Judiciary Commission Amendment
1. The following section shall be inserted at the end of the Constitution, but before the table of amendments: –
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Article VIII - Judiciary Commission
1. There shall be a Judiciary Commission, the chair and members of which shall be appointed by simple majority vote in the Scientific Council, and who shall hold office until resignation or successful impeachment, whichever is sooner.
2. The Judiciary Commission shall have the power: –
(a) subject to any duly ratified Act of the Representative Assembly, and the exercise of any authority delegated thereby, and subject to any contrary proclamation of the Guildmeister, to commission and, once commissioned, maintain and administer as many court-houses as the chair shall deem appropriate, for the purposes of holding trials and other judicial hearings, and any other purposes as the chair shall deem appropriate, provided always that neither the Representative Assembly or the Guild individually or between shall prohibit the commissioning, construction, maintenance and continued existence and use of at least one court-house;
(b) to expend any monies held by the Judiciary Commission for any purposes connected with the discharge of any of the functions of the Judiciary Commission;
(c) subject to Section 5 below, to employ, for valuable remuneration or otherwise, such deputies and officers, and to delegate to them such functions, as the chair shall deem appropriate;
(d) to provide, or arrange to have provided, advice to citizens who may submit bills to the Representative Assembly, or any official, or delegate of that official, charged with drafting or approving regulations under powers delegated to her or him by the Constitution or any duly ratified Act of the Representative Assembly, concerning the drafting of such legislation or regulations, provided always that the Judiciary Commission shall not provide advice as to the desirability of any policy objective of such legislation or regulations;
(e) to publicise, both within the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, and elsewhere, the judicial system of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, or publicise the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (or any geographic subset thereof) by publicising its judicial system;
(f) to provide, and oversee the provision by others of, education concerning the law and legal system of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, and to issue, or regulate the issue of, qualifications in respect thereof;
(g) to provide advice to other governments and similar institutions in SecondLife and other such virtual worlds concerning the establishment and development of judicial systems therein;
(h) to maintain and publicise a record of all judicial proceedings, precedents and other public official judicial documents, not being documents relating to judicial proceedings in the Scientific Council; and
(i) to bring impeachment proceedings against any Judge of Common Jurisdiction, on the grounds only of either or both of (i) gross dereliction of duty, whether culpable or not, but, if not culpable, sustained for at least 28 days; or (ii) bias, corruption or insanity.
3. Nothing in this Constitution shall prevent a single person holding office both as the Chair or member of the Judiciary Commission and the Chief Judge or other Judge of Common Jurisdiction simultaneously or in succession, but, if a single person simultaneously holds office as any Judge of Common Jurisdiction and the Chair of the Judiciary Commission, any impeachment of that person that succeeds only on grounds applicable only to the Judiciary Commission shall not have effect in removing that person from the office of Judge of Common Jurisdiction, whether Chief Judge or otherwise, or disqualifying that person from holding office as any Judge of Common Jurisdiction.