HCLQ1704
March 24th, 2017
Petitioner
Feirmont
Presiding Justice
Farengeto
Your honourable Justice:
In the Charter of the South Pacific, the Article on the Local Council states:
Charter of the South Pacific, Article V. Wrote:2. The Local Council is entitled to self-administration within its jurisdiction on local issues, but may not pass laws or regulations that contradict this Charter or constitutional laws. To that end, the Assembly may not enact any law, nor the Cabinet deliver any directive, that is solely related to an issue local to the in-game community.
My question is via the second part of that section:
If the Assembly cannot enact any law that is related to an issue local to the in-game community, then can the Assembly also repeal or ammend a law where the repeal or ammendment is related to the in-game community?
Ruling
After consideration it is the opinion of this court that Article 5.2 of the Charter solely refers to the creation and passage ("enactment") of new pieces of legislation ("laws").
Throughout the Charter the term "law" is consistently used to refer to full legislative documents (e.g. Article I. Constitutional Laws) and it is the opinion of the Court that this usage extends to Article V. For "enact" the Court interprets it according to the relevant standard dictionary definitions of the term, such as Merriam-Webster's definition of "to put into effect through legislative or authoritative action". After consideration is was the opinion of this Court that "enact" therefore only covers new pieces of legislation and Article 5.2 does not apply to the amendment or repeal of these laws.
