Addition of Contempt of Court to the Legal Code

I propose that the following two things be added to the legal code:

Section 1.8. Contempt of Court
20. "Contempt of Court" is defined as gross disruption or breach of decorum in the Court as decided by the Chief Justice and/or any other presiding Court officer.

Note: This bill will also switch the following section to 1.9 and the item under it to 21.

9. Contempt of Court will be punished by the suspension of speech and/or voting rights for a duration inside 7 days that the Court sees fit.

I believe that causing disturbances in the Court area should have sufficient legal repercussions. If we do, I believe the amount of spam in the court will be cut down and those who do grossly break quorum will see their rightful punishment as it is a serious issue, I do believe. I am certainly willing to change the wording of the bill within reason.
 
9. Contempt of Court will be punished by the suspension of speech and/or voting rights for whatever finite duration the Court sees fit.

Is a bit too broad in scope. Finite could me one day or once century.
 
Roman, that's how other crimes' punishments are defined in the legal code as well. I'm not looking to redefine all of them, and I believe it is the rightful job of the court to decide these things.
 
Indeed. There's never been a problem with it before.

There is also the implied right in the Bill of Rights to be free from excessive punishments and that would cover that.
 
Seeing a motion and a second, this will go to vote in ~24 hours.

EDIT: I will entertain motions from the proposal author to delay the vote, if desired.
 
I won't go as far as to say that the Court couldn't deal with it, but it definitely helps. Got my support.
 
The punishment clause is too broad. Speech rights in the court, the government, all forums? That leaves way too much vague and indefinite.
 
Where to even begin. While necessary procedurally, the net impact of this law will be that, if a questionable action occurs within a trial, the Court will have to ask the AG to file charges and open a new trial against the alleged violator. This will necessitate halting the original trial, as a defendant is entitled to have a person represent him and the legal question of whether or not the person whom they have chosen, or they themself (if they allegedly were in contempt) impacts the course of that trial in a substantive. way. So you'll get trials within trials, and everything but the innermost trial will have to wait, while our minimum 2 weeks long trial process proceeds.

I would propose an alternative approach, in which contempt of court is not criminalized but is merely a procedural issue, and in which power is given to the Courts to, at their discretion, suspend the advocacy rights of an individual for some limited period. So if, for example, I called Sanctaria a blowhard douchecannon in the middle of a trial, he could hold me in contempt and I would be barred from serving as an advocate (not convicted of a crime, mind you, so no trial necessary) for some set period. It needs to be discretionary and procedural, not criminal.

Since people already seem to think this is a good idea, perhaps pictures will explain it better. Imagine that each frame is a trial, within a trial, within a trial, and only the innermost one can actually proceed. That's the very real possibility created by this legislation.

recursionagain.jpg


Can any of us say we really want this? I implore its proposer to withdraw this from the floor until proper law can be written which permits the result without utterly destroying the barely-functional court system we have today.

Oh, also, this drifts very close to falling afoul of the bill of rights, which places no conditions on who may represent an accused party in a trial. We'd probably have to amend the BoR to make this constitutional - to say "you may be represented by any nation in good standing in the eyes of the Court."

Edit: Oh, also the complete lack of a definition functionally equates to this branch delegating lawmaking authority to the Judiciary by allowing it to define what is and is not contempt with no guidelines. They could insist that proper decorum is victorian third-person roleplay, under this law, and you'd be a criminal if you didn't do that. That's crazy, but very possible under this law. Hell, I'd do it if I were a Justice. That shit would be *hilarious*.

Seriously, people. Put goddamn definitions in your laws. I know it's complicated, but clear definitions keep us out of the clusterfuck we have right now regarding elections. DEFINE YOUR SHIT!
 
I retract the motion to bring it to vote. I simply did it because whenever I do that to a bill I have proposed it gives it a little kick in the ass as far as discussion on it goes. I realized afterwards that it would have to be a little more complicated. Specifically, I meant for it to be a charge that could simply be added onto the already standing case. I will rewrite it accordingly, and would appreciate it if someone decided to help. I quite honestly did not mean for it to have the effects it would have had.
 
Official motions are not recommended ways to kick-start discussion. Might I suggest that next time, you simply solicit advice from assembly members you know or respect, and ask them to post their analysis in the thread?
 
You are correct. There is obvious advantage to moving one's proposal to vote with the intention of withdrawing it quickly after more debate is had.

I will consider adjustments to my policies on how proposals move to vote with the intention of making such a practice unnecessary.

Sorry for the threadjack.
 
I agree that the Court should be able to suspend posting rights within the Court as a procedural issue, rather than having a criminal contempt charge. We may wish to consider a criminal charge that can be bought against repeat offenders (something like obstruction of justice), but it probably isn't necessary.

I suggest that any procedure for removing posting privileges in the Court should require at least one warning to be issued before action can be taken.
 
Funkadelia:
I tried that. I brought it up a few times in fact. No one listened. When I moved for it to vote, magically I got a bunch of posts. I just look at the statistics.
Sorry - I was probably drunk.
 
I thought about this even more. How would 'contempt of court' be 'punished' without violating anyone's rights (especially a defendant's)?

One solution to holding someone in contempt of court could be to simply apply the standing moderation rules. Another solution is to treat contempt of court (such as the defendant telling the court to kiss his arse, etc.,,, in a way that makes it impossible to conduct a trial) as the equivalent of declaring one's right to non-incrimination and then simply disregarding the statements prior to and hither to.

In that way, you only affect the contemptuous behavior in the court section of the forum. If it spills over elsewhere in a clearly unacceptable way, then it becomes a moderation issue that can literally put a hold on legal procedures until the contempt is mitigated.
 
As this proposal was introduced under the old procedures, it will continue under them (a motion to vote and second from any members will prompt me to schedule a vote.) I will, however, entertain motions from the member who introduced the proposal to close this thread and allow them to open a new one under the new procedures (a motion to vote from the author triggers Formal Debate, lasting up to five days, after which it enters the queue, and must be seconded within two days for a vote to be scheduled.)
 
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