Defining terms

As a consequence of the ongoing debate over the region's vote in the World Assembly as cast by the Delegate, it's become apparent that some basic legislation to define terms of law used in TNP is needed.

It's also needed to overrule an unfortunate element of the Court's recent decision on the Council of Five policy that had the effect of reducing the rights and liberty of all of those who live in TNP as residents and members of the regional community.

This draft does two things: First, it is an attempt to convert into legislative language suitable for codification, the definition of residency contained in the Court opinion on residency and forum administration issued a couple of years ago.

Second, it reverses the limitation on the meaning of "governmental authorities of the region" as used in the Bill of Rights and reinstates the broad meaning that phrase is intended to convey.

This is only a draft and if others see a way to condense it further, please post those suggestions.

A bill to create a Chapter 9 of the Legal Code and providing for general definitions of residency, citizenship, and governmental authorities in the legal documents of The North Pacific:

Chapter 9 General Declarations

This chapter will include laws that uniformly apply to all of the fundamental laws and institutions of The North Pacific.

Section 9.1. Residency and Citizenship.

1. Residency in The North Pacific (as opposed to any other region) includes any Nation who intends to reside within The North Pacific and be a part of the regional society; who conduct their in-game and off-site activity as a part of The North Pacific; and who identify with The North Pacific as their home region.
2. A Nation that enters The North Pacific as a representative or agent of some other region at Nationstates.net or a multi-regional organization, or post as a out-of-region solicitor on the regional message board at Nationstates.net, lack the intention to become a resident.
3. A Nation that departs The North Pacific at Nationstates.net with the intention to return and resume residency and is acting for or at the request of the governmental authorities of The North Pacific has not abandoned their residency.
4. Citizenship in The North Pacific requires residency in The North Pacific. Citizenship may be further declared by registration on the regional forums, or by joining the Regional Assembly or the North Pacific Army.
5. A Nation may abandon their residency, and citizenship, in The North Pacific by departing The North Pacific at nationstates.net or by formally renouncing their residency or citizenship, or allowing that Nation to cease to exist.

Section 9.2. Governmental authorities
1. "Governmental authorities" refers to, without limitation, any institution, office or position of The North Pacific established under the Constitution or the Legal Code.

fixed typo.
 
Blue Wolf II:
ITT: Gross complains that the Court is evil because they make ruling he doesn't agree with.
I don't see a problem with making changes to the law in response to a Court ruling on the law. While I certainly stand by our decision as a court, I feel that the laws as they are need a bit of changing.
 
Funkadelia:
Blue Wolf II:
ITT: Gross complains that the Court is evil because they make ruling he doesn't agree with.
I don't see a problem with making changes to the law in response to a Court ruling on the law. While I certainly stand by our decision as a court, I feel that the laws as they are need a bit of changing.
:agree:
 
I have been clear that I believe the Court's decision was wrong on that point. This is no different that the problem the Court kept creating about abstentions; legislation was required twice to fix that problem.

Blue Wolf you're just against it because I proposed it. Fine, Now ignore the thread so some real work can get done without you spamming this thread like you do every other thread I post in.
 
I like this legislation, however I have a problem with point 1:

1. Residency in The North Pacific (as opposed to any other region) includes any Nation who intends to reside within The North Pacific and be a part of the regional society; who conduct their in-game and off-site activity as a part of The North Pacific; and who identify with The North Pacific as their home region.

My home region is Carta, where my main forum account resides, and reminds me of my pre-gameplay links. TNP, whilst I'm sure it is a home for some, is not my home. It is a region I regard fondly and have great liking for, but it is not my home.
 
madjack:
I like this legislation, however I have a problem with point 1:

1. Residency in The North Pacific (as opposed to any other region) includes any Nation who intends to reside within The North Pacific and be a part of the regional society; who conduct their in-game and off-site activity as a part of The North Pacific; and who identify with The North Pacific as their home region.

My home region is Carta, where my main forum account resides, and reminds me of my pre-gameplay links. TNP, whilst I'm sure it is a home for some, is not my home. It is a region I regard fondly and have great liking for, but it is not my home.
Then why are you a member of the Regional Assembly?
 
Eluvatar:
madjack:
I like this legislation, however I have a problem with point 1:

1. Residency in The North Pacific (as opposed to any other region) includes any Nation who intends to reside within The North Pacific and be a part of the regional society; who conduct their in-game and off-site activity as a part of The North Pacific; and who identify with The North Pacific as their home region.

My home region is Carta, where my main forum account resides, and reminds me of my pre-gameplay links. TNP, whilst I'm sure it is a home for some, is not my home. It is a region I regard fondly and have great liking for, but it is not my home.
Then why are you a member of the Regional Assembly?
Same reason somebody like me is - I want to be involved in TNP, I enjoy it as a region, and I've got no problem comitting to it as a region but you don't have to think of somewhere as -home- to want to be heavily involved. Right now, I don't feel that I have a NS home - TNP is probably the closest you can get - should I be involved nowhere because of that?

2. A Nation that enters The North Pacific as a representative or agent of some other region at Nationstates.net or a multi-regional organization, or post as a out-of-region solicitor on the regional message board at Nationstates.net, lack the intention to become a resident.
This doesn't quite make sense, to me at least. I think the following would be better:
2. A Nation that enters The North Pacific as a representative or agent of some other region at Nationstates.net or a multi-regional organization:
(pretty much just grammatical changes).

Also, typo in 5. (missing the final s in Nationstates)

Not 100% convinced that this is neccesary but I can see the benefit in it in light of the Court's decision.
 
Eluvatar:
madjack:
I like this legislation, however I have a problem with point 1:

1. Residency in The North Pacific (as opposed to any other region) includes any Nation who intends to reside within The North Pacific and be a part of the regional society; who conduct their in-game and off-site activity as a part of The North Pacific; and who identify with The North Pacific as their home region.

My home region is Carta, where my main forum account resides, and reminds me of my pre-gameplay links. TNP, whilst I'm sure it is a home for some, is not my home. It is a region I regard fondly and have great liking for, but it is not my home.
Then why are you a member of the Regional Assembly?
Because I'm here to subvert your democracy and coup the region clearly. :eyeroll:
 
madjack:
I like this legislation, however I have a problem with point 1:

1. Residency in The North Pacific (as opposed to any other region) includes any Nation who intends to reside within The North Pacific and be a part of the regional society; who conduct their in-game and off-site activity as a part of The North Pacific; and who identify with The North Pacific as their home region.

My home region is Carta, where my main forum account resides, and reminds me of my pre-gameplay links. TNP, whilst I'm sure it is a home for some, is not my home. It is a region I regard fondly and have great liking for, but it is not my home.
I have to agree with Madjack on this. While I should be neutral as speaker, I'd like to have my say here;

TNP is certainly important to me, and I am just as loyal to it as to my home region, but that is not the same as my identifying with it as my home region. Nysa would be the region I identify with as 'home' on NS, and that is because its where I started out before I became engaged in gameplay.
 
As to the clause 2 question raised by Abbey, the only change that I see is that you want to add "required" as an adjective to "intent" in the last phrase.

I followed the language of the Court's opinion on the topic two years ago and tried to condense and not add to it. I'm not sure there's a material difference between "intent to become a resident" and "required intent to become a resident." Feedback, anyone?

As to the typo in clause 5, fixed.
 
Kingborough and madjack, the source of the definition I'm using (the Court opinion) used the "who identify with The North Pacific as their home region" language, so it's been the definition TNP has been using as the definition of residency that warrants protection of the Bill of Rights, in other words, citizenship.

Whose to say you might not actually have two home regions? People might consider one place their "homeland" but another place as their "home," and I see both of you fitting within that sort of situation.
 
I think the confusion was coming from the idea that one's "home region" might not be described as TNP. I, for example, have just a puppet residing here instead of my main, so while this is the "home region" for my puppet, it isn't my main's "home region".
 
The fundamental problem with that wording is that it means different things to different people. I could conceivably think of TNP as a home but that's not really how I think. I feel that I should have one region who I feel a particular emotional attachment to as my home and not label other regions - perhaps as a main region.
 
Eluvatar:
I definitely agree that one can have more than one home.

To say TNP isn't home though... o_0
If TNP counts as a 'home' then it's one of the least welcoming and open homes I've ever come across.
 
Yes and that's a problem. I appreciate TNP's history but that very same history is what causes a lot of the problems, chief among which is a government that doesn't trust it's citizens, and a legal code that assumes citizens have something to hide.
 
Yes and that's a problem. I appreciate TNP's history but that very same history is what causes a lot of the problems, chief among which is a government that doesn't trust it's citizens, and a legal code that assumes citizens have something to hide.

Guess what, that is the way democracies work in RL, and I fail to see how that leads to either consequence that you claim. You are making overly broad generalizations and I suspect a lot of us here would be offended by those statements.
 
Grosseschnauzer:
Yes and that's a problem. I appreciate TNP's history but that very same history is what causes a lot of the problems, chief among which is a government that doesn't trust it's citizens, and a legal code that assumes citizens have something to hide.

Guess what, that is the way democracies work in RL, and I fail to see how that leads to either consequence that you claim. You are making overly broad generalizations and I suspect a lot of us here would be offended by those statements.
And that's why Republics are superior to Democracies when you get right down to it.
 
Blue Wolf II:
ITT: Gross complains that the Court is evil because they make ruling he doesn't agree with.
tbh, it was clearly an interception and you called it a touchdown.
 
@Grosseschnauzer, while that may be assumed as the intent of the bill that is a serious loophole that I can see as very easy to exploit should anyone ever wish to exclude cosmopolitian players from TNP.
 
@Kingborough, I'm not following your train of thought or to whom you are referring. And I moved the definitive draft of this bill to a different thread since this was a commenting input type of thread, and no one has really offered anything that would prompt changes.
Maybe you can clarify your comment in the other, newer thread?
 
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