Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on October 14, 2020, 11:33:01 PM

Quote from: Eðo Grischun on October 14, 2020, 11:14:55 PM
Cezembre: 

(i) @C.M. Siervicül, I believe you are still Cunstaval of this province.  Would it be possible for you to appoint an executive officer to fill CZ's seat?

(ii) @Sir Alexandreu Davinescu - If I am incorrect about who Cezembre's Cunstaval is, and/or their Cunstaval is officium defuit, would it be possible for you, as Regent, to appoint a new Cunstaval, to in turn appoint an executive?

I cannot commit to making such appointments at this time, but I will work on the matter.  I'll let you know as soon as I do.

Thank you.

Cezembre: 

(i) @C.M. Siervicül, I believe you are still Cunstaval of this province.  Would it be possible for you to appoint an executive officer to fill CZ's seat?

(ii) @Sir Alexandreu Davinescu - If I am incorrect about who Cezembre's Cunstaval is, and/or their Cunstaval is officium defuit, would it be possible for you, as Regent, to appoint a new Cunstaval, to in turn appoint an executive?

Fiova:  @Miestră Schivă, UrN : Can I confirm that you will still be filling the seat for your province and that nothing has changed since the last update?

Maritiimi-Maxhestic:  @Sir Alexandreu Davinescu, am I correct to assume that as GGS of M-M you will be filling the M-M seat on this council?

WHEREAS as the new Minister of the Interior it is my duty to review the sections of law that relate to my office, and

WHEREAS in doing so, I found bits that would better off just being repealed, and

WHERAS some of it is just wildly out of date including references to the Civil Service Commission and a weird bit about the Interior Minister to be known as the War Minister in times of war, which is no longer relevant as Defence is its own Ministry again, and

WHEREAS, once again, a shorter Lexhatx is a better Lexhatx, so;


THEREFORE be it enacted by the Ziu assembled that El Lexhatx D.2.3 and all of its subsections, which currently read:

Quote2.3 The Interior Minister (or, during times of war, the War Minister), who shall manage Defence and Immigration and head the following Bureaus. The Minister may appoint Deputy Ministers to be in charge of each Bureau, and the Civil Service Commission may appoint Permanent Secretaries to each Bureau, to work under the direction of the Minister and any Deputy Ministries. The Interior Minister shall also be the liaison between the Kingdom Government and the provincial governments. (53RZ28) (53RZ22)
2.3.1. El Büreu dàl Înmigraziun (the Bureau of Immigration), which shall be responsible for the execution of the nation's laws appertaining to immigration of new citizens into the realm and shall work to attempt to increase quality and quantity of immigration applications. This Bureau shall work closely with the Chancery and its Bureau of the Census to ensure that all incoming citizens are properly processed through immigration as provided by law. (54RZ20) (53RZ28)
2.3.1.1 EL Grexhiglh dal Citaxhienità Noveu (the New Citizens' Coterie (or, in short, NCC)), which shall be a department within the Bureau of Immigration and shall be responsible for the integration of new citizens into their new Talossan lives and shall work to find ways to most effectively involve new citizens in Talossan affairs. (54RZ20) (53RZ28)
D.2.3.1.1.1 The NCC shall publish a series of information packs aimed at new citizens and shall ensure that these packs are publicly available at all times. (54RZ20)
D.2.3.1.1.2 The NCC shall operate a service to be known as 'El Lüverveu' (The Librarian), where new citizens can easily request directions to information on any area of Talossanity, Talossan culture or Talossan history via a simple online form. The NCC shall then endeavor to supply the new citizen with directions to the correct place(s) and source(s) of such information requested. (54RZ20)
D.2.3.1.1.3 The NCC shall operate a service to be known the 'TalossAssistant Programme', where new and prospective citizens are guided into Talossan life by existing citizens. This programme may operate under whichever design best fits the needs of immigration services at any given time. (54RZ20)
2.3.2 El Büreu dels Afáes Înphätseschti (Bureau of Home Affairs) which shall be responsible for the order and well-being of the homeland and its environs. This Bureau shall provide a public presence in or near the Greater Talossan Area, shall assist in the organization of Living Cosâs, shall provide governmental assistance to the organizers of an annual TalossaFest celebration, and to all citizens making the Haxh, and shall take care to guide the Seneschal and other ministers in ever maintaining the connection and bond of Talossans worldwide to their homeland. (53RZ28)
2.3.2.1 The Bureau of Home Affairs shall include the Departamenteu dels Afáes Cestoûreschti (Department of Cestour Affairs), led by the 'Piaçatéir Naziunál' and assisted by bureaucrats known as C'huescoûrs (or "Binkies"), who shall see to it that the interests of Cestours within the homeland receive the proper attention of the government. (53RZ28)

are hereby stricken in full and replaced with the following:


2.3 The Interior Minister, who shall: oversee immigration policy and head the Bureau of Immigration; act as the liaison between the national government and the provincial governments; assist in the organisation of Living Cosâs; provide governmental assistance to the organisers of TalossaFest celebrations; provide governmental assistance to all citizens making the Haxh; provide counsel to the Seneschal and other ministers in ever maintaining the connection and bond of Talossans worldwide to their homeland; and shall, generally, be responsible for the order and well-being of the homeland and its environs.

2.3.1. El Büreu dàl Înmigraziun (the Bureau of Immigration), which shall be responsible for the execution of the nation's laws appertaining to immigration of new citizens into the realm and shall work to attempt to increase quality and quantity of immigration applications. This bureau shall be responsible for the integration of new citizens into their new Talossan lives and shall work to find ways to most effectively involve new citizens in Talossan affairs. This Bureau shall work closely with the Chancery and its Bureau of the Census to ensure that all incoming citizens are properly processed through immigration as provided by law.

Uréu q'estadra så,
The Right Honourable Éovart Grischun - Senator (Vuode) and Minister of the Interior

I'm not sure I agree that the the domain is the King's private property.  It used to be, yes, but a few years ago the law took the domain out of the status of being the King's private property.

Anyway, myself and the Seneschal shall discuss this with the Attorney General before taking any further action.

Not 'absent an agreement'; an agreement was made.  Post agreement, though, the King has not taken action or even communicated with us. However, regardless of that agreement, the law I quoted above has been the law for...I don't actually know how long exactly without checking, but a very long time.

This is not a government "seizure".  The King is holding a government asset that should have been transferred a long time ago.

LEX.D.2.10.4. Talossa.com and Kingdomoftalossa.net are the property of the government and shall be run by the ministry of STUFF.


Upon my appointment as Minister of STUFF, and following discussions held with the Seneschal, I opened a dialogue with King John to discuss the Kingdoms' web domain assets.  The domain kingdomoftalossa.net is hosted on a webhost account in the name of the king, and not in the name of the Talossan Web Registrant, who is an officer of the Ministry of STUFF, and who should currently be the named agent on all web domains owned and operated by the government.  To achieve full compliance with statutory law, the domain kingdomoftalossa.net needs to be transferred from the King's old webhost account to the webhost account held in trust by the Talossan Web Registrant, who is currently Istefan Perþonest.  This account is currently also where Talossa.com and all related subdomains is hosted.

The Seneschal actually has access to the old webhost account.  Legally, the Seneschal could initiate the domain transfer unilaterally without even consulting with the King.  However, we felt that a having a conversation with the King and have him work with us would have been the better action to take.  And, so, I began my aforementioned dialogue with the King.

El Lexhatx only explicitly mentions the domains of talossa.com and kingdomoftalossa.net, but in conversation with the King it was discovered that other domain names are also held in his name.  These are kingdomoftalossa.org, kingdomoftalossa.com, talossa.net and talossan.com.  The king agreed that all these domains should be transferred to government control.

About a month has passed since I last heard from the King on this matter.  Several communications with the King have since gone unanswered.  Today, the King has named a Regent to act in his name.  I would ask the Regent to help me complete the required tasks, however, I fear that the Regent will be unable to do so as he probably has not been given access to the webhost accounts in question.

The King has left me in the difficult position of being in legal limbo on this.  The domains controlled by the government must be in the name of the officer of my Ministry, but I am unable to achieve compliance with the law until the domain transfer is complete.  This leads me to making the decision that I shall press ahead without further communication with or action of the King.

Therefore, I, as Minister of STUFF, hereby make the executive decision to initiate the domain transfer procedure and request that the Seneschal accesses the account of the old webhost and forwards to my office the domain transfer epp code (aka domain transfer auth code, aka domain transfer authorisation code).



Tagging:
@Miestră Schivă, UrN  - Seneschal
@King John
@Sir Alexandreu Davinescu - Regent

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial on October 13, 2020, 12:27:12 PM
Honestly parliamentary supremacy is probably one of the worst concepts of the British political system. It basically means everything is ad hoc, and the only thing that prevents abuse on a massive scale is either precedent (which can always be disregarded since Parliament is supreme) or the good will of every actor involved. It's a recipe for disaster.

The alternative being that you end up restricted by a document written a couple of hundred years ago in a different age with different needs and without foresight of what the future may bring.  I have a lot of problems with Westminster, but the ad hoc and pragmatic nature of British constitutional affairs is not one of them.

Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on October 13, 2020, 05:43:36 AM

Quote from: Eðo Grischun on October 12, 2020, 10:52:16 PM

Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on October 12, 2020, 09:14:09 PM
Any party with a majority in the Ziu and any province can create themselves a friendly Senats seats whenever they please.  A simple act of the Ziu creates a new province from the existing one and assigns whatever specific citizens they want, however they please (as long as it includes one active person and nine other citizens).  Theoretically this could be done multiple times, in fact, if there are enough citizens available -- but I think only Benito could actually do it more than once right now (yielded two new ten-person provinces and one four-person province).  As far as I can tell, there is nothing to prevent this.  It's actually a significant danger, since any majority in the Ziu is going to command a majority in at least a couple of provinces, and two Senats votes would be a big deal.

I'll bite on this one for academic debate.

Isn't everything you wrote in the quoted statement just democracy?

A party with a majority in parliament would have been democratically elected, so as long as it's actions are not inOrganic and also fall within the Organic powers vested in VII.3 then the governing party can pretty much do whatever it likes*.  That's just parliamentary democracy. 

If a government then chooses to carry out the actions you write about above, they could only do it following ratification from the original province.  The Ziu can only create new provinces, from OrgLaw, "such that the sovereignty and territory of any extant Province is not altered without the consent of that Province".  So, a referendum would need to be held.  Again, this is democracy.

For the events in your example to occur and reach conclusion, then a party would need to first convince the electorate to democratically elect them into majority to form a government, followed by the Ziu passing legislation in line with the Organic Law, followed by a democratic ratification from the original province, simultaneously with the democratic proclamation of the people forming the citizenry of the new province(s).  This is all just democracy.

The "friendly Senator" is just an incidental by-product, and it would probably be temporary as there would be no guarantee for the governing party that the Senate seat would remain in their control beyond the next election.

Sure, it's all democracy in the sense that a party must win a majority in the Ziu at least once to be able to do this, but it's clearly not an intended feature of the system.  It could be done in one Clark, and it's not clear to me that there's any requirement at all for provincial referenda.  You'd just need the government of a province, then you could carve out a new province from the old one and have the old one's government approve the deal.  One hiccup does occur to me -- this would alter the composition of the Senats, so it would maybe need to actually pass one high bar before this would work.  Hmm, so this one might actually not be a problem, thanks to that feature of the OrgLaw.

You're using words like 'problem'.  I'm asserting that it isn't a problem at all.  What I'm arguing is that the Ziu should be able to do all this and for it not to be an issue.  Again, this is the constitutional United States perspectives smashing up against Westminster parliamentary perspectives.  I am arguing that the actual "problem" is that the OrgLaw makes things difficult for the Ziu to do what it wants, but I say that from a point of view where parliamentary supremacy is more important to me than being tied to a rigid written constitution.

***

Quoteit's not clear to me that there's any requirement at all for provincial referenda.

The OrgLaw literally says "such that the sovereignty and territory of any extant Province is not altered without the consent of that Province".  Yes, it could be argued that that line can be interpreted to mean 'not altered without the consent of that province's executive assembly", but I think the nature of the provinces, the spirit of the OrgLaw and all prior convention pretty much makes a referendum necessary.  I would trust that the Court would also think the same.

Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on October 12, 2020, 09:14:09 PM
Any party with a majority in the Ziu and any province can create themselves a friendly Senats seats whenever they please.  A simple act of the Ziu creates a new province from the existing one and assigns whatever specific citizens they want, however they please (as long as it includes one active person and nine other citizens).  Theoretically this could be done multiple times, in fact, if there are enough citizens available -- but I think only Benito could actually do it more than once right now (yielded two new ten-person provinces and one four-person province).  As far as I can tell, there is nothing to prevent this.  It's actually a significant danger, since any majority in the Ziu is going to command a majority in at least a couple of provinces, and two Senats votes would be a big deal.

I'll bite on this one for academic debate.

Isn't everything you wrote in the quoted statement just democracy?

A party with a majority in parliament would have been democratically elected, so as long as it's actions are not inOrganic and also fall within the Organic powers vested in VII.3 then the governing party can pretty much do whatever it likes*.  That's just parliamentary democracy. 

If a government then chooses to carry out the actions you write about above, they could only do it following ratification from the original province.  The Ziu can only create new provinces, from OrgLaw, "such that the sovereignty and territory of any extant Province is not altered without the consent of that Province".  So, a referendum would need to be held.  Again, this is democracy.

For the events in your example to occur and reach conclusion, then a party would need to first convince the electorate to democratically elect them into majority to form a government, followed by the Ziu passing legislation in line with the Organic Law, followed by a democratic ratification from the original province, simultaneously with the democratic proclamation of the people forming the citizenry of the new province(s).  This is all just democracy.

The "friendly Senator" is just an incidental by-product, and it would probably be temporary as there would be no guarantee for the governing party that the Senate seat would remain in their control beyond the next election.


*Talossa's parliamentary system doesn't explicitly include the concept of imperative mandate.  In fact, it's not even an implied concept bound by protocol or tradition.  The concept just doesn't exist within our systems.  Sometimes, and only sometimes, we have seen members of the Ziu mention the term 'mandate', including myself, however, it holds no real legal basis in Talossa.  A government can legally do whatever it likes and pass all kinds of laws even if they never campaigned on that issue in the previous election.  This all may be an accidental result of Talossa's somewhat odd system where American influenced federal aspects, and concepts like elected bicameralism, smash together with concepts of parliamentarianism, and also that the parliamentary system in Talossa is actually pretty, pretty weak and has many major parliamentary concepts missing.  Some may argue this is by design.  Again, probably a result of American influences, such as the very strong desire for constitutional supremacy over parliamentary sovereignty (in a Talossan context, the OrgLaw being superior to the Ziu). 


***


This does make me think about another related point which has always had me feeling uneasy, by the way.  You are correct that it is somewhat easy not difficult not impossible for the Ziu to change the composition of the provinces.  However, at the same time, the provinces themselves are entirely disallowed to secede from the nation (or any territorial subdivision for that matter).  But, the provinces are also supposed to be Sovereign and autonomous at the same time.   This has never made a whole lot of sense to me; nor does it sit right with my personal ideological stances (anyone who knows my macro-national political views wouldn't be too surprised at this).

The provinces find themselves trapped within a quasi-federal union in which they are not allowed to leave.  It is inOrganic for them to even attempt to secede, while simultaneously having the Organic status of being "inherently Sovereign and autonomous". 

Org.IX.10 has similarities to Scotland's situation with requiring Westminster's permission to ask ourselves questions about our own self determination, and also with Catalonia's situation where they are constitutionally barred from same.  It also doesn't jibe well with Talossa's own spirit of self secession.

The Crown's obstructionism and non-feasance is now preventing my Ministry from completing work on governmental projects, not to mention preventing the Ministry from ensuring compliance with the law (LEX.D.2.10)

I last heard from the King on the matter that we were dealing with just over two weeks ago.  Within the last fortnight I have sent the King two emails, plus he has been contacted via sms text direct to his phone.  These points of contact have yet to yield so much as confirmation of receipt.  As a result, my Ministry is now in limbo on the particular matter at hand.  I cannot move forward with the project and I am currently, technically legally, in breach of the law because I cannot bring the current status of our webdomains to be in line with what El LEX demands without his action.

Seriously, at what point is enough actually going to be enough?  It's no longer just a matter of the King failing to perform his own duties and damaging his own office; he is now preventing a governmental minister from performing their duty and potentially damaging the office of someone other than himself.

This is not on!

I, hereby, publicly demand that @King John responds to my communications immediately else I will begin legal action to seek remedy.

Bump

M-M and Cezembre, please?

9/20 Caption:

The Secretary of State reacts to the volume of Bills being piled onto the first Clark of the new Cosa session!

Attached:  Example of Ministry page with it's "entangled" Wiki infobox