On a Proposed Amendment to the Wording of the Legal Code

Conspiracy Code Cleanup Act:

Reading through the constitution and legal code of our region, I found one small area where the wording of the law may lead to complications. This area, Chapter 1, Section 1.7, is the reason I write to you fine members of the Regional Assembly today. The section, written to criminalize conspiracy, reads as follows: "'Conspiracy' is defined as planning, attempting, or helping to commit any crime under this criminal code." Now certainly, attempting or helping to commit a crime is and ought be criminal. The waters are muddied, however, when one includes planning under the definition of conspiracy. Planning can be many things. Planning might involve sending criminal plans to other nations. If this is done in such a manner as to attempt to have said plans performed, this does constitute conspiracy, and is punishable under the law. Planning, however, might simply constitute the writing of, or even thinking up, such crime plans, even as a joke. Such planning might be done perfectly innocuously, and ought not constitute a crime. In addition, I believe I speak the truth when I say our law is not intended to prosecute harmless discussion and banter, which one can in theory, under this current wording, exploit and prosecute. Therefore, I propose the wording be edited, as to protect our august legal system from difficulties which would arise in such an eventuality. My proposed wording change is to the following: "'Conspiracy' is defined as attempting or helping to commit any crime under this criminal code, or colluding towards the goal of committing such a crime." The term "colluding", I believe, covers all malignant types of planning, while leaving out harmless and non-criminal ones. If this wording is not optimal, by all means let it be written differently. I simply found the criminalization of "planning" to be somewhat of an opportunity for overreach.

The bill would change the law as follows, red areas being removed, blue areas being added:

North Central Reglion Legal Code:

Section 1.7. Conspiracy
22. "Conspiracy" is defined as planning, attempting, or helping to commit any crime under this criminal code., or colluding towards the goal of committing such a crime.

Click to expand...

I would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Looks fine to me.

"Colluding" specifically implies cooperation between various entities. This is much too specific. A good replacement for "colluding" would be "Working" or "Planning".

Not only does the proposed edit utilize bad grammar, but the implications of this grammar also impact the clause in question negatively as explained above.

I don't support this. There is no reason to make this change; certainly not one this flawed.

Thank you for your input, and I agree that colluding is perhaps not the optimal word. I would like to note, however, that you stated that your problem with the term "colluding" was that it was too specific. My goal was, in fact, to specify the word "planning", which I saw as far too general, as it could be interpreted to criminalize thoughts or speech, directly violating the second item in the Bill of Rights. "Working," might be suitable, though. Of course, if this is done, we will have to replace the phrasing of "goal of committing such a crime" with "commission of such a crime", as the conspirator is not committing crime, but simply helping the commission of crime to take place. Does this work better for you, Syrixia?

North Central Region Legal Code:

Section 1.7. Conspiracy
22. "Conspiracy" is defined as planning, attempting, or helping to commit any crime under this criminal code., or working towards the commission of such a crime.

Click to expand...

I'd love to hear any additional thoughts.