Security Council Reform Bill

[Kondratev]

This is a verbatim copy of the bill which was in formal debate but was scrapped after the sponsor lost citizenship.

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I believe the current minimum requirements for Security Council endorsements should be raised. As the current law stands, only 300 endorsements are required for membership. Every current member of the Security Council has over 500 endorsements and an SPDR exceeding 200,000.

The following is the Security Council Reform Bill:

1. Section 5.1 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is hereby amended to read as follows:

4. The influence requirement for members of the Council consists of an influence score (Soft Power Disbursement Rating) within The North Pacific greater than or equal to 182,500, or an influence rank within The North Pacific greater than or equal to Apprentice, whichever is lower.
5. The minimum endorsement count for members of the Council is defined as 500 endorsements, or 50 per cent of the serving Delegate's endorsement count, whichever is lower.
6. The Vice Delegate must maintain an endorsement level of at least 75 per cent of the Delegates endorsement count.
7. Where the computation results in fractions, the result will be rounded down to the nearest integer.
8. The serving Delegate is exempt from endorsement requirements.
9. The Security Council may exempt nations that have expended their influence in service to the region from any influence requirements to join the Council or to remain a member; approval will require a two-thirds majority. Exemptions granted in such a manner remain valid until the exempted nation regains the required influence level.

2. Section 5.3 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is hereby amended to read as follows:

11. Whenever any Council member fails to meet any requirements to maintain their position without being granted an exemption, the Vice Delegate must promptly warn them. If the Council member does not come into compliance within eight days of the warning, the Vice Delegate must suspend them.
12. The Vice Delegate must remove members of the Council whose member nation no longer exists, voluntarily departs The North Pacific, or resigns from the World Assembly outside the needs of a NPA sanctioned mission.
13. The Vice Delegate must report any suspension or removal of a member of the Council to the Regional Assembly.
14. If a suspended member of the Council comes back into compliance with the endorsement and influence requirements, the Vice Delegate must promptly reinstate them.
15. A majority of the Council may vote to determine that the continued membership in the Council of a member poses a security risk to The North Pacific and request approval from the Regional Assembly to remove the member from the Council.
16. The Speaker of the Regional Assembly will submit any such request to an immediate vote of the Regional Assembly; approval will require a two-thirds majority.
17. The Council may task a member with taking actions required under this chapter when the Vice Delegate is not available.
18. During any period when serving as acting Delegate, the Vice Delegate will be considered absent from the office of Vice Delegate.
19. If the Vice Delegate nation ceases to exist, voluntarily departs The North Pacific, resigns from the World Assembly, or fails to maintain an endorsement level within the range required of Council members for more than eight days, the Vice Delegate will be removed from office.

Spoiler: Annotation of changes

4. The influence requirement for members of the Council consists of an influence score (Soft Power Disbursement Rating) within The North Pacific greater than or equal to 109,500 182,500, or an influence rank within The North Pacific greater than or equal to Apprentice, whichever is lower.
5. The minimum endorsement count for members of the Council is defined as 300 500 endorsements, or 50 per cent of the serving Delegate's endorsement count, whichever is lower.
6. The Vice Delegate must maintain an endorsement level of at least 75 per cent of the Delegates endorsement count.
7. Where the computation results in fractions, the count result shall will be rounded down to the nearest integer.
8. The serving Delegate is exempt from endorsement requirements.
9. The Security Council may exempt nations that have expended their influence in service to the region from any influence requirements to join the Council or to remain a member; approval will require a two-thirds majority. Exemptions granted in such a manner remain valid until the exempted nation regains the required influence level.

11. Whenever any Council member fails to meet any requirements to maintain their position without being granted an exemption, the Vice Delegate must promptly warn them, and. iIf the Council member does not come into compliance within eight days of the warning, the Vice Delegate must suspend them.
12. The Vice Delegate must remove members of the Council whose member nation no longer exists, voluntarily departs The North Pacific, or resigns from the World Assembly outside the needs of a NPA sanctioned mission.
13. The Vice Delegate must report any suspension or removal of a member of the Council to the Regional Assembly.
14. If a suspended member of the Council comes back into compliance with the endorsement and influence requirements, the Vice Delegate will must promptly reinstate them.
15. A majority of the Council may vote to determine that the continued membership in the Council of a member poses a security risk to The North Pacific and request approval from the Regional Assembly to remove the member from the Council.
16. The Speaker of the Regional Assembly will submit the any such request to an immediate vote of the Regional Assembly; approval will require a two-thirds majority.
17. The Council may task a member with taking actions required under this chapter when the Vice Delegate is not available.
18. During any period when serving as acting Delegate, the Vice Delegate will be considered absent from the office of Vice Delegate.
19. If the Vice Delegate nation ceases to exist, voluntarily departs The North Pacific, resigns from the World Assembly, or fails to maintain an endorsement level within the range required of Council members for more than eight days, the Vice Delegate will be removed from office.

Spoiler: V3

1. Clause 4 of Section 5.1 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read:

4. The influence requirement for members of the Council consists of an influence score (Soft Power Disbursement Rating) within The North Pacific greater than or equal to 109,500 146,000, or an influence rank within The North Pacific greater than or equal to Apprentice, whichever is lower.

2. Clause 5 of Section 5.1 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read:

5. The minimum endorsement count for members of the Council is defined as 300 400 endorsements, or 50 per cent of the serving Delegate's endorsement count, whichever is lower.

3. Clause 11 of Section 5.3 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read:

11. Except in cases where a Council member must expend influence for the security of the region, Wwhenever any Council member fails to meet any requirements to maintain their position, the Vice Delegate must warn them, and if the Council member does not come into compliance within eight days of the warning, the Vice Delegate must suspend them.

Spoiler: V2

1. Clause 4 of Section 5.1 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read:

4. The influence requirement for members of the Council consists of an influence score (Soft Power Disbursement Rating) within The North Pacific greater than or equal to 109,500 182,500, or an influence rank within The North Pacific greater than or equal to Apprentice, whichever is lower.

2. Clause 5 of Section 5.1 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read:

5. The minimum endorsement count for members of the Council is defined as 300 500 endorsements, or 50 per cent of the serving Delegate's endorsement count, whichever is lower.

Spoiler: V1

1. Clause 5 of Section 5.1 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read:

5. The minimum endorsement count for members of the Council is defined as 300 500 endorsements, or 50 per cent of the serving Delegate's endorsement count, whichever is lower.

 

[Darcania]

~Never mind~

 

[SillyString]

Naturally I'd like to repropose my suggestion from the previous thread. I have taken out the various footnotes I made, but I can summarize or re-present my case for these changes if needed.

Chapter 5: Regional Security Law

1. Any laws regulating the Security Council or its activities must be listed in this chapter.
2. In this chapter, "Council" means the Security Council.
3. In this Chapter, the serving Delegate means the person holding the constitutionally-mandated elected office of Delegate or, in the case of a vacancy in that office, the person who has assumed the duties of that office.
4. Whenever any computation results in fractions, the count will be rounded down to the nearest whole integer.

Section 5.1: Requirements and Admission
5. Any person with an account on the regional forum and a nation in The North Pacific may apply to join the Council, as long as their nation satisfies any influence and endorsement requirements for membership. Any applicant who does not meet the appropriate requirements, or who ceases to meet them, is automatically rejected.
6. Security Councilors must meet the same influence and endorsement requirements during their tenure on the Council as applicants to the Council, and may be suspended or removed if they fail to do so.
7. The influence requirement is a Soft Power Disbursement Rating within The North Pacific greater than or equal to 182,500, or an influence rank within The North Pacific greater than or equal to Apprentice, whichever is lower. The endorsement requirement is at least 500, or 50 percent of the serving Delegate's endorsement count, whichever is lower.
8. By a two-thirds majority vote, the Security Council may exempt nations who have expended their influence in service to the region from any influence requirements to join the Council or to remain a member. Exemptions granted in such a manner remain valid until the exempted nation regains the required influence level.

Section 5.2: The Delegate and Vice Delegate
9. The serving Delegate is responsible for maintaining an endorsement count that exceeds that of any other nation in The North Pacific.
10. The Vice Delegate is responsible for maintaining a minimum endorsement count at least that of the WA Delegate's endorsement count, minus one-tenth of the total number of WA nations in the region.
11. If the Delegate or Vice Delegate is below this level, they must promptly act to gather sufficient endorsements to meet or exceed the requirement.
12. If the Delegate or Vice Delegate fails to meet their required endorsement level for fifteen days, or fails to meet the required endorsement level for Council members for eight days, their office will be considered vacant.
13. If the Delegate or Vice Delegate nation ceases to exist, voluntarily departs The North Pacific, or resigns from the World Assembly, their office will be considered vacant.
14. If the Vice Delegate is temporarily unavailable, the Council may task one of its members with performing the duties required under this chapter. The Council may hold a confirmation vote, but is not required to do so.
15. During any period when serving as acting Delegate, the Vice Delegate will be considered absent from the office of Vice Delegate.

Section 5.3: Suspension and Removal
16. Whenever any Council member fails to meet the influence or endorsement count requirements to maintain their position without being granted an exemption, the Vice Delegate must promptly warn them. If the Council member does not come into compliance within eight days of the warning, the Vice Delegate must suspend them.
17. The Vice Delegate must promptly remove members of the Council whose member nations no longer exist, voluntarily depart The North Pacific, or resign from the World Assembly outside the needs of a NPA sanctioned mission.
18. The Vice Delegate must report any suspension or removal of a member of the Council to the Regional Assembly.
19. If a suspended member of the Council comes back into compliance with the endorsement and influence requirements, the Vice Delegate must promptly reinstate them.
20. If a Councilor's continued membership in the Council poses a security risk to The North Pacific, the Council may, by majority vote, request that the Regional Assembly vote on removing that Council member.
21. The Speaker's Office must submit any such request from the Council to an immediate two-thirds majority vote of the Regional Assembly.

Section 5.4: Reckless Endorsement Gathering
22. The serving Delegate may eject or ban any nation in The North Pacific for reckless endorsement gathering that meets all of the following criteria:

• It is not in the Council or holding the office of Delegate or Vice Delegate.
• It has been reported to the Delegate as a possible threat to regional security by the Council.
• It has continued actively gathering endorsements after two warnings against gathering endorsements sent at least two days apart from each other.
• It has more endorsements than 50 fewer than the Vice Delegate's required minimum endorsement count, or 75 per cent of the Delegate's endorsement level, whichever is least.

21. The serving Delegate may eject or ban any nation in The North Pacific for reckless endorsement gathering that exceeds the Vice Delegate's required minimum endorsement count.
22. Nations banned for reckless endorsement gathering must remain banned at least until they update outside The North Pacific.
23. Unless a delegacy emergency is in effect, any Council member who exceeds the Vice Delegate's endorsement count while the Vice Delegate is above the required minimum for their position must stop seeking endorsements until they have fewer than the Vice Delegate.

 

[Ornge]

10. The Vice Delegate is responsible for maintaining a minimum endorsement count at least that of the WA Delegate's endorsement count, minus one-tenth of the total number of WA nations in the region.

We currently set the VD's minimum at 75%, which is currently 960 endorsements. However, this calculation doesn't always scale well - at very low endorsement levels, the VD can wind up too close to the delegate, and at very high ones, they can wind up too far apart (960 is 320 less than the delegate's current count; a sizeable gap to cover in an emergency). This new approach, on the other hand, should scale pretty well - at 100% endorsement rates, the VD would need to maintain 90% of the delegate's endorsement count, but that's an impossible maximum (currently: 1182). More realistically, at 75% endorsement rates, the VD would need 85% of the delegate's count (1088), and at 50%, the VD would need 80% (1024). Right now, with the Vice Delegate's required minimum would be about 1100 - slightly higher than the VD's current count, but not by much, and both within striking distance of the delegate if necessary, but outside of most plausible renegade military maneuvers. It would also be reasonable to tweak the relevant numbers; one-fifth instead of one-tenth would probably not be too terrible, for example; currently it would set the minimum at about 950.

a) this is the only of your changes that I feel belong in this bill, the others seem they deserve their own.

b) I would prefer something more like the influence requirement, something along the lines of "75% or the WA Delegate's endorsement count minus one-tenth of the total number of WA nations in the region, whichever is higher" to avoid needing to change again if the WA population drops drastically, despite the low probability of that happening.

11. If the Delegate or Vice Delegate is below this level, they must promptly act to gather sufficient endorsements to meet or exceed the requirement.
12. If the Delegate or Vice Delegate fails to meet their required endorsement level for fifteen days, or fails to meet the required endorsement level for Council members for eight days, their office will be considered vacant.
13. If the Delegate or Vice Delegate nation ceases to exist, voluntarily departs The North Pacific, or resigns from the World Assembly, their office will be considered vacant.

The three clauses here are other major changes - up until now, there's been very little guidance on how long newly elected officials have to actually attain their endo counts, leading to plausible interpretations of "zero time" to "indefinite". This change will give then 8 days to get to 500 (or whatever the minimum for SC members is set at), and then a further week to take their actual places. Would be fine with changing the days, if that's considered too long or not long enough. Also note that due to prior changes, the VD would not need to take *second* place outright - they would only need to get to their required minimum count. So it would not be a problem if there were still SC members above them, or if SC members sometimes exceeded their count during the VD's tenure in office.

I would like to say that I agree with this addition, but I do not believe that it belongs in this bill.

20. If a Councilor's continued membership in the Council poses a security risk to The North Pacific, the Council may, by majority vote, request that the Regional Assembly vote on removing that Council member.
21. The Speaker's Office must submit any such request from the Council to an immediate two-thirds majority vote of the Regional Assembly

This and prior clause also newly added, in case of any SC member who turns out to be a security threat. Flexible on "immediate" - thought being that presumption should be in favor of the SC's recommendation as to its own makeup, and also if the SC is ever making use of this clause it's probably going to be an emergency where speed is of the essence. If a (short) required debate period is desired instead, that should still be okay.

Again, I do not believe that it belongs in this bill, but I certainly agree with the changes and would push for them if put in their own bill.

 

[SillyString]

Mainly, I'm proposing this now to avoid us amending the SC law and then amending it again right away. It certainly addresses other areas, but I think it's more efficient to combine all the desired changes into one bill and get it all done at once. Less risk of RA burnout, I think.

Edit: Also less risk of unintentional conflict or accidentally undoing a previous change, or introducing wild swings in how we do things. Like, if we amend the SC law now to require SC members to have X endorsements/influence instead of Y, and then amend it again to require Z percentage instead, someone is going to have to keep the various alert and tracking pages updated, so it's more likely they'd be out of step with what the law says. Fewer changes is an advantage here.

 

[Ornge]

Mainly, I'm proposing this now to avoid us amending the SC law and then amending it again right away. It certainly addresses other areas, but I think it's more efficient to combine all the desired changes into one bill and get it all done at once. Less risk of RA burnout, I think.

Edit: Also less risk of unintentional conflict or accidentally undoing a previous change, or introducing wild swings in how we do things. Like, if we amend the SC law now to require SC members to have X endorsements/influence instead of Y, and then amend it again to require Z percentage instead, someone is going to have to keep the various alert and tracking pages updated, so it's more likely they'd be out of step with what the law says. Fewer changes is an advantage here.

I agree but at the same time if we put too many changes in one bill there's the chance that it will fail because people have issue with one of the changes and the rest simply becomes collateral damage. I think finding a middle ground is the best option, don't make a new bill for every individual change but to me this seems like too much for one bill. Of course I am still open to being persuaded that it will fit in one if there is an overwhelming positive response to all changes put forth.

 

[Darcania]

Well, for reference, here's this Citizen's positive response to SillyString's proposed changes.

 

[SillyString]

That's a fair point to raise, but I would argue it applies more to cases where we have a number of disparate changes we want to make and try lumping them all together - in that case, the whole bill might fail because one of the changes is opposed.

My proposal is something different: a wholesale rewrite of the Regional Security Law. Even portions of the current text which I didn't edit still got moved around into different sections, and some sections are based on or cross-reference others. Sure, there are some portions of it which could be altered without interfering with other portions, but there are some which cannot (for example, not including the exemptions portion requires editing every section that references exemptions).

Because it's a rewrite instead of a collection of edits, I do think it makes more sense to pass all together - and to rely on people raising any specific concerns before it goes to vote, so those clauses can be considered and altered if necesssary.

 

[Ornge]

So the goal would be your complete rewrite of chapter 5, + the changes from the original bill here (the increasing/scaled numbers for SC Applications) + Darc's removal of 5.4.23?

 

[SillyString]

My draft already incorporates a removal of the clause Darcania raised, and should include - though it has been a little while since I looked it over - all the changes proposed in the original version of this bill, with some of my trademarked[note][/note] edits for improved phrasing and clarity.

 

[Ornge]

I'd like to see other people weigh in on this but I feel good about adding Asta's suggestions.

 

[Midland]

I believe SillyString's version has improved the original. I see no problems as of now with it, therefore I support.

 

[Tomb]

As do I.

 

[Zyvetskistaahn]

As the proposer is no longer a citizen (and so can no longer move this proposal forward in accordance with the Rules), I shall lock this thread.

If another member wishes to carry this proposal on, they should create another thread to do so.