notes-hypotheticalConstitution-hypotheticalConstitution

Note: most of the procedural and structural elements of this document have been moved into Plan 11. Please see Plan 11. This document should now be conceived of as a "module" that can be added to Plan 11 in the case of a government.

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. Note: this draft is out of date! I plan to change many of the provisions, as indicated in the separate notes page.

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 Government, which is administered by the CEO, carries out policy, 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 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, both public and private
  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.

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.

31:

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%32:

Lying under oath to a Tribune or hir agent is a felony.

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

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

Military

(todo: intro?)

The commander-in-chief of the military is normally the Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, the Legislature is the supreme authority in military matters, and may directly issue orders, organize the military, etc, over the objections and without the involvement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.\footnote{The Legislature therefore holds the position designated as "commander-in-chief" in some countries. The point is that, basically, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is the C-in-C, except that I don't want a situation like in the U.S.A. to occur, where some factions hold that the legislature has no authority to override the President in military matters, because he is "commander-in-chief".}

The Legislature may not appropriate or promise to appropriate funding for the military more than two years in advance.

Any military officer who was at the top of the military chain of command shall henceforth be barred from life as serving as a High Official outside the military.

"At the top of the chain of command" means that they did not have any immediate superior who was a military official, or that their immediate superior was either the Foreign Minister or the Prime Minister. In the case that a group of military officers had each other as immediate superiors, so that no "top" of the chain of command can be found using the criteria just given, then all of them are considered to be at the "top of the chain of command".

Provinces

Provinces are autonomous governments with control over geographical territories.

A pair of provincial governments may by mutual agreement reallocate territory between them. Provinces may choose to split themselves. Provinces may merge by mutual consent.

The Legislature, by a 2/3 vote, may reallocate territories between the provinchial governments, with the consent of 2/3 of citizens in the territory being reallocated.

(todo: see requirements on regional shape elsewhere)

(todo: merge this section with the franchise government section)

Provinces have a right to maintain standing militias\footnote{Some people believe that the stability of the U.S. system is partly due to its federal structure. So I'd like to preserve that, while getting rid of the gerrymandering that takes place when you allow the provinchial governments to actually have an equal vote in some part of the legislature.}.

These militias may possess any sort of weapons and do any sort of exercises that the national military may possess or do. However, the Law may limit what sort of weapons may be acquired, how they may be used, and what sort of safeguards, both physical and procedural, must be adhered to regarding weapons, provided that these laws apply to the national military to the same degree as the provinchial militias, and provided that all decision-making, authorization, and certification for the militias is in the hands of the provinchial government, not the national government.

The autonomy of provinces and their right to maintain militias are not delegated rights stemming from the central State.

Provinchial governments must be democracies controlled by the citizens over which they are given power, and this control must be divided between those citizens in a fair and universal way. Provinchial governments must not infringe the basic rights of any person, or the civil rights of citizens.

Provinchial governments do not participate in the federal legislative process.

Each area of territory must be part of a province. There shall be at least 12 provinces34>

Any area may secede from its province, thereby forming a new province, by the same procedure for seceding from the State (outlined in the section "secession"). Secession from a province is a separate question from secession from the State.

Details

Contents of this section

  1. Details relating to the Introduction
  2. Details relating to the Organizational structure of government
  3. Glossary

Minor principals

  1. The purpose of the State.
    1. The primary purpose of the State is to preserve the freedom and basic rights of its citizens by providing an organization in which they can protect themselves from outside threats, as well as from each other.
    2. The secondary purpose of the State is to promulgate regulations and large-scale projects to serve the common interests of its citizens.
    3. The tertiary purpose of the State is to promote the rights and well-being of all people.
  2. None of the following are within the purposes of the State:
    1. To sustain itself. The State is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
    2. To control the life of the nation.
    3. Glory (either of the people or of the State or of any part or official of the State).
    4. To set the goals of the people.
    5. To protect any individual from hirself.
    6. To implement the will of the majority, when that will is unjust or morally wrong.
  3. Egalitarianism. In order to protect the people from each other, it is desirable to minimize concentrations of power.
  4. Fairness. A procedure that treats all entities equally often ends up benefiting the strong more than the weak. It is sometimes necessary to protect the weak more than the strong, when this can be done without injuring the rights of the strong35.
    1. This principal should not be interpreted to permit attacks on the powerful in the guise of defending the weak. The powerful may be restrained only in proportion to their power, and the effect of such restraints should not be to render them even weaker than the weak.36
  5. When this Constitution gives a right or privilage to people, that is not to be construed as giving that right or privilage to corporations. Corporations may be given rights by statue. However, when it is not possible to fairly uphold or to balance the rights of both corporations and humans, corporate rights are inferior to the rights of humans.
  6. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government37
  7. Elections for representatives shall be38:
    1. periodic
    2. genuine
    3. with universal sufferage
      1. except possibly for the exclusion of unqualified voters, provided that this exclusion be fair, and that each person so excluded has an fair and feasible ongoing opportunity to become qualified without making significant sacrifices.
    4. with strictly equal suffrage
      1. with the same exception as for universal sufferage
    5. shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
  8. Recognizing the possibility that technology may extend human lifespan, State officials may not be appointed for life. The maximum duration of any state appointment is 30 years39.
  9. All officials shall have term limits. The limits shall not exceed 30 years.
  10. Should laws conflict, the following is the order of precedence of law: Constitution > Found Right > Treaty > Statute > Regulation.
    1. The entire text of this Constitution is considered to be law, including Rights and Principals.
  11. Computation should not be considered to be free. It is not fair to force ordinary individuals to do large amounts of computation to retain their rights.40 41
  12. No ex post facto law may be passed, and no one may be prosecuted or convicted for crimes which were not illegal at the time that they were committed.
  13. No collective punishment.
    1. This includes punishment of some person for the crimes of a family member.
    2. This does not impair the punishment of a collective entity such as a corporation, or the punishment of individuals for actions taken as officers of that entity.
  14. The courts may not force individuals to answer questions that may infringe upon their privacy, except as the law explicitly and specifically permits.
    1. Furthermore, courts may not punish individuals for refusing to answer questions that may infringe upon their privacy, except as the law explicitly and specifically permits.
  15. No cruel or unusual punishments
  16. Each government entity with the authority to collect domestic non-public information or with the authority to apply coercion domestically shall be classified as a "domestic agency". Government entities with the authority to collect foreign non-public information or with the authority to apply coercion to foreign entities shall be classified as a "foreign agency". The law shall contain all of:

No agency may be both domestic and foreign at the same time. No single person may be employed by both a domestic and a foreign agency except as explicitly specified in the law 42.

  1. No agent provocateurs
  2. The State shall do nothing to make the act of voting undesirable43>.
  3. Executive officials, including Prime Ministers, are considered government officials.
  4. Any government official who orders or is responsible for an infringement of basic rights has committed a felony.
  5. Any government official who orders or is responsible for an infringement of basic rights has also committed a civil offence and owes each victim one year of their salary.
  6. Contracts binding to secrecy are null and void
  7. Voting is compulsory, but you may always vote either "abstain", "none of the above", or "i think this election is illegitimate".

Details relating to Rights

This is already implied by the above, however, since in the United States the practice of "civil forfeiture" has been implemented in which property is taken without a standard or jury trial with the justification that "it's the property, not the person, being prosecuted" -- we here say explicitly that the usual standards of a fair trial are required to take property from a person, just they would be required to convict that person.

Information is not considered to be "public" just because it has been disclosed to a third-party. Public information is defined to be information that any citizen can cheaply, conveniently, openly, and legally access, collect, analyze, and publish, and which is widely known to be so available. Information which is not public is private and may not be accessed, collected, or analyzed by the government without a specific warrant, for which they must show probable cause.

For instance, with regards to the conditions in 2007, government cannot snoop on an individual's car-rental records without a warrant, because this is like searching hir home. Similarly, the government cannot take videos of public roadways and in this case trace people's movements, because private citizens would be prohibited from doing so. In the future, these conditions may change; for example, if it becomes cheap, convenient, and legal for any citizen to obtain information from networks of roadside surveillance networks, to analyze this to trace other individual's movements, and to publish the results, then the government may then do the same without a warrant.

Note that automated analyses by the government still require a warrant if they use private information, even if no human sees this information. Even filtering innocent information to pick out information for which the government has a warrant is prohibited; this filtering must be done by the possessors of the information before the government touches the information stream (this is to remove the temptation for the government to surripticiously take some of the information which they aren't supposed to, which they could do without anyone noticing if they control the equipment that filters it).

Details relating to the Organizational structure of government

A bill for the government to borrow money or otherwise to make a financial committment is considered an increase in spending.

A bill for the government to increase the money supply is considered an increase in spending.

Tribune

The Tribune is supposed to protect the integrity of the State; however, ordinary crime within the Electorate is the concern of the police, and not the concern of the Tribune, even thought the Electorate is the Head of the State.

Even during emergency conditions, the freedom of speech or of movement of Tribunes may not be in any way abridged, and no citizen may be prevented from communicating with a Tribune without the consent of that Tribune.

Use of military force

The Legislature may issue a Declaration of War.

No person is permitted to use or to authorize military force without a Declaration of War, except according to the three exceptions below.

One, the Foreign Minister may authorize the use of military force for purely defensive purposes against an unexpected attack for a length of time not exceeding one month, while the Legislature deliberates upon a Declaration of War. The Legislature may remove this authorization at will, even preventatively.

Two, the Prime Minister may authorize the use of force, in accordance with the Constitution as in effect at that time, during a Condition of Martial Law.

Three, the military is always authorized to retreat and to cover their retreat with an minimum amount of force necessary to preserve the safety of their personnel, or to prevent military equipment from falling into the hands of the enemy44.

An attack is considered unexpected if a reasonable person with the same access to information as the Foreign Minister would have thought that such an attack was very unlikely a month prior to the attack45.

Any attempt to use or to authorize military force in violation of this section is a felony and in addition constitutes a resignation from any official position by the individual making the attempt, effective at the time that the attempt is made.

A Declaration of War does not in any way permit the suspension or abridgement of normal rights and procedures; this would require a Condition of Dire War.

A Declaration of War must specify a specific enemy. Wars must be declared against specific people or organizations, never against other abstract entities or phenomena46.

A Declaration of War must specify a time limit; at this time, the Declaration automatically expires unless renewed by the Legislature. A Declaration of War may be renewed by the Legislature an arbitrarily large number of times. The time limit may not be longer than 5 years.

The Legislature may cancel a Declaration of War at will47.

Anticorruption provisions

No high offical may give or accept or lend or borrow any money or gifts or exchange goods or services or have any business relationships with anyone during their term of office.

The financial needs of high officials must be provided for entirely by the government during their term of office. High officials must be completely divested of any business ownership or financial holdings during their term of office.

An exception is made for a total amount of one twentieth of the salary of the offical per year.

Furthermore, an exception is made in that the officials may buy a basic level of consumer goods and services through normal channels for the same price as available to the typical person.

Furthermore, an exception is made in that the officials may visit or reside for free at any residence.

Transactions pursuant to these exceptions must be made public.

A high official may resign at will at any time, at which time these restrictions immediately cease.

Double positioins

No person may simultaineously more than one of the following:

Emergency Conditions

In all Emergency Conditions, the Government may exercise its additional powers only as clearly and directly needed to respond to the particular threat.

Condition of Normalacy

This Condition (which is not an Emergency Condition; rather, it is the opposite) obtains when there is no Condition of Temporary Emergency, Condition of Dire War, or Condition of Martial Law.

The Prime Minister, or either house of the Legislature, or a majority of the Tribunes may at any time cancel any Emergency Condition48.

In addition, the individuals who were at the time of the declaration of the Emergency Condition serving as Senators or as Tribunes may, by a majority of those who were Senators or a majority of those who were Tribunes, cancel that Emergency Condition49. If these individuals are unreachable, these majorities shall be calculated out of the reachable members50. Similarity, the individual who was at the time of the declaration of the Emergency Condition serving as Prime Minister may cancel the Emergency unilaterally. Similarly, the individuals who composed the Electorate at the time of the declaration of Emergency may cancel the Emergency by an Act generated according to the normal procedure of the House of the People as of the time of the declaration.

Condition of Temporary Emergency

Some threatening, unexpected situations may require fast action by the government with less constraints than usual. Therefore, the Prime Minister may unilaterally declare a Condition of Emergency.

Although some of normal procedure and rights may be suspended during an Emergency, these changes are not decided unilaterally by government officials, but are specified by statutory law.

A Condition of Emergency automatically expires in two weeks unless renewed by the Legislature.

If the full Legislature is unable to be reached, a partial Legislature may function as the Legislature for the duration of the Condition of Emergency.

A Condition of Emergency may not last longer than two months.

Condition of Dire War

Some conflicts may be so threatening to the lives of the citizens so as to require an extended suspension of normal domestic procedure. In such a situation the Legislature, with the consent of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister and a majority of the Tribunes, may declare a Condition of Dire War.

A Condition of Dire War may only be declared with respect to a specific, prior Declaration of War.

Although some of normal procedure and rights may be suspended during Dire War, these changes are not decided unilaterally by government officials, but are specified by statutory law.

This condition automatically expires unless renewed annually by the Legislature, with the consent of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister and a majority of the Tribunes.

No Condition of Dire War lasts longer than 8 years.

Condition of Martial Law

The Prime Minister and a majority of the Tribunes may impose a Condition of Martial Law when extremely dire conditions require it. The principal feature of Martial Law is that temporary legislative power is given to the Prime Minister.

A Condition of Martial Law is a very serious thing and those invoking it should only do so when they are each individually convinced that there is no other recourse. When possible, a Condition of Emergency or a Condition of Dire War are preferable, as neither of these give the Prime Minister unilateral legislative power. As the other conditions already permit the Legislature to temporarily suspend normal procedures and rights, it may be reasonably hoped that Martial Law will never be needed.

If a majority of the Tribunes cannot be reached, the Prime Minister may unilaterally declare martial law, but only until a majority of the Tribunes become available, at which time Marital Law is automatically cancelled unless a majority of them ratify the decison.

During Martial Law, the government and military are placed under the command of the Prime Minister, who may unilaterally suspend statutory rights and laws, authorize force, and command the military to keep order domestically. The Prime Minister may not deviate from or unilaterally suspend parts of this Constitution51. However, the Legislature may pass laws providing for parts of this Constitution to be temporarily suspended during Martial Law. Such laws must be explicit and specific about which sections of this Constitution are being suspended. If these Laws are passed during an Emergency Condition, then they are of course subject to the limitations in section Limitations on Amendments during Emergency Conditions.

As noted in section Rights and Principals, Martial Law is absolutely limited to a period of 6 months. This is a fundamental right and this limitation may be not be altered or suspended even under Martial Law.

Limitations on renewals of Emergency Conditions

To prevent the abuse of this provision, in the event of such a renewal the procedures for a Condition of Emergency may not in any way make changes to the decision-making structure of power structure of the State, or impede normal deliberation by the Electorate including but not limited to the rights to Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, and Freedom of Peacable Assembly.

Franchise governments

Of course, the government may set up subdivisions, bureaus, and departments to execute its functions. But these subdivisions are wholly a part of the government and are not independent of it; they are fully under the control of the Legislature and, to the extent that the Legislature wills, the Prime Minister; and the government is fully responsible for their behavior.

The government may also delegate powers, except for those listed as powers held exclusively by the government, to autonomous entities.

The government may also delegate the powers listed as powers held exclusively by the government, except for the power to declare and conduct war, to autonomous franchise government entities, for example to municipal or regional governments, provided that these franchise governments are democracies controlled by the citizens over which they are given power, and provided that this control is divided between those citizens in a fair and universal way.

If the Legislature so wills, powers may be delegated in such a way that they are hard to retrieve (see "Tying of hands", below).

Initial conditions

This section shall automatically be removed from this Constitution upon the fifth anniversary of the first meeting of the Legislature after the ratification of this Consitutition.

For the two years after the first meeting of the Legislature after the ratification of this Consitutition, the word limit on bills per day is infinite.

For the first five years after the first meeting of the Legislature after the ratification of this Consitutition, the courts may decide cases based on common law as well as statue, except where common law would conflict with this constitution or with any act of the Legislature.

The Justice System

Principals of the justice system. These have the same weight as "civil rights", but are grouped here for convenience.

Time reserved for constitutional consideration

At least two weeks of every year in the Senate and in the House (but not necessarily at the same time) shall be reserved on the agenda for the debate of proposed constitutional amendments. Other urgent business may interrupt these discussions, but this simply displaces the reserved time.

Secession

Any region may unilaterally secede from the State if it meets the following criteria:

The region is considered seceded immediately upon the announcement of the result of the last of the 10 annual votes.

If this section of this Constitution is amended after such a petition has been received but before the designated region has seceded, then the designated region will be considered to have seceded if either the old provisions or the new provisions allow it to.

Ban on exchanges between representatives and their constituents

No representative may give or accept or lend or borrow any money or gifts or exchange goods or services or have any business relationship with any of their direct constituents.


Footnotes:

1. This is less verbose but has the same effect as Article 2 of the United Nations Declaration, which reads "everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty".

2. Part of Article 3 of the UN Declaration, rephrased as a negative right -- lest this right be interpreted as an obligation for the law to keep each person alive as long as possible

3. More from Article 3 of the UN Declaration, again rephrased as negative, lest this right be interpreted as an obligation for the law to heal any paralyzed person whenever possible

4. More from Article 3 of the UN Declaration, again rephrased as negative, lest this right be interpreted as an obligation for the law to protect any person from natural dangers whenever possible

5. Article 4 of the UN Declaration

6. Article 5 of the UN Declaration

7. Article 6 of the UN Declaration

8. Slightly watered down version of Article 7 of the UN Declaration. Watered down because we want to ensure that the Basic Rights impose only negative, not positive, obligations -- the original text of UN Article 7 could be construed to place a positive obligation upon the law to enforce equality.

9. Article 9 of the UN Declaration

10. Modified version of Article 10 of the UN Declaration; I took out "in full equality" because it was redundant

11. Article 11.1 of the UN Declaration

12. Article 11.2 of the UN Declaration

13. Conciser version of Article 12 of the UN Declaration, without the bit about defamation, because it is incompatible with freedom of speech

14. Article 19 of the UN Declaration

15. Article 13.1 of the UN Declaration

16. Article 13.2 of the UN Declaration

17. Concise version of article ?? of the UN Declaration

18. Article 20.1 of the UN Declaration

19. Article 20.2 of the UN Declaration

20. Article 21.1 of the UN Declaration

21. Article 21.2 of the UN Declaration

22. todo: is this a matter for the federal government?

23. This seems to be a strange right. It is put here only because "Educate the people" has been listed below as one of the "other powers possesed by government". I worry that, absent this right, the government might someday find ways to twist the word "educate" to include propaganda, 're-education camps', brainwashing, or forcing statements of agreement with the government's views (on the grounds that if you don't agree, you must not really understand, and therefore must be subjected to further education)

24. Many of these should be immediately restricted by statue soon after the formation of government; but I wanted such restrictions to be statutory rather than constitutional.

25. You'd think that I'd already covered this, but since this is a prioritized list, I want to make it clear that these negative obligation supercedes the positive obligations below.

26. This is different from the previous two because this is an affirmative obligation rather than a negative one

27. Some of the civil rights, for example, the right to verify the authorization of government agents, may require the government to provide some service

28. So, the people's will must be followed, but only when doing so does not infringe on the rights of a minority

29. This fixes two problems in the USA system. (1) In the USA, when there are two opposing factions each of which have close to 50% of the vote, the fulcrum of power thrashes back and forth as one faction or another gets slightly more than 50%, and each faction imposes its policy during its brief stay in power, leading to policy instability. With a threshold of 60%, however, the vote would have to change by 20% before a policy may be replaced by its opposite. (2) For whatever reason, the USA system seems to structurally tends towards having two parties each of which control 50% of the vote. There is little incentive for compromise between parties, and this leads to partisanship/infighting. With a 60% threshold, even if the system unintentionally creates two parties of roughly equal power, those parties will have to compromise in order to pass bills.

30. Because I belive "consensus"-ish processes are workable and good, I'd like to make this threshold higher, say 75%, but I'm being conservative by remaining closer to current practice.

31. To date, governments have been observed to have a bias towards increasing their size and power. This provision is intended to fight against that bias.

32. Another provision intended to correct for the tendency of governments to increase their own size and power.

33. a "bug" in the code of law

34. <To prevent the government from simply creating one or two large provinces to fulfill the obligation of the previous sentence. The provinces, through their militias, are supposed to be an effective, last-resort local check against centralized tyranny.

35. For example, it is permissible to spend extra money on schools or police in poor areas. Another example: recognizing that a legal system based on procedural fairness in effect gives power to those who can hire more lawyers, it is permissible to skew the procedure in favor of the poor, for example by directing the courts to charge the rich legal fees in proportion to their wealth which are put into a fund to pay for lawyers for the poor

36. Following up the previous example, it is not permissible to assess extra legal fees to the rich which are more than proportional to their wealth, as this would not equalize effective power of the rich and the poor, but would actually put the rich at a disadvantage.

37. Part of Article 21.3 of the UN Declaration; I removed the bit about the will being expression through elections, since here the will is also expressed through direct democracy

38. Part of Article 21.3 of the UN Declaration, except that we allow the possiblity of voter qualification

39. In the U.S.A. for example, supreme court judges are appointed for life. What will happen if medical technology extends expected lifespan to 300 years? This principal prevents such problems.

40. For example: the creation of a complex procedure that allows citizens to retain their rights, but only if they can successfully navigate the procedure, puts the burden upon the citizens of doing a large amount of computation. In the USA system, this happens in the legal arena; people are forced to pay large amounts of money to hire law firms, which do a large amount of computation (learning about the law, learning about court procedure, creating motions and documents to submit to the judge) in order to effectively retain their rights. If an individual submits a motion at the wrong time, they are not allowed to say, "Your honor, I don't have time to properly learn your court's procedure, and I couldn't afford to hire a lawyer".

41. Another example is when the body of law grows too large; people are held responsible for following laws which they do not know exist, and it would be impractically expensive to read through and become aware of all of the laws which bind one.

42. The point of this principle is to prevent things like the use of the military to keep order domestically (without the declaration of some Emergency Condition), or the use of the foreign intelligence agency to spy domestically.

43. <for example, making it so that one is more likely to be called to jury duty if one votes

44. Practically speaking, retreating soldiers will fight for their lives while retreating whether or not they are legally authorized to use force. We accept this and make it legal. Similarly, we do not expect our soldiers to allow the enemy to capture our equipment. However, the "minimum...necessary" part ensures that this is not made into a loophole with which to attack or to extract retribution from the enemy without the consent of the Legislature.

45. The intent is to force the Foreign Minister to seek the approval of the Legislature for any use of force, even defensively, except when a surprise attack is launched, in which case a response must be made before the Legislature has time to deliberate. Now, imagine the case in which there are many small unknown military groups, any one of which might at any time pop up and attack. Clearly, the Foreign Minister must be authorized to defend against these attacks when they happen. But there cannot be a declaration of war against a nonspecific enemy. So it would seem that there is no way for the Foreign Minister to seek approval in advance. This is covered by the surprise exception because, whichever one attacks, the Foreign Minister wouldn't have known that that particular, specific group would attack, only that some group would probably attack. If, on the other hand, the Foreign Minister's intelligence had in fact, more than a month ago, ascertained the identities of some of these groups and decided that they might attack soon, then it would be possible for the Foreign Minister to seek the consent of the Legislature, so in this case the Foreign Minister is compelled to seek the consent of the Legislature in order to respond

46. I.e. a War Against Drugs or a War Against Terrorism is prohibited

47. Can the Legislature micromanage the conduct of a war? They cannot directly issue orders to the military, but they can dismiss the Foreign Minister and replace hir with someone more to their liking. They can also set policies which the Foreign Minister is obliged to follow as s/he issues orders to the military.

48. It may be impractical to take the time to talk to these entities before dealing with the emergency, but the intent is that if/when they do hear about it, they will agree that it is an emergency. Basically, emergency conditions may only be imposed by near-consensus

49. So if, during the Emergency, the Prime Minister or other attacker manages to replace, say, the Tribunes with new Tribunes, or perhaps to raise the number of total Tribunes and appoint ones loyal to hir, then the old Tribunes can still cancel the Emergency; same with the Senators.

50. So even if a majority of these individuals are kidnapped or killed, a majority of the remaining ones can still cancel the Emergency Condition

51. In this way, Martial Law concentrates power less than the Enabling Act which played a part in Hitler's rise to power

52. An infeasibly massive expense, you say? Yes, if the courts operated as USA courts do today, where trials with at least one rich party can cost huge amounts of money for all involved. But in this system, the State will have a strong incentive to reduce the cost of justice by reducing the amount of lawyer-hours that must be spent per case. You may claim this is unfair; but is it not unfair to have a system where the number of lawyer hours is such that it is infeasible for the State to pay for them, so that poor individuals must be effectively deprived of their rights?

53. No binding "precedent" is set by prior court decisions. This is a civil law system, not a common law system

54. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_law claims that this principal encourages a less litigious (sp) society

55. By contrast, consider the alternatives in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stare_decisis#How_judges_interpret_statutes. I chose to have the judges simply interpret the law because of the design goal of simplicity