The MOAB Act

[Cretox]

The Military Operations and Authorisation Betterment (MOAB) Act.

I have become increasingly convinced that the amendment to Section 7 of the Legal Code recently passed by the RA does not, in fact, return the NPA to its status quo prior to the decision in this request for review. This decision is as follows (specific parts bolded):

The Court finds that an NPA Policy that would allow the NPA to support raids that engage in acts prohibited by Section 7.6 of the Legal Code would put the NPA in violation of The North Pacific's Legal Code.

Section 7 Subsection 6 Clauses 32 & 33 are designed specifically to limit the harmful impact that the NPA can have while deployed in foreign regions. As such the Court finds that not being in control of operation does not shield the NPA from the limitations placed on it by the Regional Assembly through The North Pacific's Legal Code.

While The North Pacific's Legal Code can not directly tell foreign military forces, organizations, & regions how to conduct operations, but the NPA clearly falls under the jurisdiction of The North Pacific's Legal Code and if the actions would be a violation of the Legal Code for a member of the NPA to commit then the NPA can not passively or actively support the violations that occur without itself being in violation of 7.6.32 and/or 7.6.33. Clauses 32 and 33 of Section 7.6 have clearly defined exemption requirements set by the Regional Assembly and those must be respected by the NPA.

The only substantive change made by the recently passed amendment is to change "The North Pacific Army" to "members of The North Pacific Army" in the proposed clauses 33 and 34, as follows:

33. When deployed in a foreign region, members of The North Pacific Army will refrain from excessive use of force including altering the regions chosen embassy list or password protecting the region. Before leaving, The North Pacific Army must provide natives with the means to restore the region to its original state. Exceptions to this clause must be publicly authorised by the Delegate when it is in the best interests of The North Pacific or its allies.
34. When deployed in a foreign region, members of The North Pacific Army will refrain from causing permanent harm to the region, including forcibly remove natives or refounding the region. Exceptions to this clause must be publicly authorised by the Delegate when it is in the best interests of The North Pacific or its allies, subject to the approval of the Regional Assembly by a majority vote or pursuant to a declaration of war.

This amendment does not restore the pre-request for review status quo; indeed, the Court's decision in the relevant request for review explicitly referred to "a member" of the NPA when stating that foreign violations of the relevant provisions of the Legal Code cannot legally be supported without an authorized exception. The main effect of this amendment, should it be signed into law, will be to explicitly make individual members of the NPA legally culpable for supporting these violations, instead of the NPA as a whole. As I've said previously, I believe that any law governing our region's military or security must be written clearly and unambiguously. I say that we put this matter to rest once and for all, and make some other improvements while we're at it.

I propose the following amendment to the Legal Code:

Section 7.6 of the Legal Code shall be amended as follows:

31. The Executive Officer charged with military affairs will endeavour to maintain an active and well trained military, capable of executing both offensive and defensive operations.
32. This military will be known as the North Pacific Army.
33. The North Pacific Army will maintain a polite and professional public attitude towards the natives of foreign regions that the North Pacific Army is deployed to.
34. When deployed in a foreign region, the North Pacific Army will refrain from directly applying a password to the region or otherwise directly using excessive force in the context of the region.
35. Prior to withdrawing from a region, the North Pacific Army must provide natives with the means to restore the region to its last native-determined state.
36. The Delegate may authorise specific exceptions to clauses 34 and 35. These exceptions must be publicly authorised, and must serve the interests of The North Pacific or its allies.
37. The North Pacific Army will refrain from directly removing natives of foreign regions it is deployed to by force or otherwise directly inflicting permanent harm to a foreign region it is deployed to.
38. The North Pacific Army will refrain from directly engaging in the refounding of foreign regions it is deployed to.
39. The Delegate may authorise specific exceptions to clauses 37 and 38. These exceptions must be publicly authorised, must serve the interests of The North Pacific or its allies, and must be approved by a majority vote of the Regional Assembly or provided for by a declaration of war.
40. Members of the North Pacific Army will not be held legally culpable for violating any part of this section of the Legal Code when explicitly instructed to do so by an otherwise valid order from a superior.
41. Any member of the North Pacific Army may refuse to take part in any mission which is not pertinent to regional security for any reason that is deemed appropriate by the Delegate or the Executive Officer charged with military affairs.
42. The Regional Assembly must be promptly informed of all military operations upon deployment, with the exception of operations which the Delegate specifically classifies. The Regional Assembly must be promptly informed of any classified operation, as well as the reasons for the classification, as soon as possible following deployment.
43. The North Pacific Army must promptly withdraw from any operation that the Regional Assembly cancels by majority vote. Where an operation is cancelled, the North Pacific Army must take reasonable steps to restore or to provide natives with the means to restore any region targeted by the operation to its last native-determined state.
44. Nations wishing to join the North Pacific Army must swear the following oath before being enlisted. All military rules that they are pledging to obey must be publicly visible.

By my honour and by my conscience, I will endeavour to be a trustworthy and faithful soldier of the North Pacific Army. In peace and in war, I will support and defend The North Pacific and its legal system of government. If I perceive or gain knowledge of activity to overthrow the legal government of the region, I will report it to the Security Council without delay. I promise to act properly and uprightly, to obey the lawful orders of the Delegate and my superiors, to comply with the law and all military rules, and to keep the military secrets trusted in me. Should I be given a position of military leadership, I will endeavour to set a good and encouraging example to my subordinates. When deployed, I will be mindful that my actions reflect on my region, and endeavour to represent The North Pacific with honour and dignity. I swear all this freely and without reservation.

Spoiler: Markup

31. The executive officer charged with military affairs will endeavour to maintain an active and well trained military, capable of executing both offensive and defensive operations.
32. This military will be known as the North Pacific Army.
33. The North Pacific Army will maintain a polite and professional public attitude towards the natives of foreign regions that the North Pacific Army is deployed to.
34. When deployed in a foreign region, the North Pacific Army will refrain from directly applying a password to the region or otherwise directly using excessive force in the context of the region.
35. Prior to withdrawing from a region, the North Pacific Army must provide natives with the means to restore the region to its last native-determined state.
36. The Delegate may authorise specific exceptions to clauses 34 and 35. These exceptions must be publicly authorised, and must serve the interests of The North Pacific or its allies.
37. The North Pacific Army will refrain from directly removing natives of foreign regions it is deployed to by force or otherwise directly inflicting permanent harm to a foreign region it is deployed to.
38. The North Pacific Army will refrain from directly engaging in the refounding of foreign regions it is deployed to.
39. The Delegate may authorise specific exceptions to clauses 37 and 38. These exceptions must be publicly authorised, must serve the interests of The North Pacific or its allies, and must be approved by a majority vote of the Regional Assembly or provided for by a declaration of war.
40. Members of the North Pacific Army will not be held legally culpable for violating any part of this section of the Legal Code when explicitly instructed to do so by an otherwise valid order from a superior.
32. When deployed in a foreign region, The North Pacific Army will act with respect towards the natives of the region, and refrain from excessive use of force including altering the regions chosen embassy list or password protecting the region. Before leaving, The North Pacific Army must provide natives with the means to restore the region to its original state. Exceptions to this clause must be publicly authorised by the Delegate when it is in the best interests of The North Pacific or its allies.
33. When deployed in a foreign region, The North Pacific Army will refrain from causing permanent harm to the region, including forcibly remove natives or refounding the region. Exceptions to this clause must be publicly authorised by the Delegate when it is in the best interests of The North Pacific or its allies, subject to the approval of the Regional Assembly by a majority vote or pursuant to a declaration of war.
34. 41. Any member of the North Pacific Army may refuse to take part in any mission which does not directly impact is not pertinent to regional security for any reason that is deemed appropriate by the Delegate or the Executive Officer charged with military affairs.
35. 42. The Regional Assembly must be promptly informed of all military operations upon deployment, with the exception of operations which the Delegate specifically classifies. The Regional Assembly must be promptly informed of any classified operation, as well as the reasons for the classification, as soon as possible following deployment.
36. 43. The North Pacific Army must promptly withdraw from any operation that the Regional Assembly cancels by majority vote. Where an operation is cancelled, the North Pacific Army must take reasonable steps to restore or to provide natives with the means to restore any region subject to the operation targeted by the operation to its last native-determined state.
37. 44. Nations wishing to join the North Pacific Army must swear the following oath before being enlisted. All military rules that they are pledging to obey must be publicly visible.

By my honour and by my conscience, I will endeavour to be a trustworthy and faithful soldier of the North Pacific Army. In peace and in war, I will support and defend The North Pacific and its legal system of government. If I perceive or gain knowledge of activity to overthrow the legal government of the region, I will report it to the Security Council without delay. I promise to act properly and uprightly, to obey the lawful orders of the Delegate and my superiors, to comply with the law and all military rules, and to keep the military secrets trusted in me. Should I be given a position of military leadership, I will endeavour to set a good and encouraging example to my subordinates. When deployed, I will be mindful that my actions reflect on my region, and endeavour to represent The North Pacific with honour and dignity. I swear all this freely and without reservation.

Spoiler: Old Version

31. The executive officer charged with military affairs will endeavour to maintain an active and well trained military, capable of executing both offensive and defensive operations.

32. When deployed in a foreign region, The North Pacific Army will act with respect towards the natives of the region, and refrain from excessive use of force including altering the regions chosen embassy list or password protecting the region. Before leaving, The North Pacific Army must provide natives with the means to restore the region to its original state. Exceptions to this clause must be publicly authorised by the Delegate when it is in the best interests of The North Pacific or its allies.

33. When deployed in a foreign region, The North Pacific Army will refrain from causing permanent harm to the region, including forcibly remove natives or refounding the region. Exceptions to this clause must be publicly authorised by the Delegate when it is in the best interests of The North Pacific or its allies, subject to the approval of the Regional Assembly by a majority vote or pursuant to a declaration of war.

34. Any member of the North Pacific Army may refuse to take part in any mission which does not directly impact regional security for any reason that is deemed appropriate by the Delegate or the executive officer charged with military affairs.

35. The Regional Assembly must be promptly informed of all military operations upon deployment, with the exception of operations which the Delegate specifically classifies. The Regional Assembly must be promptly informed of any classified operation, as well as the reasons for the classification, as soon as possible following deployment.

36. The North Pacific Army must promptly withdraw from any operation that the Regional Assembly cancels by majority vote. Where an operation is cancelled, the North Pacific Army must take reasonable steps to restore or to provide natives with the means to restore any region subject to the operation.

37. Nations wishing to join the North Pacific Army must swear the following oath before being enlisted. All military rules that they are pledging to obey must be publicly visible.

By my honour and by my conscience, I will endeavour to be a trustworthy and faithful soldier of the North Pacific Army. In peace and in war, I will support and defend The North Pacific and its legal system of government. If I perceive or gain knowledge of activity to overthrow the legal government of the region, I will report it to the Security Council without delay. I promise to act properly and uprightly, to obey the lawful orders of the Delegate and my superiors, to comply with the law and all military rules, and to keep the military secrets trusted in me. Should I be given a position of military leadership, I will endeavour to set a good and encouraging example to my subordinates. When deployed, I will be mindful that my actions reflect on my region, and endeavour to represent The North Pacific with honour and dignity. I swear all this freely and without reservation.

Capitalization changes are not marked up. The old version used is the current version used. If the recently passed amendment to this section of the Legal Code isn't vetoed within the relevant time limit, I'll update the relevant sections of this post with the new version of the Legal Code.

Effects:

1. Allows the NPA to engage in the offensive operations it was previously capable of engaging in, so long as NPAers are not the ones directly engaging in certain actions (like ejecting natives without authorization). AKA this restores the prior status quo in this regard.
2. Removes the general ban on NPAers from directly altering regions' embassy lists (can be made explicit if beneficial).
3. Introduces clause 40: NPAers will explicitly not be legally culpable for obeying unlawful orders.

Additionally, this amendment clears up capitalization and wording discrepancies.

My main question: should this amendment explicitly permit the NPA to directly alter embassy lists?

 

[Cretox]

Reserved.

 

[9003]

The Delegate may authorise specific exceptions to clauses 34 and 35. These exceptions must be publicly authorised, and must serve the interests of The North Pacific or its allies.

Section 33 seems ambiguous and unnecessary as the other sections outline what we can and can't do
It could be considered rude to close embassys.

It's also not very polite to say hello we are here now and we control your region tag refound or fash bash the natives don't want us there and we're not being very polite being there.
If this needs to stay it should be included in the above quoted one for the ability to do fash bashes as those aren't polite to said natives.

All in all I don't like clause 33 very much.


Clause 40 outright saying the member is not culpiable it should say the explicitly that the person giving the order is legally culpiable otherwise you have a wonkey chain of command issue. Who do you blame all of HC for an officers mistake or do you just blame the MoD. The current clause just spells out that the member is not at fault for following orders.

 

[Rom]

Hm I actually rather like this from the skimming through this - I can give more detailed thoughts later, but definitely seems like something I would support ~

 

[Wonderess]

So is the point then to allow the NPA to take part in any military action it wants while side stepping the legal limitations by letting some other entity or military make the alterations to the raided region?

 

[QuietDad]

One of the things in being an Independent army is the NPA both defends and raids.
As raiders, our ops have always been to provide a copy of the old WFE and flag to a native, spoil them on the WFE itself or the RMB and we don't modify tags or embassies and we don't eject anyone.
As Defenders/Liberators We restore the WFE and flag and by the the object of defending, we remove tags and embassies created by raiders and eject KNOWN raiders from the region.
General rules can't cover both. Can't just say we never do or don't do anything.

As far as the incident that started all this, the NPA has always (Well, maybe most of the time) has always followed the rules of army leading the op. When we point or are made RO, we follow our rules, when wearejust there, we stay off the RMB. This all came about from an op we were in "broke ourlaws" but no NPA soldier did. I'm not sure we need MORE legislation to continue not doing anything and in someways hampers developing relationships with other armies that get annoyed when they ask if we want to join/help them, we say"Sure, but this is how it's going to be". We certainly would respond to someone pulling on us with "Well, then maybe next time"

 

[St George]

I can't support this whilst applying a password is solely at the discretion of a delegate authorisation. That should be something that's RA-authorised.

 

[Venicea]

Clauses 37 and 38 should be merged into 34, under the definition of "excessive force" which should explicitly include "altering the regions chosen embassy list" as it was in the old version. Clause 39 would be removed and Clause 36 should be changed in order to make all exceptions to clause 34 RA-authorised. The Delegate should not have the power to password protect a region without the RA's approval.

 

[mcmasterdonia]

I prefer the current wording. Some of these clauses are simply a step backwards from the last major rewrite. I will not sign this bill.

To elaborate, you've essentially taken two sections that are quite deliberately clear and grouped together, and instead stepped them out into multiple clauses with additional vague language to complicate matters.

Clause 32 - Why is this there? It is pretty clear what it is called.
Clause 33 - This is leaving a lot open to judicial discretion. What is a polite and professional attitude?
Clause 34 and 35 - why are these separate? Apply again.

What we are seeing above is an additional requirement for multiple exceptions to be applied for multiple sections of the law. We've gone from two exception categories, that quite clearly are covering different levels of damage to a regional community, to four, where this is less clear why that is required. So not only is this amendment more vague which will actually open us up to further issues with the judiciary, not less, it is also unnecessarily onerous and restrictive from an operational standpoint.

In relation to clause 40, we are essentially seeing that NPA members are exempt from actually violating this section... So in other words, only the MoD or equivalent can be held to be culpable. Theoretically this might make sense, but realistically, our NPA members being mindful of what the law is, was a clear reason why we have a military that is so professional when operating abroad. It is also why we have seen officers and other soldiers holding leadership accountable when operations are clearly moving into a grey area. I don't think this is the right way to fix the problem.

 

[Comfed]

This is overly complicated.

33. The North Pacific Army will maintain a polite and professional public attitude towards the natives of foreign regions that the North Pacific Army is deployed to.
34. When deployed in a foreign region, the North Pacific Army will refrain from directly applying a password to the region or otherwise directly using excessive force in the context of the region.
35. Prior to withdrawing from a region, the North Pacific Army must provide natives with the means to restore the region to its last native-determined state.
[...]
37. The North Pacific Army will refrain from directly removing natives of foreign regions it is deployed to by force or otherwise directly inflicting permanent harm to a foreign region it is deployed to.
38. The North Pacific Army will refrain from directly engaging in the refounding of foreign regions it is deployed to.

Remove 38, it’s covered by 37 (removing natives + permanent damage)
Merge 34 with 37, the separation is weird because they amount to close to the same thing.
Either remove or modify 33 - it’s too vague.

 

[Bobberino]

This has my support. Returning to the status quo pre-r4r and tagging embassy authority is something we've needed for a long time.

 

[Koopa103]

Anything that allows the NPA to return to its pre-r4r state is something I will support, and this bill appears to do it.