Users browsing this thread:

**Seraph** · 03-14-2017, 07:50 PM

As part of its efforts to explore the possibilities available for gameside engagement, and to improve activity both there and on the forums, the Ministry of Regional Affairs is interested in exploring the idea of creating colonial regions for specialising subsets of our community (such as the Knowhere RP region, created to allow RMB RPers a place to let off steam without monopolising the RMB of the South Pacific), to develop new players by allowing them a free space to 'practice' politics and their own government ideas, and to trial pieces of legislation as they are being worked on. To enable this, I propose the following Act, which would empower the Coalition to create and govern such regions, whilst ensuring they have the capability of their own autonomy and self-determination.

The Commonwealth Act Wrote:
The Commonwealth Act
An act empowering the Coalition of the South Pacific to create and govern colonial regions.

1. Creation

(1) The Cabinet may choose to found new regions, to be termed colonial regions or colonies of the South Pacific for the purposes of--
a. Encouraging regional activity
b. Developing new players
c. Trialling new legislation.

(2) A colonial contract will be written and maintained between each colonial region and the South Pacific. This will detail the specifics of the colonial relationship, according to the purpose and requirements of each colony.

(3) Each colony must be founded using a puppet nation, itself founded specifically for the purpose. The passwords for founder nations will be kept by the CRS, unless otherwise specified in a colonial contract.

(4) All colonies must be connected to the South Pacific with in-game embassies.

(5) The South Pacific and any colonies under the control of the Coalition will be known collectively as the Commonwealth of the South Pacific.

(6) Pre-existing regions may choose to become part of the Commonwealth and be considered ‘member regions’, but, in doing so, they must submit to the terms of governance listed in article 2 and create a contact of membership, similar to a colonial contract, between themselves and the South Pacific.

2. Governance

(1) All colonies and member regions of the Commonwealth of the South Pacific will--
a. remain under the ultimate governance and sovereignty of the Coalition of the South Pacific and its Charter.
b. be bound by any active treaties of which the South Pacific is a party.

(2) Colonies and member regions may choose to adopt or continue their own local government structure, judiciary and laws, providing they remain subordinate to and do not contradict those of the South Pacific as stipulated in the Charter.

(3) Colonies and member regions will not be permitted to form or maintain their own militaries unless they are to be considered as a subunit of the South Pacific Special Forces and thus under the ultimate command of the Minister of Military Affairs of the South Pacific.

(4) All residents of the regions of the Commonwealth will enjoy the same rights and freedoms as those granted to residents of the South Pacific by the Charter.

(5) Colonies and member regions may send legislators to the Assembly of the South Pacific under the following conditions--
a. Any Legislator may only represent one region at a time and must state which region they are applying from in their application. All legislators whose applications were accepted before the passing of this law will be considered to be representing the South Pacific until they either lose Legislator status or state their move to represent a colony or member region.
b. The number of legislators from any given colony or member region must not exceed one-fifth of the number of legislators from the South Pacific.

3. Secession

(1) Any colony or member region may announce its intention to secede from the Commonwealth, should a supermajority of three-fifths of native voters choose to do so.

(2) Once a colony or member region has announced its intention to secede, a period of negotiation lasting no less than one week will take place, during which the continuing relationship between the seceding region and the rest of the Commonwealth is to be determined.

(3) The secession of a colony will only be made complete once the founding nation is handed over to the local government of that region by the CRS.

Whilst I have been working on this for a week, it is obviously draft legislation and I welcome others in the region to engage with it and improve it. Many details, such as the limit on legislators from colonial and member regions are entirely arbitrary and could be improved by someone with better experience in judging the right level. Even the proposed name, 'the Commonwealth', is up for grabs. I chose it because it avoids repurposing the name of the Coalition, which I know many would be opposed to, and it maintains the atmosphere of welcome, inclusivity and diversity which we expect from the South Pacific, but perhaps someone can come up with a better suggestion?

I look forward to hearing people's ideas.

Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond!

Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi.

Salma 145:8

translate

***Roavin*** · 03-14-2017, 09:10 PM

I ... actually don't have anything to add right now. This is beautiful!

Knowhere and Versailles Isle should probably get contracts passed together with this piece of legislation.

Ryccia · 03-14-2017, 09:14 PM

I like this idea, but I would like for all subjects - TSPers and non-TSPers - to be able to earn legislator status, no matter where the hell they come from.

...Unless they choose to send some sort of representative instead, that is.

The rest of the bill: thank you, @Seraph. All hail Seraph. Praise the almighty Seraph. Saviour of TSP, Father of our glorious colonial cause.

Deputy Regional Minister of the Planning and Development Agency(March 8-May 19, 2014)

Local Council Member(April 24-August 11)

Court Justice of TSP(August 15-December 7)

Quotes

[Image: 9ehfkQV.png]

(This post was last modified: 03-14-2017, 09:15 PM by Ryccia.)

Resentine · 03-14-2017, 09:21 PM

Like I mentioned in the Discord, there are plenty of regions that do not have Founders, and some who also have non-executive founders. In those cases, I believe we should directly and explicitly offer Military Support in the case of an invasion. I know it's obviously implied, but I'd rather it be explicitly said rather than eventually come to a point in the future where one of these Colonies gets invaded and our response is "Not our region, not our problem". Either that or assisting these regions in a refound effort.

With that out of the way, I concur with Ryccia. We either give them Legislator Status and/or their own version of the LC so they have some power in regards to decisions made in the Assembly.

An eye for an eye just makes the whole world go blind.
~Mahatma Gandhi

RP-Government Information

Army Ops

**Seraph** · 03-15-2017, 03:58 AM

Okay, based on suggestions made here and on the RMB, here is a second draft.

Changes include: the moving of some of article two into a new article three on rights and freedoms, which now also includes a guarantee of military protection; a change in wording (highlighted in bold) around legislators to lessen the restrictions but still ensure that no dependent region can have a larger influence in the Assembly than the South Pacific itself; and a new fifth article detailing the existing regions to be incorporated into the Commonwealth if the law passes.

The Commonwealth Act (v. 2) Wrote:
The Commonwealth Act
An act empowering the Coalition of the South Pacific to create and govern colonial regions.

1. Creation

(1) The Cabinet may choose to found new regions, to be termed colonial regions or colonies of the South Pacific for the purposes of--
a. Encouraging regional activity
b. Developing new players
c. Trialling new legislation.

(2) A colonial contract will be written and maintained between each colonial region and the South Pacific. This will detail the specifics of the colonial relationship, according to the purpose and requirements of each colony.

(3) Each colony must be founded using a puppet nation, itself founded specifically for the purpose. The passwords for founder nations will be kept by the CRS, unless otherwise specified in a colonial contract.

(4) All colonies must be connected to the South Pacific with in-game embassies.

(5) The South Pacific and any colonies under the control of the Coalition will be known collectively as the Commonwealth of the South Pacific.

(6) Pre-existing regions may choose to become part of the Commonwealth and be considered ‘member regions’, but, in doing so, they must submit to the terms of governance listed in article 2 and create a contact of membership, similar to a colonial contract, between themselves and the South Pacific.

2. Governance and Treaties

(1) All colonies and member regions of the Commonwealth of the South Pacific will--
a. remain under the ultimate governance and sovereignty of the Coalition of the South Pacific and its Charter.
b. be bound by any active treaties of which the South Pacific is a party.

(2) Colonies and member regions may choose to adopt or continue their own local government structure, judiciary and laws, providing they remain subordinate to and do not contradict those of the South Pacific as stipulated in the Charter.

(3) Colonies and member regions will not be permitted to form or maintain their own militaries unless they are to be considered as a subunit of the South Pacific Special Forces and thus under the ultimate command of the Minister of Military Affairs of the South Pacific.

(4) All residents of the regions of the Commonwealth will enjoy the same rights and freedoms as those granted to residents of the South Pacific by the Charter.

(5) Colonies and member regions may send legislators to the Assembly of the South Pacific under the following conditions--
a. Any Legislator may only represent one region at a time and must state which region they are applying from in their application. All legislators whose applications were accepted before the passing of this law will be considered to be representing the South Pacific until they either lose Legislator status or state their move to represent a colony or member region.
b. The number of legislators from any given colony or member region must not exceed one-fifth of the number of legislators from the South Pacific.

3. Rights and Freedoms

(1) All residents of the regions of the Commonwealth will enjoy the same rights and freedoms as those granted to residents of the South Pacific by the Charter.

(2) Colonies and member regions may send legislators to the Assembly of the South Pacific under the following conditions--
a. Any Legislator may only represent one region at a time and must state which region they are applying from in their application. All legislators whose applications were accepted before the passing of this law will be considered to be representing the South Pacific until they either lose Legislator status or state their move to represent a colony or member region.
b. The number of legislators from any given colony or member region must not exceed the number of legislators from the South Pacific.

(3) Colonies and member regions will not be permitted to form or maintain their own militaries unless they are to be considered as a subunit of the South Pacific Special Forces and thus under the ultimate command of the Minister of Military Affairs of the South Pacific.

(4) Every region of the Commonwealth will be guaranteed military protection by the South Pacific Special Forces.

3. 4. Secession

(1) Any colony or member region may announce its intention to secede from the Commonwealth, should a supermajority of three-fifths of native voters choose to do so.

(2) Once a colony or member region has announced its intention to secede, a period of negotiation lasting no less than one week will take place, during which the continuing relationship between the seceding region and the rest of the Commonwealth is to be determined.

(3) The secession of a colony will only be made complete once the founding nation is handed over to the local government of that region by the CRS.

5. Incorporation of Existing Regions

The following pre-existing regions will be incorporated into the Commonwealth of the South Pacific and all legal obligations completed for them upon the passing of this law--
a. South Pacific Regional Games
b. South Pacific Ejection Contest
c. Versailles Isle
d. Knowhere

6. Constitutional Law

(1) The Commonwealth Act is a constitutional law and further amendments to it must meet constitutional amendment requirements.

Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond!

Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi.

Salma 145:8

translate

(This post was last modified: 03-15-2017, 07:19 PM by Seraph.)

Ausstan · 03-15-2017, 04:34 AM

I support the separate LC idea, by Res. This way they can get their own say in how the region is run, but still have an equal voice in TSP matters. Shame the game mechanics don't really support ideas like this too well. Say if I wanted to head over to knowhere, I would lose all of my endos. The only way to get past that would be to create a puppet. That means that the colonial LC members can't be WA members.

John Hills- President of Ausstan

**Seraph** · 03-15-2017, 07:39 AM

So, yeah, the draft already allows the colonies to have their own form of local government. As for the WA stuff, I don't see any way around that, but not do I see it as that important. Wrt. polls, they can be recreated in each region if need be and we could instate some kind of provision that regional delegates vote the same way as the TSP delegate.

Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond!

Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi.

Salma 145:8

translate

***sandaoguo*** · 03-15-2017, 08:34 AM

Granting legislator status to people in OTHER regions doesn't really sit well. Why? The laws we pass here are only about our region. We'd be giving these colonies their own government, too. Are we going to have to perform security checks on ALL applicants from all the regions? What about when one colony decides somebody is a threat-- does that transfer? How do we keep track of it?

I think our Charter would also have to be completely rewritten, if it's meant to accommodate more than just one region.

If I were to do this, I'd basically give these regions their own Charter. They can be subordinate to TSP as a metropole, without us trying to have a single document and government managing a bunch of different regions.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(This post was last modified: 03-15-2017, 08:35 AM by sandaoguo.)

**Seraph** · 03-15-2017, 11:02 AM

I'm not convinced that we would need to rewrite the charter to solve those issues. I think the answer to all your questions would be 'yes', as part of the point of this is building up players on both sides of the community, so we'd want more players applying as legislators anyway. As for who would keep track, The CoA and CRS would continue to do the jobs they were elected to do.

Whilst, legally, this has the potential to be a massive increase in scale, its not likely to be in the short term and so there'd be time to adapt to any changes in scale gradually. Perhaps there's a compromise, though?

Another thought, not related to Glen's comment, but should this be classified as a constitutional law, since it details the overarching governance of subsidiary regions with residents claiming Charter rights?

Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond!

Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi.

Salma 145:8

translate

**Seraph** · 03-15-2017, 07:20 PM

Update: I've edited a constitutional law article into my previous draft as article 6.

Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond!

Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi.

Salma 145:8

translate