ideas-speculativeConstitution-speculativeConstitution

Note: this document is under construction! See the introduction.

It is not even a finished draft yet, just parts of a draft interspered with notes.

Draft text of constitution

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Rights
  3. Organizational structure of government
  4. Details

Introduction

Capitalized words are those which have a special meaning. Definitions of these words, and others, may be found in the glossary.

Summary

This document defines, limits, and structures the State

The Legislature makes the laws and sets policy. The Legislature is composed of three houses, which are the House of the People, the Senate, and the Board of Foreign Affairs. The House of the People uses direct democracy; the Senate and the Board of Foreign Affairs are small bodies composed of indirect representatives.

The Government, which is administered by the Prime Minister, carries out the laws, with the exception of military and foreign policy, which is carried out by the Foreign Minister. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Senate, and the Foreign Minister by the Board of Foreign Affairs.

The Courts interpret the laws.

The Tribunes investigate, with the aim of checking and restraining both the State as a whole, and also powerful elements within the State.

The section Rights and Principals sets fundamental limits on the power of the State.

Rights and Principals

Major Principals

  1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
  2. In any case in which there is a question of the interpretation of this Constitution, whichever interpretation that most limits the power of the State shall be deemed the correct one.

Basic rights

These are accorded to all people, citizens and non-citizens1.

Basic rights are always negative rights, meaning that they could be fulfilled without placing any obligation upon any private individual, except for an obligation NOT to do certain things. However, it is the primary function of government to protect the basic rights of citizens.

todo: some of these rights concern fair process, are they negative rights? are they basic rights? must basic rights be able to be fulfilled in the absence of the existence of any government?

  1. Not to be killed2.
  2. Not to be deprived of liberty3.
  3. Not to be deprived of security of person4.
  4. Not to be one held in slavery or servitude5
  5. Not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 6
  6. To be recognized everywhere as a person before the law. 7
  7. Equality before the law. All people are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. 8
  8. Not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. 9
  9. Entitlement to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. 10
  10. If charged with a penal offence, the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. 11
  11. Not to be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed. 12
  12. Privacy 13
  13. Freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. 14
  14. Freedom of movement and residence15
  15. To leave any country, including hir own, and to return to hir country.16
  16. Religion17
  17. Freedom of peaceful assembly and association. 18
  18. Not to be compelled to belong to an association, or to any group of associations 19
  19. No unnecessary compulsion
  20. To take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives20
  21. Equal access to the services of public service21
  22. Non-interference with an individual's body, and non-interference with the control of an individual over their own body.

(todo: finish looking at other lists of rights and pick the ones i agree with)

  1. Freedom of speech
  2. There can be no crime except when the victim of the crime is other than the perpetrator.
  3. The citizens have the right to Peaceably Assemble.
  4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
    1. The government must have a warrant issued by a judge, specifically targetted (todo), before searching or surveilling anything that the public is not permitted to search or surveil.
  5. No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
  6. In all criminal prosecutions of individual people, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
  7. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States except by another jury.
  8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Civil Rights

  1. Each citizen who is not a government official, or attempting to be a government official, has the right to absolute Freedom of Speech.
    1. Defined as the freedom to communicate any linguistic or informational content at will.
    2. This does not indicate a freedom to spend an arbitrarily large amount of money, or exert an arbitrarily large amount of power, to broadcast one's speech, however. The government shall have the power to regulate the broadcasting of the speech of the powerful provided that such regulation:
      1. Does not regulate the content of the speech
      2. Is applied equally to the government itself
      3. Is restricted to furthering the goal of Equality of Broadcast
      4. Does not restrict any individual's ability to broadcast their speech below the ability that the typical person has.
      5. Does not restrict any individual's ability to broadcast their speech below the ability that the typical person would have in the absence of all such regulation.
      6. Does not restrict any individual's ability to broadcast their speech below the ability that any government high official, or group of government high officials, has.
  2. There shall be Freedom of the Press.
    1. As above, this is defined in terms of content, not broadcast rights.
  3. Each citizen has the right to Petition the Government for a Redress of Grievances.
  4. The State may not establish religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion, or distinguish between religions.
    1. The State may not give special benefits to religious or religious organizations, in particular, or as a class.
    2. Church and State shall be strictly separated.
    3. If ceremonies and statuses shall be found to have religious significance, then they shall not be performed, administered or recognized by the State, although a secular replacement may be made. For example, if marriage shall be found to have religious significant, it shall not recognized by the state, instead being replaced by civil union.22
  5. No soldier or military apparatus or supply shall be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner and the occupants, except as prescribed by law during a Condition of Major War.
  6. Martial Law may not last longer than 6 months, and may not be reimposed without a period of at least one year elapsing. Each citizen has the solemn duty to violently rebel against the State if this most important time limit is exceeded. No citizen shall be punished for rebellion in such a case.
  7. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
    1. As circumstances change the courts are empowered to decide that the people hold other rights not herein enumerated, if they consider such rights to have been implicitly assumed. The courts shall not have the power to modify the text of this Constitution, but absent a subsequent amendment to this Constitution restricting such rights, these Found Rights shall have the force of law. However, when possible, the courts are encouraged to use their power of Forced Clarification in these circumstances.
    2. The previous paragraph shall not be taken to mean that no rights exist except for the union of those enumerated here and those which the courts have enumerated as Found Rights. There may be other rights not yet enumerated in either place.
  8. The powers not delegated to the State by the Constitution are reserved to the people.
  9. Self-incriminating evidence may not be used at trial.
  10. Coerced statements may not be used at trial.
  11. Basic and Civil Rights take effect not only in places where the State holds sovereignty, but in addition, they take effect any place or situation where/when the State exercises effective control.
  12. The right for any adult citizen not to be educated against their will23.
  13. The right to reasonably verify the identity and authorization of any agent of the government before following their instructions or yielding to arrest.
  14. The right to inspect, copy, test, and discuss the design of any technology to be used for voting, including the blueprints of hardware and the source code of software.
  15. The right to purchase, inspect, and dismantle, after the fact, any technology actually used in voting, both software and hardware. The price of purchasing the technology shall be no more than the cost of replacing it. No voting technology shall be destroyed or tampered with for 60 days after the results of an election have been announced, nor after this time if anyone has indicated their intent to purchase the technology. If multiple parties want to purchase the same hardware, they shall negotiate amongst themselves how to form a collective organization for the purpose of inspecting it, and if negotiation fails, the courts, in response to the plea of the parties, shall lay down a fair procedure permitting as much as possible all of the parties to inspect the equipment at once, in full view of each other, in the ways that they desire.
  16. At all times a list of every person held in custody of the government, with a lag of at most 1 week, is to be publically available. Attached to each prisoner's name shall be a contact person, who is a government official to whom any citizen may submit requests for information or requests for communication with the prisoner. Except with the consent of a judge, all such requests shall be granted. The contact person shall be privy to the current location and disposition of the prisoner and shall hirself be authorized to meet with or communicate with the prisoner at any time according to their own judgement.
  17. No employee shall be retaliated against by a current or future potential employer for communicating with any entity, or for the content of such communication.
  18. No employee shall be retaliated against by a current or future potential employer for participation in an employee union.
  19. A naturalized citizen shall not be distinguished by the law from a citizen-by-birth.

todo: check out

US Bill of Rights (again) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Declaration_of_Rights http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_Rights UN declaration of rights the rights that were to go into the EU constitution magna carta (again) petition of rights, etc magnacartaplus site various constititutions german civil code french civil code

Enumerated powers of government

Items not on these lists are outside the government's power. Nothing on these lists shall empower the government to violate the basic rights of any person or the civil rights of citizens. The government may only use these powers when directed to do so by the Legislature using the procedures described in this Constitution, and may only use them as the Legislature directs.

Powers possessed exclusively by the government

  1. Use of violence or imprisonment to enforce the law.
  2. Declare and conduct war.
  3. Temporarily suspend procedures and take special measures to prevent and ameliorate disasters, but only according to the section on Emergency Provisions, below.
  4. Levy compulsory taxes.

These powers may be delegated but only to franchise governments.

Other powers possessed by the government

These powers may be exercised by anyone except as restricted by statue24.

  1. Maintain a standing military.
  2. Regulate commerce.
  3. Educate the people.
  4. Police the people.
  5. Print money.
  6. Charter and regulate corporations, including the punishment or dissolution of corporations that become too powerful (antitrust).
  7. Fund social welfare and public works.
  8. Maintain relations with external entities.

Obligations of government

In descending order of priority.

  1. Not to infringe the basic rights of any person25
  2. Not to infringe the civil rights of any citizen
  3. To affirmatively protect the basic rights of every person to the greatest extent possible26
  4. To affirmatively protect the civil rights of every citizen to the greatest extent possible
  5. To affirmatively provide the civil rights of every citizen to the greatest extent possible27
  6. To execute the will of the people28.

More principals may be found in the Details section.

Organizational structure of government

The State consists of the following entities:

Electorate

All sovereign power rests in the electorate. The electorate is the head of the state.

House of the People

The House of the People is one of the two chambers of Legislature. The House of the People is a direct democracy process.

Each Member of the Electorate gets one Vote on each issue. On any particular issue, or set of issues, a Member may choose to assign their Vote to any other Member or Members of the Electorate, as a Proxy Vote. A Member may also pass on any Proxy Votes that they have received to other Members.

Senate

The Senate is one of the two chambers of Legislature. The Senate is a small representative body chosen by general election. The election uses a recursive representation scheme (todo: define).

The Senate appoints the Prime Minister. At any time, the Senate may replace the Prime Minister.

The Senate may dismiss any member of the Cabinet.

The Senate may dissolve itself.

Board of Foreign Affairs

The Board of Foreign Affairs is like the Senate, except that it considers only foreign policy, and except that it is smaller.

Legislature

When one chamber passes a Bill, the other chamber has three months to Veto it. If there is no Veto, the Bill becomes law.

However, any bill which requires at least a 2/3 voting threshold must be passed affirmatively by both chambers before becoming law.

Neither chamber may pass more than 10 pages of Bills per day. Unused page quota may be "saved up" up to a limit of 1000 pages.

If a chamber exceeds its word limit, and attempts to pass further bills that day, such bills are not considered to have passed, regardless of the views and records of that chamber.

The Legislature may pardon or commute the sentence of any entity for any crime.

todo: should be word limit

The Legislature is the supreme authority of the government, and has the power to overrule the Prime Minister or the Foreign Minister on any decision, or to directly issue any order that they can issue.

Voting thresholds

The voting threshold for bills in both houses is 60%, except as specified below29 30.

The voting threshold for bills which do one of more of the following is 2/331:

The voting threshold for bills which repeal laws and which do not do any of the of the above is 50%32.

The voting threshold for bills solely composed of provisions which do not do any of the above, and which each do one or more of the following, is 50%33:

The voting threshold for amendments to this Constitution is 75%34.

A Renewable bill may be Renewed with a 50% threshold35.

The voting threshold for a Bill to Appoint a Supreme Court Judge is 2/3.

The voting threshold for a Pardon is 2/3.

The voting threshold to veto the other chamber is 50%.

Prime Minister

The Prime Minister is the head of government. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Senate.

The Prime Minister may dissolve the Senate.

The Prime Minister appoints and may dismiss members of the Cabinet.

Foreign Minister

The Foreign Minister is the head of foreign affairs. The Foreign Minister is appointed by the Board of Foreign Affairs.

The Foreign Minister may dissolve the Board of Foreign Affairs.

The Foreign Minister appoints and may dismiss members of the Foreign Cabinet.

Tribune

A new Tribune is elected at the same times as the Senate has elections.

The Tribune's duty is to preemptively watch for, investigate, publicize, and prosecute undesirable, corrupt, or illegal behavior in the functioning of the State36

The tribune can compel any part of the State to release any information to hir. There is no type of information which is off-limits to the Tribune. The Tribune may make public any information to which s/he has access. The Tribune has the standing to prosecute anyone for any offence relating to undesirable, corrupt, or illegal behavior in the functioning of the State, or dereliction of duty of an official in the functioning of the State.

When a Tribune compels information from the government, the information must be supplied along with a signed oath that it is the truth. Lying under oath to a Tribune or hir agent is a felony.

A majority of the Tribunes can pardon anyone of any crime, or commute their sentence.

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court consists of 7 Judges each appointed for 15 year terms. They cannot be reappointed. No person who has been a Supreme Court Judges can serve as any official or government employee.

New Supreme Court Judges are appointed by a Bill to Appoint a Supreme Court Judge.

When vacancies appear, then if necessary to produce an odd number of Judges, the most senior judge on the Supreme Court steps aside temporarily.

Supreme Court Judges cannot be removed without reason, but can be removed if both of the following happen: a) s/he (or they, if multiple Judges) are convicted of a felony (s/he or they cannot preside over hir or their own case), or determined by the courts to be mentally incompetent for medical reasons b) a Bill of Removal is passed by the Legislature with a 2/3 vote

The duty of the Supreme Court is threefold:

1) Interpret the law 2) Guard the people against the government' 3) Guard individuals against the majority

Forced clarification

When prompted by a case, the Supreme Court may force the Legislature to make a clarification to the law. To do this, they describe the ambiguity, and present a small number of possible fixes. This power may be used at most 10 times per year37.

When they do this, the House of the People is compelled to add the issue to their agenda as if this issue had met whatever criteria are necessary to place an item on the agenda for discussion on the main floor followed by a vote. In addition, the item must be added to the agenda so that discussion may reasonable be expected to be completed within 6 months. Except for this, the item is treated normally within the House, with each "possible fix" presented as a bill. The House is not constrained to choose one of the alternatives provided by the Supreme Court.

If six months or more have elapsed and House has not passed a resolution on the issue, and the Senate passes a resolution on the issue which chooses one of the alternatives provided by the Supreme Court, then this immediately becomes law. This not does constrain the House from debating the issue or passing resolutions to change this law.

The Supreme Court may Force Clarification in cases which, in its judgement, meet one of the following criteria: