Lesson 3: The Blackshear Constitution
(As Amended)
Outline
The Blackshear Constitution:
Article I - Membership
Article II - Elections and Elected Offices
Article III - The North Pacific Legal Code (How it was to be made and what it could do)
Article IV - Trials
Article V - Amendments
Article I - Membership
The Blackshear constitution established "members of The North Pacific" as those who abide by the law, do not use "force" in a "manner inconsistent with the policies of the North Pacific" and "refrain from giving assistance to any state or region against which The North Pacific is taking defensive or enforcement action" (with NPA and NPIA members excepted).
In other words, it defined members as those who accepted the sovereignty of the government and stood for Defender ideals and did not practice Region-Crashing/Invading/Raiding-- and cared to keep a nation in the North Pacific.
Article II - Elections and Elected Offices
Elections were established as occurring every 3 months, and all positions were up in each election.
- Regional Delegate: They were not elected in elections, and did not have a vote unless there was a tie. They were "elected through the UN election mechanism already in place in NationStates."
- Minister of Immigration and Internal Affairs: They were to communicate with new nations, answer questions, performing domestic intelligence, and enforcing "regional guidelines".
- Minister of External Affairs: They were to establish and maintain relations and alliances, as well as manage the Diplomatic Corps.
- Minister of Defense: They were to run every aspect of the North Pacifgic Army "for the protection of the region and its allies".
- Minister of Communications: They were to coordinate debates, UN resolution discussion, and discussions.
- Minister of Arts and Entertainment: They were to moderate Role-Playing, Games, and Out of Character forums, and "initiate and oversee activities and topics for the general entertainment of The North Pacific's member nations".
Candidates had to be members of TNP (or NPA), have been on the forum for 1 month, be elected to only 1 cabinet position, and had to appoint a deputy. If a Minister would not appoint a deputy, the Delegate had the power to appoint one.
The Minister of Justice would hold the trial of any cabinet member other than himself, who would be tried by the Delegate-- afterward, the full cabinet would vote on the verdict; a guilty verdict would result in removal from all offices.
The delegate elections held through "the UN election mechanism" did have some rules: those running for Delegate also had to meet Minister requirements, had to announce candidacy before hitting half the endorsements of the sitting delegate, and were not permitted to perform "Outright endorsement swapping or slander."
Article III - The North Pacific Legal Code
Separately from the Constitution there was a Legal Code. Bills had to be approved by the Minister of Justice, and then voted on by the members. 60% would be necessary to pass a bill, 50% to keep it from becoming "dead" and having to wait at least 1 month before revival.
Nations could be expelled from the region if found guilty of violating the laws, Constitution, or rules of NationStates. The constitution stated that "The Delegate may not expel nations without the express consent of the nations of the region by either vote or by a trial". The Delegate of Minister of Justice were empowered to call a regional vote on expulsion by the members; "explicit spamming" was exempted from the vote requirement.
It is worthy to note that as Minister of Justice, Gracius Maximus (also known as Pierconium, Ivan Moldavi, and The Minister) interpreted that the Delegate carries the "express consent of the nations of the region" by holding a great number of endorsements. The validity of this interpretation could not legally be challenged except by the Delegate and Cabinet.
Article IV - Trials
The Minister of Justice, as noted, had the power to organize trials. He was also the Prosecution. He also selected a jury of 5 out of a pool of volunteers. The Minister of Justice would announce the verdict and the Delegate would enforce it.
Article V - Amendments
Amending the Constitution was to require majority support in cabinet and the 65% approval of TNP members.
Summary
Much of the current constitution, including some of its quirks, has its origins in this document. The single most major change between constitutions was the gutting of power of the Delegate and parallel creation of the separate Prime Minister. The second change was a more separated Judiciary. The final way this constitution differs from our contemporary one is in its relative lack of verbosity.
All of these changes were caused by the history of the North Pacific civil war. Said civil war began with the driving of the Delegate by extreme strife and anguish to push the limits of their power under this constitution, using a creative Minister of Justice, and eventually abandon it entirely under the urging of that Minister. One assumes that the increased verbosity of our current constitution was intended to avoid ambiguity.
Bibliographic Information:
Again, much information was garnered from "Old Blue" or "S2".
The Rise and Fall of the NPD by Pierconium
Those with further interest in the history of the North Pacific Civil War may be interested in S4.
Please note that all of these sources can be considered biased.
