The following amendments to Article 4-5 of The Charter are under consideration.

Article 4: The High Court of the South Pacific

Section 1 - Composition and Powers
1. The High Court shall consist of four Court Justices.
2. The Court Justices shall select one of themselves to serve as Chief Justice.
3. Three Justices of the High Court, determined by a rotating schedule created by themselves, shall be responsible for determining innocence or guilt in criminal cases, and issuing sentence.
4. The High Court may declare any whole General Law, or portions within such law, that conflict with the Charter defunct, and to reconcile contradictions within the Charter.
5. The High Court holds the sole power to remove citizenship outside of regular legislation that outlines reasonable upkeep requirements or security imperatives.
6. Procedures for the Election of High Court Justices will be defined in the Code of Laws.

Section 2 - Criminal Cases
1. If charges are filled against a citizen the case will be held in the High Court.
2. The Chief Justice will be responsible for keeping order in the court. He has the power to penalize citizens for being in contempt of the court.
3. The Chief Justice and Court Justices, in conjunction with the Assembly, are responsible for establishing a consistent and just set of procedures for hearing criminal cases. This set of procedures must be ratified by the Assembly as a General Law.
4. Excessive absenteeism from the prosecution may result in the summary dismissal of the case. Excessive absenteeism from the defense may result in a summary judgment against the defendant.

Section 3 - Legal Questions
1. Legal questions will always initially be handled by the High Court.
2. Legal questions must be answered within a reasonable amount of time.
3. Any and all interested parties may submit an amicus brief in response to a legal question.
4. Legal questions and amicus briefs must make reference to the relevant sections of the Charter and Code of Laws, and clearly define the nature of the inquiry. Where this is not the case the High Court will issue a summary dismissal of the legal question or amicus brief.

Section 4 - Other
1. The Court Justices are not prohibited from joining the Assembly or any associated organization in the South Pacific, barring political parties and organizations or interest groups.
2. The Court Justices shall have the authority to examine laws and make recommendations to the Assembly, however they may not issue an arbitrary judgement or opinion on laws without a specific legal question being filed.
3. If a matter even sits before the High Court for 72 hours without response, the Chief Justice shall be temporarily suspended, and a Court Justice will assume the office as Acting Chief Justice. Should no Court Justice assume the office then the Assembly may appoint an Acting Chief Justice.

Article 5: High Court Appeals

Section 1 - Appeals
1. High Court Appeals shall be determined by the non-presiding justice of the specific case.
2. Should the need arise for an appeal, the aforementioned justice will be tasked with handling appeals relating to criminal cases and legal questions.
3. The non-presiding justice of a case that has been appealed has the power to overturn any verdict of the previous High Court decision.
4. The non-presiding justice is the final court of appeal; its verdict cannot be further contested.

Section 2 - Criminal Case Appeals
1. To appeal the decision of a criminal case the defendant, his representative or the prosecution must file notice with the High Court within fourteen (14) days of the High Court ruling.
2. The notice must include the objections to the ruling and justification for why the appeal should be heard, with reference to the relevant sections of the Charter and Code of Laws.
3. The non-presiding justice has five (5) days to decide whether to hear the Appeal.
4. If the justice chooses to hear the case, it is required to do so in a timely manner. The justice may issue summary judgments due to excessive absenteeism.

Section 3 - Legal Question Appeals
1. To appeal the decision of a legal question an interested party must file notice with the non-presiding justice within fourteen (14) days of the High Court ruling.
2. The notice must include the objections to the ruling and justification for why the appeal should be heard, with reference to the relevant sections of the Charter and Code of Laws.
3. The non-presiding justice has five (5) days to decide whether to hear the appeal.
4. If the justice chooses to hear the case, it is required to do so in a timely manner. The justice may issue summary judgments due to excessive absenteeism.

Section 4 - Other
1. The non-presiding justice may partially recuse himself from a case by convening a jury to decide the verdict. The non-presiding justice will still be responsible for moderating the case. Any jury convened shall be made up of three citizens selected randomly from a pool of volunteers, with no obvious bias toward one party or the other.
2. The Court Justices shall have the authority to examine laws and make recommendations to the Assembly, however they may not issue an arbitrary judgement or opinion on laws without a specific legal question being filed.
3. If a matter even sits before the non-presiding justice for 72 hours without response, the non-presiding justice shall be temporarily suspended, and the Assembly may appoint an Acting Justice.

Section 5 - Administrative Appeals
1. To appeal an administrative team action, a citizen must file a notice with the High Court within fourteen (14) days of the action in question.
2. The notice must include a legal argument for why the administrative team action violated the Charter, violated the tenants of democracy, or unnecessarily infringed upon the rights of citizens.
3. Actions taken by the administrative team that involve any of the following may not be appealed to the court:
..........a. Real life threats or harassment
..........b. Pornography
..........c. Illegal Content
..........d. Spambots
..........e. Exposure of real life information
..........f. Espionage of the region
..........g. Hacking of the Board
4. Actions taken by the administrative team that involve any of the following may not be appealed to the court unless the action is argued to be excessive or unjust:
..........a. Temporary (being defined as under 96 hours) suspension of a member
..........b. Placing a member on post moderation
..........c. Altering signature / avatar content
5. The High Court has five (5) days to decide whether to hear the Appeal.
6. If an appeal is heard the administrative team must select up to two members to defend themselves before the court. Refusal to participate in the appeal process may result in the court issuing a summary judgement in favor of the appellant.
7. If the Court chooses to hear the case, it is required to do so in a timely manner. The High Court may issue summary judgments due to excessive absenteeism.
8. If the High Court orders the overturning of an administrative team decision, it must officially notify the administrative team of this decision via a public post.
9. If the administrative team responds with a majority vote rejecting the appeal court verdict, the Appellate Court decision may be stayed for up to 30 days. If the Administrative Team remains opposed to the decision after 30 days, the Assembly shall hold a formal vote to settle the matter.

Section 6 - Other
1. One of the Justices may recuse themselves from a case, should this occur the remaining justice shall take the role of the recused Justice. Should a second Justice recuse himself the assembly should appoint an Acting Justice to temporarily fill the role of the recused justice.
2. The High Court Justices are not prohibited from joining the assembly or any associated organization in The South Pacific, barring political parties and organizations or interest groups.
3. The High Court has the authority to examine laws and make recommendations to the Assembly, however they may not issue an arbitrary judgment or opinion on laws without a specific legal question being filed.
4. If a matter even sits before the High Court for 72 hours without response, the Chief Justice shall be temporarily suspended, and the Assembly may appoint an Acting Chief Justice from the current pool of Justices.

Voting will end 9:15p October 10, 2014. 75% support is needed for passage.

(This post was last modified: 10-05-2014, 09:17 PM by Sandwich Territories.)

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Is there anyway I can change my vote to Yes ?

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

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No, but this Amendment has passed. With 92% support (11-3-1), this amendment has attained the 75% threshold needed for passage.

(This post was last modified: 10-11-2014, 10:12 PM by Sandwich Territories.)

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