For Cabinet preview: Attorney General Amendment Act

r3naissanc3r

r3naissanc3r

TNPer
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Attorney General Amendment Act

1. Article 4, Section 2 of the Constitution of The North Pacific is hereby amended to read as follows,
2. The Attorney General will have discretion to manage the prosecution of all criminal cases brought before the Court, save those outlined below, and will also act as a legal advisor to the Delegate, and the Executive, of The North Pacific upon request.
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2. Article 4, Section 3 of the Constitution of The North Pacific is hereby amended to read as follows,
3. The Attorney General shall not be involved in the prosecution of any criminal case in which they are a defendant, a defense attorney, or a witness.
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3. Chapter 6, Section 6.7 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is hereby amended to read as follows,
Section 6.7: The Attorney General
33. The election for the office of Attorney General shall be held during the Judicial Cycle.
34. Any deputy appointed by the Attorney General may not serve concurrently as either a Justice or a Temporary Hearing Officer.
35. The Attorney General shall have standing in all cases of judicial review brought before the Court.
36. Any person (“the complainant”) may submit a criminal complaint to the office of the Attorney General, requesting that a criminal case be brought before the Court.
37. The Attorney General may, at their discretion, manage the prosecution of any criminal case requested.
38. In the event that the Attorney General is a defendant, the defence attorney, or a witness in a criminal case, the Delegate shall appoint an existing deputy Attorney General who is not similarly party to that case. The appointed deputy Attorney General may, at their discretion, manage the prosecution of the case.
39. Failing the existence of a deputy Attorney General who is able to manage the prosecution of a case, the Delegate may act as such a deputy Attorney General for the duration of the case. If the Delegate is a defendant, the defence attorney, or a witness in the case, then the Vice Delegate may act as such a deputy Attorney General for the duration of the case.
40. It is the duty of the Attorney General, and their deputies, to see to completion of any case the management of which they have undertaken.
41. If the original Attorney General, and their deputies, are unable to see to completion a pending case before the end of their term, the successor Attorney General will take over the managing of the prosecution.
42. If the Attorney General, and their deputies, decline to manage the prosecution of a requested criminal case, then the complainant may, at their discretion, manage themselves the prosecution of the criminal case. Otherwise, they may withdraw the complaint.
43. If the complainant has not stated their intent to either manage the prosecution of the case or withdraw the complaint within 30 days of the Attorney General and their deputies declining the case, the complaint will be considered withdrawn.
44. For the purposes of this section, “managing the prosecution of a case” includes but is not limited to: submitting an indictment to the Court for the relevant charges; arguing on the acceptance or rejection of the indictment; acting as the prosecutor for the duration of all stages of the criminal trial heard for the case; representing the prosecution in any separate judicial review hearings arising from the criminal trial; and appointing, directing, and removing an attorney to act in the above capacity in their place.
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4. No part of this bill shall take effect unless all parts take effect.
 
This bill is co-authored by Sillystring and myself, with input from mcmasterdonia. It is one of two bills I intent to bring to the RA to reform our criminal law, and I a view it as an alternative to Romanoffia's civil law proposals (the two bills remove civil law jurisdiction altogether, and instead enhance the criminal law process to better deal with issues that have some elements of civil law in them).

The effect of this bill in particular is threefold. First, the Attorney General is now given discretion over which criminal complaints they choose to pursue. Second, if the Attorney General decides not to pursue the prosecution of a complaint, the original complainant have the option to prosecute the matter themselves. Finally, in both cases, the AG or complainant can choose to hire another attorney to handle the prosecution, instead of acting as prosecutors themselves. The effect of this last change is more obvious with respect to the cases the AG pursues, as in the past the AG was required to act as the chief prosecutor in all those cases.

I am submitting this bill for Cabinet preview before I bring it to the RA, which I intend to do either on Friday or Saturday. If the other Ministers approve of the bill, I would like to present it to the RA as a Cabinet-sponsored bill.
 
Thank you all for your approvals.

I was originally planning to wait until the other bill I mentioned in my second post was ready, so that I could introduce both to the RA at the same time. However, that one is going to take some to be ready, so I will go ahead and push this tonight.
 
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