Proposal: Membership Administration Amendment Bill

mcmasterdonia

Just like a queef in the wind, so is life
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TNP Nation
McMasterdonia
This is a proposal by r3n. I suggested that the cabinet formally approve it before introducing the bill to the RA.

Post your approval or lack thereof here.

Membership Administration Amendment Bill

Section 6.1 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is hereby amended to read as follows,

Section 6.1: Regional Assembly Membership Act
2. Any person with an account on the regional forum and a nation in The North Pacific may apply for Regional Assembly membership, using their regional forum account, by providing the name of their nation in The North Pacific, and swearing an oath as follows:
[/b]
I, the leader of The North Pacific nation of [INSERT YOUR TNP NATION], pledge loyalty to The North Pacific, obedience to her laws, and responsible action as a member of her society. I pledge to only register one nation to vote in The North Pacific. I pledge that no nation under my control will wage war against the North Pacific. I understand that if I break this oath I may permanently lose my voting privileges. In this manner, I petition the Speaker for membership in the Regional Assembly of the North Pacific.
3. A copy of the laws applicants are pledging to respect must be available to them at all times.
4. An application for Regional Assembly membership is invalidated if at any time during the application process the nation in The North Pacific declared in it is no longer in the region.
5. The Delegate may block any application for Regional Assembly membership. The Regional Assembly may override such a decision by a majority vote.
6. The Speaker will accept applicants with valid applications who are verified by forum administration not to be using a proxy or evading a judicially-imposed penalty; and either have not had their application blocked by the Delegate, or such a block has been overridden by the Regional Assembly.

7. If the applicant does not fail verification or have their application blocked within 14 days, they will be automatically accepted to the Regional Assembly.
8. Regional Assembly members may not vote in any vote which began before they were last admitted.
9. The Speaker will maintain a publicly viewable roster of Regional Assembly members.
10. The Speaker will promptly remove any Regional Assembly members whose removal is ordered by the Court, or whose nation in The North Pacific leaves or ceases to exist.
11. The Speaker will promptly remove any Regional Assembly members who fail to log in to the regional forum for over 30 consecutive days; or who have not voted for 20 consecutive days and have missed four consecutive Regional Assembly votes, as determined by the time they were commenced, and excluding election votes for all purposes under this clause.
12. Regional Assembly members that have submitted a notice of absence, in accordance with any regulations set by the Speaker, shall be exempt from the provisions of the above clause for the duration of their absence.[/b]

 
In clause 3 "respect" has been replaced with "obey" in r3n's latest draft, so you should update that! :P

Otherwise I'd fully support adding this to our legal code.
 
Meh sounds good to me.

I'm assuming the main add-on is the delegate's power to block? If you don't like that he's blocked someone you could always recall.

So yeah - I approve.
 
I assume this was drafted in response to Durk's RA application. Take a look at it down the road some, when a future delegate decides to block applicants for purely political reasons. Consider what the court will say when an aggrieved applicant claims the law is unconstitutional, and infringes on his rights.
 
This law was written quite a while ago GBM, around the time Milograd was declared PNG. This allows the RA to have oversight over the Delegates decision, and a member that was denied wouldn't necessarily have the law apply to them as they wouldn't be a citizen. Fair point though.
 
GBM, this is the Executive Council Chambers. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but last I checked you were not on the Executive Council.
 
Suggested change:

Membership Administration Amendment Bill

Section 6.1 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is hereby amended to read as follows,

Section 6.1: Regional Assembly Membership Act
2. Any person with an account on the regional forum and a nation in The North Pacific may apply for Regional Assembly membership, using their regional forum account, by providing the name of their nation in The North Pacific, and swearing an oath as follows:
I, the leader of The North Pacific nation of [INSERT YOUR TNP NATION], pledge loyalty to The North Pacific, obedience to her laws, and responsible action as a member of her society. I pledge to only register one nation to vote in The North Pacific. I pledge that no nation under my control will wage war against the North Pacific. I understand that if I break this oath I may permanently lose my voting privileges. In this manner, I petition the Speaker for membership in the Regional Assembly of the North Pacific.
3. A copy of the laws applicants are pledging to obey must be available to them at all times.
4. An application for Regional Assembly membership is invalidated if at any time during the application process the nation in The North Pacific declared in the application is no longer in the region.
5. The Delegate may, with the agreement of the Vice Delegate, block any application for Regional Assembly membership. The Regional Assembly may override such a decision by a majority vote.
6. The Speaker will accept applicants with valid applications who are verified by forum administration not to be using a proxy or evading a judicially-imposed penalty; and either have not had their application blocked, or such a block has been overridden by the Regional Assembly.
7. If the applicant does not fail verification or have their application blocked within 14 days, they will be automatically accepted to the Regional Assembly.
8. Regional Assembly members may not vote in any vote which began before they were last admitted.
9. The Speaker will maintain a publicly viewable roster of Regional Assembly members.
10. The Speaker will promptly remove any Regional Assembly members whose removal is ordered by the Court, or whose nation in The North Pacific leaves or ceases to exist.
11. The Speaker will promptly remove any Regional Assembly members who fail to log in to the regional forum for over 30 consecutive days; or who have not voted for 20 consecutive days and have missed four consecutive Regional Assembly votes, as determined by the time they were commenced, and excluding election votes for all purposes under this clause.
12. Regional Assembly members that have submitted a notice of absence, in accordance with any regulations set by the Speaker, shall be exempt from the provisions of the above clause for the duration of their absence.
 
Here is our reasoning for this bill:

Currently there are very limited legal means for denying a Regional Assembly application. This became apparent in the recent application of King Durk the Awesome: several members noticed there that, even if TNP wanted to deny the application, this would only be possible if he were proxying or a judicial penalty were in place. We believe that it is necessary to expand the means available and allow the Executive to block applications, for instance in the case of individuals that have been declared PNG and for other security related matters.

This bill introduces the possibility of a Regional Assembly application being blocked by the joint decision of the Delegate and Vice Delegate. The reasons for this joint approval system are twofold. First, allowing the Delegate alone to be able to block applications at discretion would be very prone to abuse; indeed a Delegate could start blocking applications for political reasons, say around election time. The need to also secure the approval of the Vice Delegate to exercise this power ameliorates this risk. Second, involving the Vice Delegate in the process brings in the perspective of the Security Council, the body entrusted with the security of the region. Sharing the authority to block applications between the Delegate and Vice Delegate works as both a stringent check of power and a way to more effectively counter security risks to the region.

It is important that we maintain The North Pacific an open, democratic, and transparent region. For this reason, we have made allowances for the democratic control on the joint Delegate-Vice Delegate authority in this matter. Under the proposed bill, ultimate control of Regional Assembly applications remains in the hands of the Regional Assembly at large. This is achieved by a mechanism similar to the method used to check upon the Delegate’s power to veto legislation: the Regional Assembly may override a block on an application by a majority vote.

We believe that the bill enhances the mechanisms we have available to reinforce our sovereignty and maintain the region and the Regional Assembly secure. The proposed mechanism ensures that this is done in a way resistant to abuse and under strict democratic control. In the end, a person is denied membership in our Assembly only if doing so is viewed as acceptable by a democratic majority of our members.
 
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