With Gwyn's permission I am copying her post from the Reforming the Scientific Council thread to here where it can have a thorough discussion on its own, one I believe it deserves.
~Delia
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from Gwyn
In exercising my right as a citizen to submit proposals for legislation to be discussed and eventually approved at the RA, I'm submitting a notecard to the LRA for a bill to be included on the next agenda:
CDSL #### - "Reinforcing the Balance of Power Act"
Preamble
Since very early in the history of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, the three branches have tried by every legal means to change the balance of power between themselves by either reinterpreting the extent of the powers granted by them constitutionally, or, in the case of the Representative Assembly, by either passing laws or constitutional amendments changing these same powers. Specially in the case of constitutional changes, and since the Scientific Council has no power to veto constitutional amendments (all constitutional amendments have to be approved, because, by definition, they change the applicability of the Constitution; and the Scientific Council's power to interpret the laws based on the founding documents, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Linden Lab's Code of Conduct and Terms of Service was abolished long ago), this means that effectively is able to curb the power — and the checks of balances — of the other two branches regarding itself.
While this is often desirable in a community subject to many changes over the years, and the freedom to be able to adapt the Constitution as the Confederation of Democratic Simulators changes is highly necessary, this can also effectively conduct to abuses of power, specially in the cases where discussion has not been exhaustive and/or clearly misrepresents the will of the citizens as expressed publicly. Even though legislation is often reverted and abolished on subsequent terms, using the principle of democratic rotativity to elect new representatives on a term to revert specific laws, Constitutional changes tend to be harder to revert and have potentially more damaging effects. Also due to the small size of the Representative Assembly, a 2/3 majority vote of all members is usually not hard to get, specially on items that reinforce the Representative Assembly's power regarding other branches.
To avoid abuses, thus, this bill introduces the notion that any changes proposed by the Representative Assembly to change the constitutionally granted powers, checks, and balances of the other branches has first to meet approval by a Joint Committee between members of the Representative Assembly and members of the branch which is being changed, after sufficient public discussion has been completed.
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Constitutional Amendment
Add a new paragraph to Article I, Section 8 at the end:
Article I — The Representative Branch
Section 8 – Limits on the RA
[...]
Any proposal by the Representative Assembly to change, delete, limit, or add further powers to the other branches, as well as change, delete, limit, or add checks and balances between the other branches and itself, require a previous approval by a Joint Committee between members of the Representative Assembly and members of the branch which is being changed, after sufficient public discussion has been completed.
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New bill
Joint Committee Act
In order to comply with the limitations of the Representative Assembly regarding proposed changes, deletions, limitations, or additions to powers, checks, and balances between the Representative Assembly and the Executive Branch and/or the Philosophy Branch (Scientific Council), this bill mandates the following:
1. A motion to begin discussion of a proposed change, deletion, limitation, or addition to powers, checks, and balances to the specified branch is to be approved by the RA by a simple majority vote. If the motion carries, a Joint Committee is appointed using the RA procedures and the applicable laws for empowering a committee.
2. The total number of members of the RA participating on the Joint Committee cannot exceed half the number of the current members of the branch whose powers are being changed.
3. Immediately after the meeting where the motion was carried, the Leader of the RA notifies the leader of the branch whose powers are being changed under the motion to designate a number of its own members for the Joint Committee, and proposes a date for its first meeting, within a limit of 15 days.
4. Failure of either branch to provide members to the Joint Committee and/or boycotting/stalling the meetings are considered serious offenses and may be basis for impeachment.
5. If the total number of members in the Joint Committee is even, a citizen (not holding office on any branch of Government) is asked to join.
6. At the same time that the date for the first meeting is set, the meeting and its agenda (which will include the original motion for discussion) is to be published on the official forums of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, and citizen participation is encouraged.
7. Procedure and deliberation of the Joint Committee shall be followed as per the meeting procedures of the Representative Assembly regarding committees, to the exclusion of any others.
8. Citizens are welcome to attend and participate in the open and public meetings of the Joint Committee.
9. The Joint Committee will attempt to reach a consensus on the final wording of the proposed change within the time frame of the current term of the RA, or until the end of the subsequent term if the motion is proposed within three months of the end of the current RA term.
10. If no consensus is reached, the motion is declared null and void.
11. At the moment consensus is reached, and if sufficient input has also been gathered from the public — either via the official CDS forums or by direct participation in the Joint Committee meetings — the final wording of the proposed changes are resubmitted to the Leader of the RA as a new motion to be approved.
12. Approval of the final wording at the subsequent RA meeting will follow any established procedures or laws for passing a Constitutional amendment.
13. Changes affecting simultaneously more than one branch (besides the RA) require separate motions, which are to be discussed by different Joint Committees, to be held simultaneously or subsequently at the RA's discretion.
Last edited by Gwyneth Llewelyn on Mon May 07, 2012 7:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Hrmpf. Bad formatting on the titles in bold.
