TC-INT01A On the Rights and Duties of the High Council

[Chris Palmer]

Tynwald Court, Session interim-01A | On the Rights and Duties of the High Council

My fellow Alesians,

Following the recent Interim Government Poll, and, consequently, the Opening and Appointment of the interim High Council of Alesia, it is the Tynwald Court's rightful position to debate, formulate and legislate the current and future duties, rights and obligations of the High Council. So I call upon all citizens, from Alesia far and wide, to be heard and participate in this Court's legislative session.

Therefore, I propose, as Speaker of the Tynwald Court, the following legislation to be debated upon:

-- On the Rights and Duties of the High Council --
Tynwald Court-index: TC-INT01A

Part I - The High Council

1. The Executive authority of Alesia shall be vested in the High Council.

1.1. The duties, rights, and obligations of the High Council shall be to serve the region, to protect, uphold and abide by the Alesian Law, and to the best of their ability exercise their executive powers, written down in such Law. 

1.2. Whilst Founding Father Vercingetorix Maximus holds unilateral administrative power to protect our community and its communicative media and holds the power to appoint others that aid him in this pursuit, he shall be seen as equal as any other citizen in the eyes of the law and the rights and duties they prescribe, where eligible and in the right legal conditions.


Part II - The members and responsibilities of the High Council

2. The High Council consists of a minimum of four (4) executive council members, or Chieftains, each with their own duties:

2.1. The High Council shall be presided by the High Chieftain, which function is to guide, structure and exercise the responsibilities of the High Council, as well as oversee, guide and intervene when these responsibilities are not being uphold.

2.2. The Chieftain of Internal Stability, with responsibility for all internal activities, including recruiting, media management, and cultural development.

2.3. The Chieftain of Foreign Affairs, with the responsibility for all foreign activities, including accepting embassies and establishing diplomatic relationships.

2.4. The WA Delegate-Chief, with the responsibility of all regional WA-activities, including maintaining regional endorsements, stimulating regional WA-applications and whipping WA-votes.

3. The creation of new positions, as well as the separation, collation or alteration of responsibilities of existing positions in the High Council may only be executed through [legislation, by passage of law by simple majority within the Tynwald Court]¹.

4. The High Council is encouraged to publish frequent updates on their executive ideals, plans, goals and achievements. Its publication method is up to the discretion of the High Council.


Part III - Election and Appointment of the High Council

5. All positions of the High Council are to be [elected on individual grounds, with regional elections being held every 3 months, during the last whole week of the election month]².

5.1. The position of WA Delegate-Chief is non-electable, and is instead directly inherited [by holding the office of WA Delegate of Alesia for at least twenty-four (24) hours]³. 


Part IV - Enactment, Amendment and Constitutional Repeal

6. This law will immediately be in effect after a simple majority vote within the Tynwald Court.

7. This law, [with the exception of Article I and IV]⁴, may be amended after by simple majority vote within the Tynwald Court,.

8. This law will be immediately be repealed by a passage of the Alesian Constitution, if and only if said Constitution includes similar legislation.

Footnotes (i.e. Suggested points of debate)
¹ During the interim government, it is imperative to investigate the powers of the legislative and executive branch. Should the entire citizenry, in the legal form of the Tynwald Court, scrutinise the High Council, or should they have leniency in changing internally without the involvement of the Tynwald Court?
² Should the High Council be elected or appointed? If elected, should that be individually (all positions are up for election separately) or collectively (the group is voted on as one team)? If appointed, who should do the appointment?
³ To prevent switching back and forth between two Delegates, an leniency period of 24 hours is introduced in legislation. Is 24 hours enough, too much or too little? Should we include this period?
⁴ The existence of the High Council should be hard-coded by law if such a section is included. Also, by including article 7, we ensure that the Constitution must include text establishing the executive branch. This does not exclude the direct copy of this law, of course.

Any and other suggestions, amendments, dis- and agreements or neutral points of debate are more than welcome. Let yourself be heard.

[scotlandow]

I think any policies enacted by the Council must be made public to allow the Court to challenge if necessary. I do recognise that a Judiciary could be asked to intervene in such a debate and they must have clear law to refer to.
I think High Council members should be elected separately and not appointed. An alternative could be to elect the Chieftain who can appoint members to the Council, perhaps with the exception of the WA Delegate. Members would still be able to remove Council members in confidence votes. This could be better early on before there are more members. The question then is can the Chieftain remove members of the Council at will?
The 24-hour rule is dependant on whether or not the Delegate position remains the free-for-all it currently is or it becomes a whole-region elected position which, I think, long term is best.
The new constitution can have a specific clause superseding this legislation in terms of language legislating the existence of the executive and the Court.

[Ervald Krakensson]

1 During the interim government, it is imperative to investigate the powers of the legislative and executive branch. Should the entire citizenry, in the legal form of the Tynwald Court, scrutinise the High Council, or should they have leniency in changing internally without the involvement of the Tynwald Court?

2 Should the High Council be elected or appointed? If elected, should that be individually (all positions are up for election separately) or collectively (the group is voted on as one team)? If appointed, who should do the appointment?

3 To prevent switching back and forth between two Delegates, an leniency period of 24 hours is introduced in legislation. Is 24 hours enough, too much or too little? Should we include this period?

4 The existence of the High Council should be hard-coded by law if such a section is included. Also, by including article 7, we ensure that the Constitution must include text establishing the executive branch. This does not exclude the direct copy of this law, of course.

1. Look, we operate on direct elections here. If the government is not being transparent or reporting on what they're doing, let citizens or representatives or the private media call them out on it. If they truly do commit an illegal action, the judiciary will be obligated to bring forth charges. But if we have a upper legislative house in the future doing oversight, I would be fine with that. I think we're also underestimating how much of a tendency it is for administrations to want to be transparent and communicative anyway. 

2. I say we let the head of government be elected and then they appoint whoever they want. Wouldn't mind if those chieftains have to be confirmed by the legislature.

3. I think we should just make the WA Delegate directly elected who would serve a term of at least 60 days or so. But if we're talking a stop-gap measure, I say to make it 48 hours.

[Vercingetorix Maximus]

1 During the interim government, it is imperative to investigate the powers of the legislative and executive branch. Should the entire citizenry, in the legal form of the Tynwald Court, scrutinise the High Council, or should they have leniency in changing internally without the involvement of the Tynwald Court?


Direct elections, as Ervald said, will handled much of this - but some form of oversight/impeachment procedure is likely a good idea. A realistic probably is an executive head going inactive or just being really incompetent, in which case having the ability to remove them would prove to be worthwhile.

2 Should the High Council be elected or appointed? If elected, should that be individually (all positions are up for election separately) or collectively (the group is voted on as one team)? If appointed, who should do the appointment?


My preference is Direct election for High Chief, with the power to appoint deputies as needed.

3 To prevent switching back and forth between two Delegates, an leniency period of 24 hours is introduced in legislation. Is 24 hours enough, too much or too little? Should we include this period?


WA Delegates? I think whoever holds the spot has the job - if two folks are really switching back and forth consistently, we can address it more formally as needed then.

4 The existence of the High Council should be hard-coded by law if such a section is included. Also, by including article 7, we ensure that the Constitution must include text establishing the executive branch. This does not exclude the direct copy of this law, of course.

Agreed, as with the legislature.

[branch68]

I personally think we should remove the WA delegate from the HC. We should have it stand alone as it's own entity with no power in our government other than that afforded to it by virtue of simply being a citizen. To me the WA delegate option should be a role that helps acclimate new members and tries to ensure that as many members as possible are WA members. Also by leaving the election process of the delegate to the game design where you simply need the most endorsements it allows new members a position they can have a direct effect on without having to wait for the next election especially if they join immediately after the previous election. As a new member I know how daunting it can seem when trying to pick what region to join and the fact that anyone even and entry level novice like me could run for WA delegate was very attracting. I think by keeping that smaller region sentiment where the position is always up for grabs instead of bigger region where it is guarded closely and unattainable to new members. By doing this is will make people feel more welcome and that their voice is being heard. Also the tagline "our WA delegate position is p for grabs" would definitely attract new members

[Chris Palmer]

Due to the stabilization of discussion, unless substantial new points of discussions are made, this proposal will be put to a vote within the next 24 hours. Suggestions and amendments to the proposed legislation should be made beforehand. I will summarize the discussion and amend the text where necessary before the vote starts, to offer the Tynwald Court the exact proposal to vote on.