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The constitution of the Federal World Government; The Constitution, A founding document
Topic Started: Aug 23 2010, 10:04 AM (238 Views)
Jurisdictions
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Constitution of the Federal World Government

Preamble.

We nations, come together in the region of the Federal World Government to change and rectify a constitution that does not work for our purposes. We write this new constitution to preserve liberty and law for a functional government.

Article I.

Section 1. The Executive power of the region shall be vested in the highest executive officer in the region, who shall be known as the President.

Section 2. The President shall be elected once every three (3) months by popular vote of every citizen nation within the region. A Vice President, chosen by the candidate running for President, shall take the office of Vice President for the same term.

The said election of the President shall be held within one week (seven days) of the end of his or her term. The candidate with the most votes at the end of an election shall be successful, and become President and the pick for Vice President shall become Vice President. If an election is tied equally between two or more candidates, the Senate shall by majority vote decide who is President of the region.

The region shall have a period of three (3) days voting to determine the President.

The Senate by law shall set the regulations of the elections of President by law, or the Senate by majority vote allow Forum Administration to write regulations on the rules of campaigns, elections, and voting.

The election of the President shall be presided over by the Forum Administrators. Whose directive is to ensure that all elections are fair. No Administrator who has been nominated for President or Vice President shall be able to have control over said election.

The Supreme Court may hear any appeal regarding any decision or lack of decision by Forum Administration on disputed elections, or any other questionable matter relating to elections. The Court may replace a decision of Forum Administration and has the final say regarding disputed election results.

Section 3. The President and Vice President, if possible for the forums, at certain times, shall receive a compensation of forum money for his or her services, which shall not be diminished nor increased during the term for which they where elected. The compensations shall be set by law and paid out of the treasury of the regional government.

Section 4. The President shall be the Commander in Chief of the region's defense forces.

The President shall have the power make treaties, agreements and regions with other regions with the approval and consent of the Senate.

He or She shall have the power to appoint public ministers, ambassadors, and consuls to represent the region in foreign affairs. Appoint Ministers of his or her cabinet to executive departments with the consent of the Senate. Appoint all other officers of the region whose appointment is not provided for by law. The Senate by law may vest the appointment of such officers, as they think correct, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the Ministers of executive departments.

The President has the power to have the final say on all policies set forth from the executive departments.

The President shall have the power to appoint the World Assembly (WA) Delegate. All WA nations within the region shall have at least one endorsement for the World Assembly Delegate, while they hold this endorsement, the WA nations may hold endorsements for other nations as well. If a nation fails to give an endorsement to the delegate, the executive department in charge of legal affairs shall send a notice to the violator. The violator has five days after the transmission of the telegram via NationStates, to obey the law, after which time if the offender has not, the Executive shall charge him or her with the crime of failing to endorse the appointed delegate. The Supreme Court shall try the case, if he or she is guilty, the Supreme Court may set a number of punishments including:

banning nations from endorsing the violator;
removing or restricting forum account privileges;
banning or ejecting the nation;
or other punishments set by law.

The Senate by law shall set the process of impeachment and removal from office for the World Assembly Delegate.

The President shall have the power to fill in vacancies that may happen during inactivity of the Senate. Such commissions in temporary officers shall expire in 31 days from the day of appointment.

The President shall also receive foreign dignitaries and other ambassadorial positions from other regions.

The President has the right to pardon and excuse nations of criminal acts against the region, this does not apply to impeachment or the results thereof.

The President shall take care that the laws and the Constitution of the Federal World Government are faithfully executed to the best of his or her ability.

The President shall have the power to make executive orders, to create committees, set executive policy, and other matters necessary and proper to carry out the duties of the President of the region.

Section 5. The President shall time to time give to the Senate, an address on the state of the region. At which time the President shall recommend to their consideration certain measures or drafts of legislation that are considered by the President as urgent matters.

Section 6. The Vice President shall be the Speaker of the Senate and shall cast no vote in the Senate unless they be equally divided.

When such a time occurs that the President of the Region is unable to fulfill his or her duties as President. The Vice President shall become acting President, and appoint a temporary Speaker to the Senate, unless the President transmits to the Senate that he or she is capable of executing the office of President. The Senate, in the inability of the Vice President to fulfill the duties of acting President, shall by vote or law appoint a nation to temporarily fill the office of President. If neither the President nor the Vice President are within 31 days able to fulfill the duties of President; the region shall hold a new election for President under the rules that are applicable under section two of this article.

If the Vice President becomes president by resignation or impeachment, the Vice President shall become President and appoint a new Vice President with consent from the Senate.

Section 7. The Removal of the President and other executive officers of the region is by impeachment. The President and other officers shall be removed for crimes of Treason, Bribery, and other crimes.

If the President or other officer is charged with committing a crime, the Supreme Court shall hear the case. If the Court finds the President guilty of a crime, he or she is removed from office.

If the President is losing the support of the public or is inactive, the Senate may pass a Bill of Impeachment against the President removing him or her from office. However, the Bill of Impeachment must go through a referendum by the citizen nations of the region. Each nation may vote whether they are in favor of impeachment or against impeachment by secret ballot. If the referendum passes the bill in favor of impeachment by sixty-six percent, the President is removed from office.

Article II.

Section 1. The legislative powers of the region shall reside in a Senate of the region.

Section 2. The Senate of the region shall be comprised of at least three (3) senators. For every five (5) nations, excluding puppet nations, within the region, one seat shall be added to the Senate.

Section 3. The Senators of the legislative shall be voted in along with the President, every three months. Any number of citizen nations may run for seats.

To run for the Senate, a citizen nation shall nominate him or herself to run for the Senate. All nominees shall be on one singular ballot. Within 14 (fourteen) days of the end of the senators current term, the region shall hold election for the Senators of the Region.

On the singular ballot each citizen nation of the region shall be entitled to two (2) votes, each vote shall go to different nominees. The nation with the highest amount of votes shall receive the first seat, the second highest the second seat, the third highest the third seat, etc. In the event that two or more nations tie for a seat, each nations shall receive a seat in the senate until there are no more openings to fill.

In the event that not all seats of the Senate are occupied because most or all of the votes cast went to one or more candidates, the current President of the region shall choose the nominees that will fill the empty seats.

Section 4. The Senate shall keep all records of its proceedings, and from time to time publish and archive the same for public reference and viewing. The yeas and nays of senators shall be published in all circumstances. At no time may the voting on any matter, be voted in secret; the Senators shall post their yeas and nays upon the topic of the bill in question.

Section 5. The Senators, if possible for the forum, at certain times, shall receive a compensation of forum money for his or her services, which shall not be diminished nor increased during the term for which they where elected. The compensations shall be set by law and paid out by the treasury of the regional government.

Section 6. The Senate may determine the rules of its proceedings not covered by this constitution, punish members for disorderly behavior, and with concurrence of two-thirds of the Senate expel a member's posts from topics, excepting his post on his yea or nay on a bill.

Section 7. All bills or laws from the the Senate shall be in “Title, Chapter, Article, Section” form. All bills shall remain open for vote for a minimum of two (2) days.

After a bill has been passed by the Senate it shall be transmitted to the President, who shall publicly give approval or veto the bill. If he or she approves the bill, the bill shall become law and go into effect immediately unless otherwise stated in said bill. If the President gives his or her disapproval of a bill and vetoes the bill, the President shall give the objections to the bill and the bill shall go back to the Senate where the bill shall be voted upon again, where the bill must prevail with a majority of two-thirds to become a law, and override the President's veto.

If the President, in five days time, does not approve nor disapprove a bill, the bill shall come into effect in to the same manner as if he or she had given approval to the bill.

Any member of the region may at anytime propose a bill to the Senate, the Senate does not have to take any action on the proposed measure.

Section 8. The Senate shall have the power:

To borrow money on the credit of the regional government;

To regulate commerce with foreign powers, and among the member nations; and particular groups and tribes that organize themselves a form of government;

To regulate and establish the value of exchange of monies that are published between nations of the region;

To fix standard units of weight and measurement for the region;

To secure rights to authors and inventors over their writings and discoveries;

To define and punish felonious acts upon the seas and oceans, and offenses against the law of regions;

To declare war as a region, and make rules concerning captures during wars between nations;

To make rules for the regulation of military forces;

To call forth the military to execute the laws of the region, and repel invasions by foreign forces;

To make exclusive legislation over the seat of the government of the region;

To make all laws for the good governance of the region, and laws which are necessary and proper to forgo its powers under this constitution;

Section 9. Writs of Habeas Corpus shall not ever be suspended, except in cases of invasion.

No ex post facto laws or bills of attainder shall be passed.

Any tax that is to be made, shall not tax individual citizens of nations. Taxes to raise revenue of the regional government, shall only be made to the governments of the nations; and such a tax shall be the same percent of tax for each nation.

No taxes or duties are to be laid on objects exported from any nation within the region, to a nation outside of the region.

No regulations shall give preference to any nation's ports over another; and ships or water crafts that travel between nations shall not have to enter, pay, or clear duties or taxes to another.

No money shall be taken from the treasury of the regional government, unless approved by law. Regular statements of budget, and the state of accounts, expenditures, and income of government monies shall from time to time the same shall be published and archived for public reference and viewing.

The Senate of the region shall every 6 months pass a budget by law for the payments of debts out of the treasury. At no time may the budget of the government be leaving a negative amount of monies for the treasury.

No titles of nobility shall be granted by the regional government. No member of the government, without the consent of the Senate, may receive any kind of gift or payment from any government.

No nation in the region shall be allowed to pass any bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, or any law impairing the obligation of contracts.

No nation without the consent of the Senate shall keep armies or weapons of war, in time of peace.

Section 10. A Senator shall be removed from office for Treason, Bribery, and other crimes.

If the Senator is charged with violation of a law, the Supreme Court shall hear the case.
If the Court finds the said Senator is found guilty of a crime, he or she shall be removed from office.

If a Senator is removed from the Senate for violations of law, or by resignation that is transmitted to the President, the President shall upon the consent of vote of the citizen nations of the region appoint a new senator to the Senate to fill the vacant seat.

Article III.

Section 1. The judicial power of the region shall be vested in a Supreme Court, to be called the Supreme Court of the Federal World Government.

Section 2. The Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction over all matters arising under this Constitution, any legislation passed by the Senate, and at the choice of the Court, any dispute between member nations of the region. Whether in In-Character events such as role-play, or Out-of-Character events such as a crime by a person controlling a nation.

Section 3. When determining matters arising under this Constitution or legislation, the Court will interpret the Constitution or legislation that the court deems correctly answers the legal situation at hand Constitutionally.

Section 4. The Court must, at all times, consider any relevant precedent brought to the Court's attention, either set down by the Court itself, by a similar Court in another Region, or by a senior court in a "real-life" common law jurisdiction. However, the Court is at no time bound to follow these precedents.

Section 5. The Supreme Court shall sit in a special section of the regional forum, where all cases shall be heard in separate topics and all applications to hear a case can be made.

Section 6. The Supreme Court shall consist of one Chief Justice and two Associate Justices, who shall all be Citizen Nations of the region. In appointing Justices, the appointment shall be as follows:
a. a Chief Justice, who is the Founder;
b. a Second Justice, who is appointed by the Founder and confirmed by the Senate; and
c. a Third Justice, who is appointed by the Founder and confirmed by the President.

The Chief Justice and and Associate Justices, if possible for the forums, at certain times, shall receive a compensation of forum money for his or her services, which shall not be diminished during the term for which they where appointed. The compensations shall be set by law and paid out of the treasury of the regional government.

Section 7. A Justice can only be removed in one of the following ways:
a. by notifying the Senate that they no longer wish to be a Justice of the Supreme Court of the region;
b. ceasing to be a member of the region;
c. by becoming a member of the Executive or Legislative (this part does not apply to the Founder);
d. by the President, if:
i. on the advice and consent of the Minister for legal Affairs (his/her consent may not be forced by the President's power to rule on policy); and
ii. with the 85% support of the Senate; and
iii. in the President's opinion, a Justice has acted outside or against this Constitution, or has become inactive;
iv. And upon the sixty-six percent approval of the region

Section 8. Should the Founder be removed as the Chief Justice under section 7a of this article, or under section 7b for leaving the region or ceasing-to-exist, or under section 7d for being inactive, the President shall appoint an Acting Chief Justice upon the advice and approval of the Senate. In this case, the Founder shall retain the right to reclaim his position as the Chief Justice in place of the Acting Chief Justice, assuming that the Founder is at the time member of the region.

Section 9. A Justice will be immediately disqualified from sitting on a case if they are, or become, a party in the case. If the disqualified Justice is:
a. the Chief Justice, the Second Justice shall become the Acting Chief Justice, and the President shall appoint an Acting Second Justice;
b. the Second justice, the Third Justice shall become Second Justice the Senate shall appoint an Acting Third Justice;
c. the Third Justice, the President shall appoint an Acting Third Justice upon the consent of the Senate.

Article IV.

Section 1. For the purpose of this Constitution, a nation shall:
a. become a Citizen Nation of upon moving to the Region, if the nation is a main nation.
b. cease to be a member of the region if they leave the region and do not return within a set time, if they cease to exist or if they are lawfully ejected or banished. The Senate may pass laws determining the set time a nation may stay outside the region without loosing membership, and the time may be different for different circumstances. Until such laws are passed, the time in all circumstances shall be 24 hours.

Persons of the region may control more than one nation within the region and on the forums for roleplay purposes. However, such nations are not allowed to vote in any election, obtain office, or do any other activities a main nation may do.

A main nation is a nation used by a person in the region for communication; all others in the region are deemed puppets and shall be registered with Forum Administration.

Section 2. A nation will be seen as inactive if another member nation declares them as inactive. A member nation can be declared inactive if:
a. they have not logged into Nation States or posted in
The regional forum in over one week; and
b. within five days, they have not responded to a, telegram via NationStates or a Personal Message sent via the forum.

Section 3. A nation, which is declared inactive, will cease to be inactive if they post in the forum or on the Civil Headquarters board.

Section 4. For the purposes of this Constitution and in all other legislation, a reference to a Minister, the President or other government official shall be seen to apply to a member acting in that position, so long as that member has a right to act in that position given to them by this Constitution or valid legislation.

Section 5. In this Constitution, references to the Civil Headquarters board refer to the message board on regional page on NationStates.

Section 6. Forum Administration is defined as the members usually responsible for administering the regional forum, whether acting individually or collectively. The Senate may further define and regulate Forum Administration.

Article V.

Section 1. The Constitution, and treaties approved by the Senate thereof, are the supreme law of the land; and no law, policy, or rule shall violate this section.

Section 2. All current laws, acts, rules, and everything else made under the name of the Federal World Government will still be in operation under this constitution.

Section 3. This constitution hereby adopts general rules of common law where this constitution or the laws of the region has not already made a determination on the subject. The Supreme Court on a case-by-case basis may determine which common law rules are needed and which rules are not.

Section 4. Forum Administration has the right to make rules for the official forum of the region. These rules are law, these laws may not violate the constitution as under Section 1 of this article.

The Senate by law may repeal, re-write, and add to the rules laid down by Forum Administrators. The laws set by the Senate is higher in authority of law, and those laws made by Forum Administration shall not violate laws of the region.

Section 5. The Founder shall have no other powers in regional government, except for being appointed, elected, or affirmed by law, or though this constitution.

The Founder shall only have the powers to set regional passwords, which may be regulated by law.

The Founder in cases of invasion where the WA Delegate has been replaced by another nation, the Founder must remove Regional Administration Access. The Founder shall only recitative the controls to the region if the appointed WA Delegate is in the actual position of WA Delegate.

The Founder shall be Head Administrator of the regional forums.

Section 6. This constitution shall not be construed as to constrict nations to holding more than one position in the regional government, the Senate if it may wish, by law pass an act to ban any nation to hold multiple offices.

However, except where exempted in this Constitution, no nation shall at any time hold offices under two or more branches of this government. No member of the Executive shall hold an office within the Legislative or Judicial Branches; No member of the legislative Branch shall hold office in the Executive or Judicial Branches; and No member of the Judicial shall hold office under the Legislative or Executive Branches.

Section 7. If this constitution is passed by a vote of Federal World Government member nations in The Federal World Government forum, this constitution will go into effect 12:00 midnight GMT. The Region shall have several days to become compliant as possible.

Article VI.

The following rights shall be held as fundamental and bind us in all our pursuits within the region. Every sovereign nation within the region shall be entitled to these rights without exclusion and they shall be referred to as the Bill of Rights.

Section 1. [National Sovereignty] All nations within the region are allowed to pursue any form of government they wish. The regional government may not force any nation to have a certain governmental form. The region shall hold no prejudice against any nation for such governmental forms. The regional government shall not also force, or attempt to influence a decision with regards to internal affairs of said nation. This article does not protect against a nation's violation of regional law in roleplay. This article does not apply to World Assembly (WA) endorsements.

Section 2. [Freedom of Speech] Every nation within the region, and every person controlling a nation in the region is allowed to express any type of opinion and express that opinion how they see fit. They may express this opinion through forum posts, the Civil Headquarters Board on the regional page of NationStates (NS), or through telegrams on NS, and through Personal Messages on the Regional Forums. This Right of Speech does not include abusive behavior, incitements of violence, or spamming.

Section 3. [Election Rights] All citizen nations within the region are entitled to have a vote in any election. Any nation may also run for any or multiple positions in the regional Government. Any nation that has been removed from office for illegal acts shall not run for any elected position or be entitled to be appointed to any governmental position.

Section 4. [Freedom of Religion] Every nation within the region, every person who resides in the region and every person controlling a nation in the region shall be entitled to their own beliefs and religions. Their faith in any such religion should not be a cause for abuse from other nations or members, whether in roleplay or otherwise, and such abuse shall not be tolerated.

Section 5. [Free, fair, and public trial] All nations, people controlling said nations, and all peoples who reside in the region are entitled to a fair trial, free of charge, within the bounds of the region judicial system. All trials shall be able to be viewed by the public.

The Accused has these rights, which at any time may be invoked by the accused:

To call witnesses and evidence for defense;
The right to choose an advocate of law to represent him in court;
To not incriminate himself/herself for other crimes;
To see all evidence of the prosecuting attorney;
To face his accusers in court;
etc.

All nations, people controlling said nations, and all peoples who reside within the region shall not be subjected to 'double jeopardy' within the judicial system, whereby those who are found 'not guilty' of charges, shall not be put on trial again for the same charges in an attempt to get a 'guilty' ruling after an 'innocent' one.

Section 6. [Roleplay Rights] During roleplay nations have certain rights. Nations who create a roleplay shall have full control of their roleplay topic. The creator of the roleplay has the right :

To ask forum moderators to remove irrelevant posts from the roleplay;
To ban troublemaker nations from a roleplay;
To have only invited nations be active within the roleplay;
To have nations apply to be within a roleplay before said roleplay is started;
To set the type of roleplay, to make the general direction of the roleplay.

Violation of laws of the region within the roleplay, which are violated in a pure roleplay manner, shall be tried in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court can only punish a nation by fining the nation an amount of Forum Money if such money exists. The Court can also punish the nation by setting forth any number roleplay limitations against the nation, which includes trade, diplomacy, military, economic, and other categorical restrictions.

Nations also retain the right to sue each other over damages, violations of treaties and charters and any other form of binding contract, debts, and other legal complaints.

Section 7. [Other Rights] The enumeration of certain rights in this Constitution, shall not be construed to deny or disparage other rights retained by the nations, or the players that control the nations, or other rights retained by the people of the region.

Article VII.

Section 1. This Constitution can only be amended in the way prescribed by this article.

Section 2. This Constitution will be amended by an Amendment passed by the Senate which meets the following additional conditions:
a. the amendment must be for the sole purpose of amending this Constitution;
b. the amendment is organized and arranged in the same manner as the constitution and continue the numbering of this constitution in the form of articles and sections.
c. the title of the Amendment must contain the phrase Constitutional Amendment of [date]; the date referring to the day, month, and year of the submission of this proposal to vote.
d. it is voted on by the Senate with a majority in favor, then the ratification moves on to the citizen nations of the region under section three of this article.

Section 3. The Amendment will only be taken to have passed by the region into the constitution if:
a. voting for the Amendment remained open for at least two weeks;
b. notification of the introduction of this Amendment being to public vote was given on the the forum news board within one week before or after the introduction of the Amendment to the public, by either the member who introduced the Amendment or another member;
c. At least 60% of those citizen nations, who voted on the Amendment, voted in its favor.
d. And the Founder gives approval. If the Founder does not give neither approval or disapproval within five (5) days, the amendment passes into this constitution.

Section 4. The Senate has the power to prospectively pass and repeal laws, which do not alter the sections in this article, but which provide for notifying members of the region about an amendment. These laws may make compliance with these additional rules a requirement for passing an amendment.

Section 5. If an amendment passes into this constitution. It shall be placed after this article and every amendment already added thereafter. Each amendment shall be notarized in brackets (example: [Amendment 1]), and directly under the same notation the date of submission to the Senate and the date of ratification shall be displayed (example: [Submitted : February 20, 20--; Ratified : February 31, 20--]). Both notations shall be in bold and centered in the text. By skipping one line after the notations the article that has been added to this constitution shall begin. Article and Section numbering shall be in bold, and the Article label shall be centered in the text. So the Amendment looks something like the next example
(example:
[Amendment -]
[Submitted : Month Day, Year; Ratified : Month Day, Year]

Article ---.

:end of example).


Each Amendment shall be treated as the next article to this constitution.

No Amendment to the constitution shall have more than one article within its text.

Each article/amendment must be passed separately through the amendment process.


If there are any gramatical errors please Personal message Jurisdictions
Edited by Jurisdictions, Aug 23 2010, 10:06 AM.
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