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Coup In LazarusBy Rikuchar

It is Day 16 in the civil conflict between the Lazarene government run by Funkadelia and the government-in-exile that he infamously banished from the region over 3 weeks ago. Neither side seems to be giving up the fight, but Funkadelia's government, in a controversial decision, have pushed through their new constitution, supposedly skipping the debate period despite opposition from even some of his supporters.

Meanwhile, the resistance has made a small attempt at negating Funkadelia's recent influence gains by performing a good old fashioned update jump. With a force 11 strong, they quickly moved into the region, only to be quickly banjected by Funk and his supporters, most of whom have previous banjecting experience on account of them being raiders.

Additionally, the resistance just 2 days ago posted an extensive record of the chat logs from their resistance Discord chat, a move that has mixed reactions from both sides. The pro-Funkadelia loyalists seem to claim it as a victory, while the Resistance has a variety of views on it, ranging from a mild victory to something that will change nothing.

Nobody, at this point, can tell who will win this battle. At some points the resistance seemed to have a clear advantage. At others, the loyalists looked to have the high ground. Regardless of what happens, one side will win, and one side will lose, and Lazarus will be changed forever.

Chocolate Ice Cream: TSP’s Favorite Ice Cream?
By Spenty

In a poll by Pencil Sharpeners 2 on TSP’s favorite Ice Cream, Chocolate emerged as the winner with over half of the results. I’m not a big fan of chocolate or chocolate ice cream myself, but let’s have a further look.
 When we now base it on a larger population, an article by Mike Pomeranz that was written in July this year (The whole article is here:http://www.foodandwine.com/news/americas...am-flavors), Vanilla and Chocolate were the top two flavors (in order) in an survey held by the International Dairy Foods Association (IFDA) (The article can be found here:http://www.idfa.org/news-views/news-rele...-americans) although according to the International Ice Cream Association’s Survey back in 2012, only 10 percent prefer chocolate over the 30 percent who prefer vanilla.

These flavors are followed by Cookies and Cream, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Cookie Dough (With Chocolate, Vanilla, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Cookie Dough getting 29, 15, 21 and 13 votes respectively; Cookies and Cream is not included as an option in the survey). These four flavors were also the top four flavors in the regional survey.
 So Chocolate has been one of the original ice cream flavors as it was found a book named “The Modern Steward” published by Antonio Latini (A steward of Cardinal Antonio Barberini) in Naples, Italy in 1692 according to http://www.fourpoundsflour.com/origin-of...ice-cream/ (2017). In fact, Vanilla Ice Cream was concocted later than Chocolate Ice Cream. According to the website, the reason for this is that drinks were frozen as ice cream (It is worth noting that frozen desserts at that time were in the form of sherbets). Now, today’s commercial ice cream is usually artificially flavored and is now enjoyed by everyone across the world.




Coffee and NS
By Spenty

So this week’s topic is all about the new PJ. After a few weeks of deliberation, the cabinet has decided to pick Kris Kringle (Kringalia) as our next Permanent Justice. Whilst all the applicants answered well and although Kris did not necessarily answer them in a straightforward manner, he has given detailed analysis on each of the questions that were posed.

You see, a Permanent Justice has to be inquisitive and, at the same time, has to give an unbiased interpretation of the law and I believe that Kris exhibits these values. As a citizen of TSP, I would like to give him my support and I encourage others to do the same.


As a side note, it is worth noting that all of the applicants wanted to change the current High Court into a three-member tribunal, which I think is a good idea. I hope that I get to see this change in the coming months. On the other hand, the cabinet still has to pick a pool of justices. And because it is illegal to have less than five 4 justices, we would need to select more than we have currently. As I said earlier, I believe that all of the applicants answered the questions well: I really hope that they get to become justices sooner or later.

And that’s it for my column on the High Court of The South Pacific. If you do have anything you want me to write about you could contact me through Discord or PM and as always, see you in the next issue!
 

Europeian Ambassador to The South Pacific
Former Local Council Member
Former Minister of Regional Affairs
Former High Court Justice

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Just for the record, when asked that question as part of the interview process, I did not express support for a reform that enlarged the size of the Court. In fact, I made it clear that I strongly believed the focus should be on developing legal talent and strengthening the administrative process of the Court, rather than revamping its structure every few months.

That is not to say that I would engage in a partisan debate over the ideal structure of the Court -I would tend to avoid such a breach of neutrality-, but I do believe that we need to be honest about the fact that any problems the Court might have had are in no small parts due to the fact that we haven't institutionalised it as a strong and investment-worthy branch of our government, as far as our regional culture is concerned, and strictly structural reform won't change that.

That is, in part, why I want to focus so much on writing detailed rulings, keeping close communication with the Pool of Justices, organising lectures, hiring law clerks, and overall working towards the development of legal talent in the region. We can change the structure of the Court, but unless we work in talent and internal administration, it will be the same people making the same mistakes, and that only leads us to another reform a year from now.

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Former Delegate of the South Pacific
Posts outside High Court venues should be taken as those of any other legislator.
I do not participate in the regional server, but I am happy to talk through instant messaging or on the forum.

Legal Resources:
THE MATT-DUCK Law Archive | Mavenu Diplomatic Archive | Rules of the High Court | Case Submission System | Online Rulings Consultation System

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