[Proposal] Procedures of the Assembly Act

[Ryccia]

Procedures of the Assembly Act

An act establishing the procedure of the Assembly

I. On Proposals to the Assembly

(1) Any citizen may propose a bill to the Assembly. A bill is defined as any proposal for a new law, an amendment to an already existing law, or a repeal of a law which is not the Mandate.

(2) A bill which requires a majority vote requires, at minimum, three days of discussion before a motion to vote can be carried out.

(3) For a bill which requires a majority vote to be voted upon, a motion to vote from any citizen is required, in addition to an endorsement from another citizen.

(4) A bill which requires more than a majority vote requires, at minimum, four days of discussion before a motion to vote can be carried out.

(5) For a bill which requires more than a majority vote to be voted upon, a motion to vote from any citizen is required, in addition to an endorsement from another citizen.

(6) An amendment to the Mandate or a proposed constitutional law requires, at minimum, seven days of discussion before a motion to vote can be carried out.

(7) For amendment to the Mandate or a proposed constitutional law to be voted upon, a motion to vote from any citizen is required, in addition to individual endorsements coming from two other citizens.

(8) If any proposals motioned for a vote contradict each other, they must be voted upon simultaneously, under which the proposal with the highest number of votes in favour is passed.


II. On Treaties

(1) A treaty is defined as any document signed with any foreign power.

(2) A treaty is to be treated as a law of Lazarus. If it conflicts with the Mandate, it can be repealed by the Courts.

(3) A proposed treaty requires, at minimum, five days of discussion. After these five days of debate, the Assembly must vote on the proposed treaty.

(4) For a treaty to be repealed, it requires, at minimum, seven days of discussion.


III. On Motions of No Confidence

(1) Any citizen may propose a motion of no confidence in any government official.

(2) A motion of no confidence requires, at minimum, seven days of discussion.

(3) For a motion of no confidence to be voted upon, a motion to vote from any citizen is required, in addition to individual endorsements coming from two other citizens.


IV. On Appointments

(1) Any appointment to the offices the Assembly appoints as indicated by the Mandate or any other laws requires, at minimum, at least three days of discussion. After these three days of debate, the Assembly must vote on the proposed candidate.


V. On Votes

(1) A vote on any proposal shall last for two days, unless specifically indicated in this act or in the Mandate.

(2) A vote on a constitutional amendment or constitutional law shall last for four days.

(3) Any citizen may vote for or against any proposal, or abstain. If they decide to vote abstain, their vote shall not count towards the final percentage of any votes for or against.


VI. Responsibilities of the Speaker of the Assembly

(1) The Speaker of the Assembly has the responsibility of overseeing and starting all the votes undertaken by the Assembly. They may do so by formally opening the vote on the discussion thread, or start a new thread for this purpose.

(2) The Speaker of the Assembly has the responsibility of counting the votes of all citizens in a proposal’s vote.

(3) The Speaker of the Assembly has the responsibility of keeping record of all the votes that the Assembly has undertaken for public view.

(4) The Speaker of the Assembly has the responsibility of preserving a legislative history of all laws, including the Mandate, which portray the history of amendments to their composition.

(5) Should four citizens, apart from the motion to vote and endorsements needed under this act to bring a proposal to a vote and after twenty-four hours of the proposal’s presentation of the Assembly, endorse the waiver of the remaining of the mandated debating period should it not be over, the Speaker of the Assembly shall start the vote.

Any comments and constructive criticisms are, of course, welcome.

[Cormac]

I have some in-depth thoughts on this, but I haven't had enough coffee yet to process them coherently. Hopefully later today.

In the meantime, off the top of my head there are a few superficial things that stand out to me. First, I think it would be a good idea for us to try to format our legislation similarly to the way the constitution is formatted, so that we don't have different bills that are formatted very differently -- we don't want people to be confused by the differing formats. I also noticed that the draft includes references to the Phoenix Republic and titles, etc. from the Phoenix Republic draft. I assume that was because this was originally written when the Phoenix Republic draft was still under consideration, but those references will definitely need to be fixed now.

Overall, I think it's a great effort, and I'm sure with revision this can shape up to be a better bill we can pass. Thanks Ryccia!

[Ryccia]

Yeah, you're right. I was writing this during that time. I'll fix this when I can, of course. I apologize for the inconvenience.

[Ryccia]

Fixed it up a bit. Please, point out any issues you may have, so as to improve upon this bill.

[Old Hope]

(8) If any proposals motioned for a vote contradict each other, they must be voted upon simultaneously, under which the proposal with the highest number of votes in favour is passed.

(8) If any proposals motioned for a vote contradict each other, they must be voted upon simultaneously, under which the proposal with the highest number of votes in favour is passed(if it has more than 50%+1 support; otherwise both fail).

(1) A vote on any proposal shall last for two days, unless specifically indicated in this act or in the Mandate.

Three days minimum please. Weekend-only votes are bad.

[Cormac]

I have moved this proposal to the main Assembly forum, as I don't believe there is anything sensitive here to warrant secrecy.

[TempestShadow]

Personal feeling, but I do think the stuff about appointments and no-confidence votes works better as actual legislation, since many of those things would logically need different discussion periods.

Also, VI.4 seems like a very bad idea.

[Ryccia]

(8) If any proposals motioned for a vote contradict each other, they must be voted upon simultaneously, under which the proposal with the highest number of votes in favour is passed.

(8) If any proposals motioned for a vote contradict each other, they must be voted upon simultaneously, under which the proposal with the highest number of votes in favour is passed(if it has more than 50%+1 support; otherwise both fail).

(1) A vote on any proposal shall last for two days, unless specifically indicated in this act or in the Mandate.

Three days minimum please. Weekend-only votes are bad.

Good idea

Personal feeling, but I do think the stuff about appointments and no-confidence votes works better as actual legislation, since many of those things would logically need different discussion periods.

Also, VI.4 seems like a very bad idea.

Agree on the first part, although not sure how to do so, but why is VI.4 a bad idea? It is just a historian-esque job