Bar Association of the North Pacific Act

Oracle

Oracle

The Disappointed Father
-
TNP Nation
Oracle
Discord
Hyperion#1325
An Act to address the concerns regarding the process of the AGORA Act and amend Chapter 3 of the Legal Code:

Section 1: Chapter 3 shall be amended renumber Section 3.3 to 3.4, to insert a new Section 3.3, and amend Section 3.4:
Section 3.3: Bar Association of the North Pacific
11. The Bar Association of the North Pacific will consist of any citizen in good standing appointed by the Delegate and confirmed by a majority vote of the Regional Assembly. The Bar shall consist of a maximum of ten members.
12. Any citizen may be appointed to the Bar Association. Citizens will be exempt from constitutional restrictions on holding multiple government offices for purposes of their appointment to the Bar Association.
13. The term of members of the Bar Association will be 6 months, beginning on the day they take the Oath of Office. The Delegate does not have the power to remove a member of the Bar Association.
14. The Bar Association will select a member to prosecute a pending case before the Court of the North Pacific, a member may decline to prosecute and the Bar shall select a different member.
15. The Bar Association will have the power to make rules for the selection of prosecutors.

Section 3.4: Criminal Trial Procedure
16. A standard procedure for all criminal trials will be established by majority agreement of the Court.
17. Any person may present criminal charges to the Court. If the charges are accepted, the Bar Association will appoint a prosecutor to manage the prosecution of the case.
18. Any member of the Bar Association may be appointed as a prosecutor. Members of the Bar Association will be exempt from constitutional restrictions on holding multiple government offices for purposes of their appointment as a prosecutor.
15. In the event the Bar Association is unable to appoint a prosecutor within 30 days of the acceptance of charges, the Delegate, or next available person in the Line of Succession if necessary, will appoint a prosecutor to manage the prosecution of the case with the agreement of the Speaker.
16. No one may prosecute or appoint prosecutors to a case in which they are the defendant or part of the defense.
17. If the original prosecutor is unable to see a case to completion, another prosecutor will be selected by the same procedure as the original prosecutor.
18. If the prosecutor discontinues management of the prosecution of a criminal case, then the complainant may, at their discretion, manage themselves the prosecution of the criminal case. Otherwise, they may withdraw the complaint.
19. If the complainant has not stated their intent to either manage the prosecution of the case or withdraw the complaint within 14 days of the prosecutor declining the case, the complaint will be considered withdrawn.
20. For the purposes of this section, "managing the prosecution of a case" includes but is not limited to:
  • acting as the prosecutor for the duration of all stages of the criminal trial heard for the case;
  • and representing the prosecution in any separate judicial review hearings arising from the criminal trial.
21. When the management of the prosecution of a case is completed, all records associated with that prosecution will be transferred to the Court.
Click to expand...
Section 2: The remaining sections of Chapter 3 of the Legal Code shall be renumbered in numeric order.
Section 3: Any cases currently being prosecuted when this bill is enacted will continue under the same prosecutor.



Section 3.3: Bar Association of the North Pacific
11. The Bar Association of the North Pacific will consist of any citizen in good standing appointed by the Delegate and confirmed by a majority vote of the Regional Assembly. The Bar shall consist of a maximum of ten members.
12. Any citizen may be appointed to the Bar Association. Citizens will be exempt from constitutional restrictions on holding multiple government offices for purposes of their appointment to the Bar Association.
13. The term of members of the Bar Association will be 6 months, beginning on the day they take the Oath of Office. The Delegate does not have the power to remove a member of the Bar Association.
14. The Bar Association will select a member to prosecute a pending case before the Court of the North Pacific, a member may decline to prosecute and the Bar shall select a different member.
15. The Bar Association will have the power to make rules for the selection of prosecutors.

Section 3.4: Criminal Trial Procedure
16. A standard procedure for all criminal trials will be established by majority agreement of the Court.
17. Any person may present criminal charges to the Court. If the charges are accepted, the Delegate Bar Association will appoint a prosecutor to manage the prosecution of the case. If the Delegate is the accused or unavailable, the next available person in the Line of Succession will appoint a prosecutor to manage prosecution of the case.
18. Any citizen member of the Bar Association may be appointed as a prosecutor. Citizens Members of the Bar Association will be exempt from constitutional restrictions on holding multiple government offices for purposes of their appointment as a prosecutor.
14. The designated prosecutor will be confirmed by a majority vote of the Regional Assembly. The Delegate and other officials who may have appointed a prosecutor do not have the power to remove a prosecutor.
19. In the event the Regional Assembly Bar Association is unable to appoint a prosecutor within 30 days of the acceptance of charges, the Delegate, or next available person in the Line of Succession if necessary, will appoint a prosecutor to manage the prosecution of the case with the agreement of the Speaker.
20. No one may prosecute or appoint prosecutors to a case in which they are the defendant or part of the defense.
21. If the original prosecutor is unable to see a case to completion, another prosecutor will be selected by the same procedure as the original prosecutor.
22. If the prosecutor discontinues management of the prosecution of a criminal case, then the complainant may, at their discretion, manage themselves the prosecution of the criminal case. Otherwise, they may withdraw the complaint.
23. If the complainant has not stated their intent to either manage the prosecution of the case or withdraw the complaint within 14 days of the prosecutor declining the case, the complaint will be considered withdrawn.
24. For the purposes of this section, "managing the prosecution of a case" includes but is not limited to:
  • acting as the prosecutor for the duration of all stages of the criminal trial heard for the case;
  • and representing the prosecution in any separate judicial review hearings arising from the criminal trial.
25. When the management of the prosecution of a case is completed, all records associated with that prosecution will be transferred to the Court.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I'm a little wary of defining a specific reason in which the Bar can remove another member of the Bar. No matter what, that tool could be used politically. Wouldn't it be better to just let the RA decide if a Bar member's conduct is worth recalling them for, as they already could under the constitution?
 
Last edited:
Sil Dorsett:
I'm a little wary of defining a specific reason in which the Bar can remove another member of the Bar. ...

(editing)
Click to expand...
Yes, the Regional Assembly may recall a member of the government. Line 15 gives the Bar Association the authority to also remove a member of the body for inactivity or other conduct.
 
This might have gone missed as you responded while I was editing my original post, but I'm still concerned about whether allowing the Bar Association to drop its own members could be used politically. Theoretically, it could allow the delegate to stack the Bar and then have it drop members that are unfavorable to them. Since there's no limit to the number of members, only the RA would be in the way to prevent such stacking, and only if they notice what is going on. I still don't think that line is needed. Let the RA handle removing inactive members.
 
Last edited:
A couple of things:

1) I don’t think it’s a good idea for the Bar Association to select the prosecutor. For one thing, it’d be another body that has to keep active and presumably set its own rules. I feel more comfortable with the Delegate appointing the prosecutors. I also imagine that there may be some people, like myself, who would decline membership if it meant I was regularly going to be assigned cases I didn’t want. So the bar association could be filled with people who frankly aren’t that qualified.

2) the six month term - is there a particular reason a term limit is required for a bar association? Notwithstanding the above, I think members could be appointed for life.

That’s all for now.
 
I like this idea but only as a metric for determining competency for prosecutors. In the future, delegates could pick people in the bar and the RA would know from their designation as such that they are serious and worthy candidates for the role.

It would become a source of proven and willing people and help us avoid the current difficulty in choosing prosecutors. At least, that’s the dream. I don’t think it has to do so much heavy lifting. And if the RA likes the idea, they could make membership in the bar a standing requirement for prosecutors.
 
Sil Dorsett:
This might have gone missed as you responded while I was editing my original post, but I'm still concerned about whether allowing the Bar Association to drop its own members could be used politically. Theoretically, it could allow the delegate to stack the Bar and then have it drop members that are unfavorable to them. Since there's no limit to the number of members, only the RA would be in the way to prevent such stacking, and only if they notice what is going on. I still don't think that line is needed. Let the RA handle removing inactive members.
Click to expand...
I've made some changes in regards to your concerns. I've set a maximum size of the Bar and removed the line you referenced.

mcmasterdonia:
A couple of things:

1) I don’t think it’s a good idea for the Bar Association to select the prosecutor. For one thing, it’d be another body that has to keep active and presumably set its own rules. I feel more comfortable with the Delegate appointing the prosecutors. I also imagine that there may be some people, like myself, who would decline membership if it meant I was regularly going to be assigned cases I didn’t want. So the bar association could be filled with people who frankly aren’t that qualified.

2) the six month term - is there a particular reason a term limit is required for a bar association? Notwithstanding the above, I think members could be appointed for life.

That’s all for now.
Click to expand...
1. The issue I currently have is the length of time it takes for a single prosecutor for a case to be appointed and confirmed. This will establish a pool of RA approved prosecutors to be appointed to run a criminal case. I've inserted language to A.) allow the Bar to establish a procedure for selection of a prosecutor for a case and B.) allow the selected to decline being appointed to a case.

2.) I chose 6 months to be similar to the Election Commission. This allows for the RA to reject someone being reappointed into the position who does nothing with it, or has show a level of incompetence when representing the North Pacific in trial. I am hesitant for a life-time appointment, especially with there being a maximum on the size of the bar association.

Pallaith:
I like this idea but only as a metric for determining competency for prosecutors. In the future, delegates could pick people in the bar and the RA would know from their designation as such that they are serious and worthy candidates for the role.

It would become a source of proven and willing people and help us avoid the current difficulty in choosing prosecutors. At least, that’s the dream. I don’t think it has to do so much heavy lifting. And if the RA likes the idea, they could make membership in the bar a standing requirement for prosecutors.
Click to expand...
I guess Bar ASsociation is a bit of a misleading name for this organization. The purpose of this is to establish a pool of Delegate appointed, RA Approved individuals who are easily available to be selected to prosecute a criminal case. Not so much of an organization that establishes a metric for our current method of appointing prosecutors.
 
I would probably remove the limit on members and make it a for life appointment. A for life appointment also means that someone wouldn’t need to fear not being reappointed if they handled a case a certain way, or if they opted to defend someone rather than be available for the prosecution.

I would also add that I think it would be better for the Delegate to still select the prosecutor from the pool of available options, rather than the bar association doing it themselves. Particularly given the wide variety of complexity that cases can have, such as treason cases, that discretion is a useful tool to have.
 
15. In the event the Bar Association is unable to appoint a prosecutor within 30 days of the acceptance of charges, the Delegate, or next available person in the Line of Succession if necessary, will appoint a prosecutor to manage the prosecution of the case with the agreement of the Speaker.

If the concern of this amendment is the length of time it takes to appoint a prosecutor, wouldn't it be better to lower the maximum amount of time from 30 days to (for example) 14 days?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top