Army is a separate issue, but the Assembly remains the fundamental source of authority and legitimacy in this system.

Except Article 2 lets them kick people out of the Assembly.

 

[Eluvatar]

Do you wish to modify that?

 

[Namyeknom]

1. The Security Council (Council) shall be composed of trusted Assembly members of The North Pacific with an influence level above Minnow.

1. Members of the Security Council (Council) and the Auxiliary shall adhere to an influence requirement of having influence greater than Vassal.

Is it Minnow or is it Vassal?

Either way I would oppose this bill. The North Pacific has long stood for equality among nations, regardless of experience, age or length of service. This effectively creates a two tier system, whereby those who do nothing more than endoswap can be considered for a more privileged position than possibly more active members of the government, assembly or army.

The CLO as it stands currently is elected by the people, and therefore answerable to the people. This proposed Security Council is not. Having a self governed body that can legally prevent executive action, while also deciding who can be a member of the RA is, in my opinion, a recipe for disaster.

 

[Eluvatar]

All right, so I'm hearing alot about this group being handed too much power in this proposal.

I agree that the way the approval of denial/removal is phrased it has ended up being that it can freely remove and deny. This was not the intention-- the intention was that the Speaker or Executive would propose, and the Security Council approve of denial or removal.

Before I embark on revisions, are there any specific suggestions?

EDIT: The idea with Minnow and Vassal is that Constitutionally they must have > Minnow, and they may be further restricted legally.

 

[Heft]

2. The Council shall approve the removal of Assembly status from a nation for security reasons, and the denial of Assembly status for a nation for security reasons.
3. The Council shall have the power to impose an emergency halt to any action by the Executive and to submit legislation for a vote of the Assembly on an emergency basis.

No.

Why?

Why do you oppose clause 2 and why do you oppose clause 3?

Because it doesn't benefit me personally, of course. I could come up with an argument about TNP ideals and all and how creating a blatantly elitist system is against those ideas, and how the oligarchy is supposed to not even know it's an oligarchy (though recently honestly it seems like the traditional oligarchy I was familiar with has been broken open so then this would be a step backwards). But as a member of the NPA and therefore a nation that can never possibly join this body, I don't particularly like it, nor do I think that someone is qualified or interested for/in the powers you want to give them just because their nation has a lot of influence.

I'd much rather see the Courts and the CLO combined into one body so as to fix both of them at once then to create this unnecessary entity.

 

[Gracius Maximus]

This is a means of codifying what is effectively the only real method of combating "rogue" Delegacies.

It seems similar to what TWP has with the Guardians, although they limit their influence in the day to day governmental operations.

I would support a much more streamlined version of this easily. Perhaps concentration on the Council acting as an advisory to the Delegate and acting as a safeguard against a Delegate going against the Constitution but having no authorization within the RA, etc.

 

[Ermarian]

"Members of the Council shall be responsible for maintaining an endorsement level and influence level consistent with laws concerning endorsement and influence levels."

-> "They are responsible for complying with the law." Does this sound redundant to anyone, or could it be formulated in a way to make it less so?

All Government bodies are allowed to create rules for itstheir own governance.

Sneaky! Smuggling in typo fixes in unrelated legislation...

 

[Eluvatar]

"Members of the Council shall be responsible for maintaining an endorsement level and influence level consistent with laws concerning endorsement and influence levels."

-> "They are responsible for complying with the law." Does this sound redundant to anyone, or could it be formulated in a way to make it less so?

It means that they can be required by law to have a certain influence level or endorsement level.

 

[Gracius Maximus]

Could the proposer address my concerns?

 

[Eluvatar]

This is a means of codifying what is effectively the only real method of combating "rogue" Delegacies.

It seems similar to what TWP has with the Guardians, although they limit their influence in the day to day governmental operations.

I would support a much more streamlined version of this easily. Perhaps concentration on the Council acting as an advisory to the Delegate and acting as a safeguard against a Delegate going against the Constitution but having no authorization within the RA, etc.

Your propositions fits with the gist of the other objections. I intend to make a revised proposal shortly.

 

[Gracius Maximus]

I have taken the liberty of reworking these proposals and incorporating some of the concerns listed above.

I am not a fan of creating an entity that is completely, more or less, outside of the jurisdiction of the Regional Assembly and I do not believe the Auxiliary to be necessary at all considering that exceptions can easily be made for membership on a case by case basis (FEC for example would very likely easily qualify whereas Pixiedance, if it still had influence in TNP very likely would not).

Therefore I am offering a new version. I am going to start a new thread for it as this proposal has already been discussed and never received a second to go to vote.