Wym for Justice 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Wymondham]

My fellow North Pacificans.

I am once again asking for your electoral support to become a Court Justice!

To those who do not yet know me, Hello! I am Wymondham, but please call me Wym. I am running for another term as Court Justice after stepping up to the plate in a special election we had a little under two months ago.

I will keep my campaign short this time as a lot of my thoughts and ideas were spelt out very recently over here. In short, if elected, I pledge to continue to push forward the ideas articulated in my previous campaign, although I have warmed somewhat on the Court Reform ideas AS has raised. I have seen nothing over the past month and a half to sway me from my strongly held belief in Judicial Restraint, and if elected, I will continue to take such an approach to cases brought before the Court.

 

[Vivanco]

What is the Court's role within TNP's equilibrium of powers, in your own words and opinion?

 

[Simone]

Actually, one question: do you plan to proceed with the reforms proposed by AS and other simplification reforms? I find the Court process rather too bureaucratic for my taste.

 

[Wymondham]

What is the Court's role within TNP's equilibrium of powers, in your own words and opinion?

The court's role, quite simply is to "try all criminal cases and review the constitutionality of laws or legality of government policies and actions". The former point is quite self-explanatory, but the latter two are where I take a narrow interpretation of the Court's powers. On constitutionality the question to me is 'does this law contradict the plain language of the Constitution', on the latter point I take the approach of 'does this government policy or action contradict the plain language of the Constitution or another law'. The role of the Court, therefore, is constrained to those quite narrow parameters of trying criminal cases, defending the Constitution from encroachment absent an amendment, and defending laws passed by the Regional Assembly from encroachment by actions of the government. The court's role is not to expand the scope of legislation, or even the Constitution, beyond that which is written. That power is reserved to the Regional Assembly.

Actually, one question: do you plan to proceed with the reforms proposed by AS and other simplification reforms? I find the Court process rather too bureaucratic for my taste.

Regarding the specific details of AS' reforms, if elected that's a conversation I would want to have with my fellow justices before deciding either way; I am open to both sides of the argument on the specifics of what AS is proposing so I don't want to commit firmly either way right now. What I do absolutely agree with is that the Court processes do need to be simplified to make them more accessible to newcomers to the region, so as to encourage more people to get involved in TNP law.