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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999 time: 06:23
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Article: The Court
1. Purpose:
The Court is constituted to rule upon: contested disputes involving legal interpretation, validity of polls and elections, violations of the Constitution, or any other legal dispute involving the game.
2. Construct of the Court:
(a) The Court is composed of 3 Judges who will serve a three month term of office. There is no limit to the number of terms a Judge may serve.
(b) Each Judge has to be elected by the people in a seperate election poll. Every month one of the Judge positions shall be open for election. This positition shall be the one of the Judge who has reached the end of his term.
(c) The moment the election of a Judge position starts, shall be the moment on which the Judge who enters the last month of his term becomes the Senior Justice.
(d) Section 2(c) only applies to regular elections at the end of a Judge's term. It does not apply to elections that take place to replace impeached Judges. Impeached Judges shall serve for the remainder of the term that their predecessor was serving. If the Senior Justice was impeached, the new Judge shall become the Senior Justice. If another Judge was impeached, the Senior Justice shall keep his position.
(d) A Judge may not serve in other governmental posts.
3. Cases:
(a) The Court can only rule on cases filed. A case may be filed by any citizen who is not a Judge, by publically notifying the Senior Justice. This case must involve a dispute that the Court is empowered to rule upon.
(b) The Senior Justice will either accept or deny the case. This decision cannot be appealed. If the case is denied, the Senior Justice will publically inform the filer of the case, explaining the reason for the denial.
(c) Upon acceptance the Senior Justice is to open a thread with the description of the case. A public hearing will be held in that thread lasting three days.
(d) After three days, the thread will be closed and the Senior Justice will organize the Court's ruling. At least two Judges must vote on any ruling that is made. All rulings are immediately official and final as soon as two Judges have voted in favour of it.
(e) The only possibilty of an appeal is a lawsuit poll put up by the citizen that filed the case or by a Minister or by the President. In that case, the current verdict is placed on hold until after the appeal is voted upon. The ruling of the Court is declared void if 2/3 of the votes disapproves of it.
(f) If a ruling is declared void by appeal, a new public hearing will be held in accordance with sections 3(c), 3(d) and 3(e), with the exception that the public hearing may be closed in less than three days if the Court deems this appropriate.
4. Rights and responsibilities:
(a) The Court may make its own rules of procedure and enforce them upon citizens who are before it.
(b) The Court will keep a record of all disputes, issues, and hearings before the Court. The Court will also keep a public record of the Constitution in its most current form. The Court may appoint a Clerk of the Court to keep these records.
(c) If the Court rules that the actions of certain Citizens are in violation with the Constitution or other rules of Lemuria|Apolymuria, it may hand out punishments to these Citizens if it deems this appropriate. The Court will determine for itself what kind of punishment is applied, the punishment must fit the crime. However, no punishments may permanently affect a Citizens participation in the Democracy Game and the Court may not dismiss active members of government (although it is allowed to start up impeachment procedures as described in Article V).
(d) Punishments the Court hands out must include but are not limited to: warnings, impeachment procedures, barring Citizens from specific or any government offices in future elections, banning Citizens from the Democracy Game, declaring resolutions void, closing threads or polls, deleting or editing posts or threads, declaring polls invalid. Punishments which require action from the CtP2-Democracy Game forum moderator must be approved by this moderator, who shall offer an explanation to the Court if approval is not given.
(e) The Court may issue an injunction to halt any aspect of the game for up to 72 hours if at least two Judges agree to do so. Injunctions may only be issued for good cause. An injunction may only be continued beyond 72 hours if all three Judges agrees to do so. An injunction may be overturned at any time by a majority of the Court.
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Changes: section 2 and 4 were radically changed, in section 3(f) I added a line to deal with appeals faster if the outcome is obvious.
This hasn't been updated in ages and I had to fill in a lot of the details on my own, so I'm sure there will be a lot to discuss...
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J Bytheway
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England
Jul 2001 time: 05:23
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quote: Originally posted by Locutus
Article: The Court
1. Purpose:
The Court is constituted to rule upon: contested disputes involving legal interpretation, validity of polls and elections, violations of the Constitution, or any other legal dispute involving the game. |
Possibly I'm being overly picky, but I think we should really only be considering legal disputes which are internal to the game, rather than all those involving it.
quote: 2. Construct of the Court:
(d) Section 2(c) only applies to regular elections at the end of a Judge's term. It does not apply to elections that take place to replace impeached Judges. Impeached Judges shall serve for the remainder of the term that their predecessor was serving. If the Senior Justice was impeached, the new Judge shall become the Senior Justice. If another Judge was impeached, the Senior Justice shall keep his position. |
I assume you really mean:
quote: (d) Section 2(c) only applies to regular elections at the end of a Judge's term. It does not apply to elections that take place to replace impeached Judges. The replacement for an impeached Judge shall serve for the remainder of the term that their predecessor was serving. If the Senior Justice was impeached, the new Judge shall become the Senior Justice. If another Judge was impeached, the Senior Justice shall keep his position. |
quote: 4. Rights and responsibilities:
(a) The Court may make its own rules of procedure and enforce them upon citizens who are before it. |
It shouldn't be necessary really, but it might be a good idea to clarify this by adding "so long as such rules are in accordance with the constitution".
quote: (b) The Court will keep a record of all disputes, issues, and hearings before the Court. The Court will also keep a public record of the Constitution in its most current form. |
You don't need to say most current, there can only be one current form.
quote: (e) The Court may issue an injunction to halt any aspect of the game for up to 72 hours if at least two Judges agree to do so. Injunctions may only be issued for good cause. An injunction may only be continued beyond 72 hours if all three Judges agrees to do so. An injunction may be overturned at any time by a majority of the Court. |
This power goes beyond the purpose as set out in section 1, doesn't it?
You might also wish to add a note that the court may not alter the constitution (which they might concievably wish to do as a punishment).
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H Tower
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I like it, especially with all the little fixes proposed, i was going to comment on those myself but the others got to it first.
However, I think the judges should be able to strike down a new version of the constitution if they feel it contradicts itself or if for some reason, a dictatorship kind of constitution is voted for, which would violate the whole spirit of the game
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Pedrunn
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of Natal, Brazil
Jul 2001 time: 02:23
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quote: CTP2DG Constitution draft
(c) The moment the election of a Judge position starts, shall be the moment on which the Judge who enters the last month of his term becomes the Senior Justice.
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What happenned to the poll among the two veteran to be senior?
Although i do believe this way is better. After all the court cant have this kind of dispute among them. They have to be friends. I am for it!
quote: CTP2DG Constitution draft
(a) The Court can only rule on cases filed. A case may be filed by any citizen who is not a Judge, by publically notifying the Senior Justice. This case must involve a dispute that the Court is empowered to rule upon.
(b) The Senior Justice will either accept or deny the case. This decision cannot be appealed. If the case is denied, the Senior Justice will publically inform the filer of the case, explaining the reason for the denial. |
What you mean by publically notify? Post in the Court's thread. You should be more specific. How many threads will the court have?
quote: CTP2DG Constitution draft
(e) The only possibilty of an appeal is a lawsuit poll put up by the citizen that filed the case or by a Minister or by the President. In that case, the current verdict is placed on hold until after the appeal is voted upon. The ruling of the Court is declared void if 2/3 of the votes disapproves of it. |
I think you mean a resolution poll as discribed in the Article II of the constitution. If so much of the info here is not needed. Otherwise we need more info about this poll (Will this be a totally new type of poll?).
Last edited by Pedrunn on 10-11-2002 at 17:03
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H Tower
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locutus, could you get a final draft of this ready for the people to vote on? it seems that the people want to install a court before the rest of the elections take place, so that the court could rule over the first elections and help make a fix if something goes wrong, a tie, cheating by DL's, etc. So the article about the court needs to be done so that the court and the people can point to it.
i figure we need to finish up the rest of the connie so that people can vote on that and have it finish up right before the general elections take place
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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999 time: 06:23
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quote: However, I think the judges should be able to strike down a new version of the constitution if they feel it contradicts itself or if for some reason, a dictatorship kind of constitution is voted for, which would violate the whole spirit of the game |
Hmm, but how should this be enforced without allowing 3 people to completely take over the game? The way I see it, anyone can propose changes to the Constitution at any point in the game (Judge or no Judge), the changes will be accepted as soon as 2/3 of the voters agree with them... I get the idea, but I don't think it's needed with our current system. Correct me if I'm wrong though...
quote: Originally posted by Pedrunn
What happenned to the poll among the two veteran to be senior?
Although i do believe this way is better. After all the court cant have this kind of dispute among them. They have to be friends. I am for it! |
John proposed this new system and I liked it Glad you agree 
quote: What you mean by publically notify? Post in the Court's thread. You should be more specific. How many threads will the court have? |
Yes, post it in a Court thread, that's what I had in mind, as long as everyone can see it. That way the Court doesn't have to treat 20 similar cases at once when a problem presents itself and everyone informs the Court at the same time but in private. I think 1, maybe 2 Court threads should be enough (1 for filing and accept/refuse cases and 1 to keep an official record of events), but basically it's up to the discression of the Court, as far as I'm concerned.
quote: I think you mean a resolution poll as discribed in the Article II of the constitution. If so much of the info here is not needed. Otherwise we need more info about this poll (Will this be a totally new type of poll?). |
Hmm, a remnant of the past Yes, a resolution poll sounds good enough. Will change that.
I will make a new draft later today or tomorrow at the latest. I think for the first elections it might be best to just have me as moderator organize those and have the game start only once the entire Constitution is in place. Not sure how others feel about this though...
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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999 time: 06:23
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Yup, 3 seperate Judge polls will be needed: one for a 1-month term as Supreme Judge, one for a 2-month term and one regular 3-month term. However, I don't think these short terms should count towards the limit of the number of terms though, since they're not really full terms. I considered allowing a 4-month term for the Judge who normally does 1 month but that seems too long and is bound to create all sorts of problems (who would be Senior Justice when, for example?)
Edit: no, I think there should be seperate polls, not just 1 poll. That way everyone knows exactly how long he will serve (impeachment aside) and can take this into acocunt when deciding if they want to run or not (holidays and stuff might make it impossible for people to be in office at certain times). However, people *should* IMHO be allowed to run for more than 1 Judge poll if they want to (and if they are the winner in more than 1, they have to give up one of the positions and #2 will get the seat instead).
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H Tower
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I figured it would be locutus from the begining too, although pedrunn would be my second choice for posting.
Could you explain how you think that a judge could run in more than one election? Wouldn't all the judges just run in every election? Because that's what I wold do then...
Another way to do it is to just have one election, and have the judges draw straws to decide who become senior, and junior grade judges. Something random.
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Gilgamensch
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France
Jun 2002 time: 06:23
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For the first round, I would say:
If Locutus is being elected by the people we make him as the Senior Judge and afterwards we follow the normal procedures.......Reason being, he is 'our' mod and shall be quite neutral towards the rest of us.......
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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999 time: 06:23
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I think this is just about the last update. Unless there's criticism on this or people have suggestions for grammar/spelling improvements (I'm sure there's a lot that can still be done in this area), this Article seems pretty much ready for approval. If you still want any of the contents changed, speak now... (or forever hold your peace )
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Article: The Court
1. Purpose:
The Court is constituted to rule upon: contested disputes involving legal interpretation, validity of polls and elections, violations of the Constitution, or any other legal dispute involving the game.
2. Construct of the Court:
(a) The Court is composed of 3 Judges who will serve a three month term of office. There is no limit to the number of terms a Judge may serve.
(b) Each Judge has to be elected by the people in a seperate election poll. Every month one of the Judge positions shall be open for election. This positition shall be the one of the Judge who has reached the end of his term.
(c) The moment the election of a Judge position starts, shall be the moment on which the Judge who enters the last month of his term becomes the Senior Justice.
(d) Section 2(c) only applies to regular elections at the end of a Judge's term. It does not apply to elections that take place to replace impeached Judges. The replacement for an impeached Judge shall serve for the remainder of the term that their predecessor was serving. If the Senior Justice was impeached, the new Judge shall become the Senior Justice. If another Judge was impeached, the Senior Justice shall keep his position.
(d) A Judge may not serve in other governmental posts.
3. Cases:
(a) The Court can only rule on cases filed. A case may be filed by any citizen who is not a Judge, by publically notifying the Senior Justice. This case must involve a dispute that the Court is empowered to rule upon.
(b) The Senior Justice will either accept or deny the case. This decision cannot be appealed. If the case is denied, the Senior Justice will publically inform the filer of the case, explaining the reason for the denial.
(c) Upon acceptance the Senior Justice is to open a thread with the description of the case. A public hearing will be held in that thread lasting three days.
(d) After three days, the thread will be closed and the Senior Justice will organize the Court's ruling. At least two Judges must vote on any ruling that is made. All rulings are immediately official and final as soon as two Judges have voted in favour of it.
(e) The only possibilty of an appeal is a Resolution poll put up by the citizen that filed the case or by a Minister or by the President. In that case, the current verdict is placed on hold until after the appeal is voted upon. The ruling of the Court can be declared void by means of a Resolution poll.
(f) If a ruling is declared void by appeal, a new public hearing will be held in accordance with sections 3(c), 3(d) and 3(e), with the exception that the public hearing may be closed in less than three days if the Court deems this appropriate.
4. Rights and responsibilities:
(a) The Court may make its own rules of procedure and enforce them upon citizens who are before it, so long as such rules are in accordance with the constitution.
(b) The Court will keep a record of all disputes, issues, and hearings before the Court. The Court will also keep a public record of the Constitution in its most current form. The Court may appoint a Clerk of the Court to keep these records.
(c) If the Court rules that the actions of certain Citizens are in violation with the Constitution or other rules of Lemuria|Apolymuria, it may hand out punishments to these Citizens if it deems this appropriate. The Court will determine for itself what kind of punishment is applied, the punishment must fit the crime. However, no punishments may permanently affect a Citizens participation in the Democracy Game, the Court may not dismiss active members of government (although it is allowed to start up impeachment procedures as described in Article V) and the Court may not alter the Constitution (although it is allowed to start an Amendment poll, as described in Article IV).
(d) Punishments the Court hands out must include but are not limited to: warnings, impeachment procedures, barring Citizens from specific or any government offices in future elections, banning Citizens from the Democracy Game, declaring resolutions void, closing threads or polls, deleting or editing posts or threads, declaring polls invalid. Punishments which require action from the CtP2-Democracy Game forum moderator must be approved by this moderator, who shall offer an explanation to the Court if approval is not given.
(e) The Court may issue an injunction to halt any aspect of the game for up to 72 hours if at least two Judges agree to do so. Injunctions may only be issued for good cause. An injunction may only be continued beyond 72 hours if all three Judges agrees to do so. An injunction may be overturned at any time by a majority of the Court.
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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999 time: 06:23
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Gilga,
You can view rulings in 2 ways: "guilty" vs "not guilty" on the one hand and "guilty and the following action will be taken/punishment will be enforced" vs "not guilty and no action will be taken" on the other. In the former case, it's sufficient if 2 judges vote against a proposal, in the latter case, if one form of action/punishment is rejected by 2 judges, it doens't mean it's an automatic "not guilty". It could still be guilty, but with some other form of action. If it's a simple yes/no matter, a no-vote is identical to a yes vote for the opposite proposal and 2 no-votes thus equal 2 yes-votes (for the opposite proposal). If the matter is more complicated, only 2 actual yes-votes are needed. The way I see it, Judges will have to agree on (i.e. vote in favour of) a final statement, whether this is a simple "not guilty" or a whole 3-page document with explanations, recommendations and action plans.
re: social solution:
"(a) The Court may make its own rules of procedure and enforce them upon citizens who are before it, so long as such rules are in accordance with the constitution."
This includes the social solution and about a gazillion other situations in which the Court may need to lay down some basic rules to organize stuff properly. It gives the Court all the freedom it needs to do their job properly and uninterrupted (as long as they don't break any existing rules in the process).
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Article: The Court
1. Purpose:
The Court is constituted to rule upon: contested disputes involving legal interpretation, validity of polls and elections, violations of the Constitution, or any other legal dispute involving the game.
2. Construct of the Court:
(a) The Court is composed of 3 Judges who will serve a three month term of office. There is no limit to the number of terms a Judge may serve.
(b) Each Judge has to be elected by the people in a seperate election poll. Every month one of the Judge positions shall be open for election. This positition shall be the one of the Judge who has reached the end of his term.
(c) The moment the election of a Judge position starts, shall be the moment on which the Judge who enters the last month of his term becomes the Senior Justice.
(d) Section 2(c) only applies to regular elections at the end of a Judge's term. It does not apply to elections that take place to replace impeached Judges. The replacement for an impeached Judge shall serve for the remainder of the term that their predecessor was serving. If the Senior Justice was impeached, the new Judge shall become the Senior Justice. If another Judge was impeached, the Senior Justice shall keep his position.
(e) A Judge may not serve in other governmental posts.
3. Cases:
(a) The Court can only rule on cases filed. A case may be filed by any citizen who is not a Judge, by publically notifying the Senior Justice. This case must involve a dispute that the Court is empowered to rule upon.
(b) The Senior Justice will either accept or deny the case. This decision cannot be appealed. If the case is denied, the Senior Justice will publically inform the filer of the case, explaining the reason for the denial.
(c) Upon acceptance the Senior Justice is to open a thread with the description of the case. A public hearing will be held in that thread lasting three days.
(d) After three days, the thread will be closed and the Senior Justice will organize the Court's ruling. At least two Judges must vote on any ruling that is made. All rulings are immediately official and final as soon as two Judges have voted in favour of it.
(e) The only possibilty of an appeal is a Resolution poll put up by the citizen that filed the case or by a Minister or by the President. In that case, the current verdict is placed on hold until after the appeal is voted upon. The ruling of the Court can be declared void by means of a Resolution poll.
(f) If a ruling is declared void by appeal, a new public hearing will be held in accordance with sections 3(c), 3(d) and 3(e), with the exception that the public hearing may be closed in less than three days if the Court deems this appropriate.
4. Rights and responsibilities:
(a) The Court may make its own rules of procedure and enforce them upon citizens who are before it, so long as such rules are in accordance with the constitution.
(b) The Court will keep a record of all disputes, issues, and hearings before the Court. The Court will also keep a public record of the Constitution in its most current form. The Court may appoint a Clerk of the Court to keep these records.
(c) If the Court rules that the actions of certain Citizens are in violation with the Constitution or other rules of Lemuria|Apolymuria, it may hand out punishments to these Citizens if it deems this appropriate. The Court will determine for itself what kind of punishment is applied, the punishment must fit the crime. However, no punishments may permanently affect a Citizens participation in the Democracy Game, the Court may not dismiss active members of government (although it is allowed to start up impeachment procedures as described in Article V) and the Court may not alter the Constitution (although it is allowed to start an Amendment poll, as described in Article IV).
(d) Punishments the Court hands out must include but are not limited to: warnings, impeachment procedures, barring Citizens from specific or any government offices in future elections, banning Citizens from the Democracy Game, declaring resolutions void, closing threads or polls, deleting or editing posts or threads, declaring polls invalid. Punishments which require action from the CtP2-Democracy Game forum moderator must be approved by this moderator, who shall offer an explanation to the Court if approval is not given.
(e) The Court may issue an injunction to halt any aspect of the game for up to 72 hours if at least two Judges agree to do so. Injunctions may only be issued for good cause. An injunction may only be continued beyond 72 hours if all three Judges agrees to do so. An injunction may be overturned at any time by a majority of the Court.
(f) The Court is responsible for organizing elections. It shall posting election polls and nomination threads whenever this is needed, as defined in Article III and IV.
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Gilgamensch
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France
Jun 2002 time: 06:23
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Locutus,
Yes and no.
This would the case for normal cases. But what about if the court has to make a general statement? This decision they take might be against the claim, but still might change the existing law a bit, or give a different aspect.
That's why I suggest it..........
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