SC Meeting next Sunday (March 12), 3 PM SL time

After confirming it with the other SC members, I'm pleased to announce the upcoming SC meeting next Sunday at 3 PM SLT with the following agenda:

1) Approval system on RA bills to facilitate the legislative process.

2) Discussion on procedures for the Court System and the creation of the several Courts, assigned to Chairs.

3) Establishing procedures and a budget for the SC itself.

4) SC participation on the Constitutional revision, as well as on other "founding" documents (Neualtenburger ToS, future "Bill of Avatar Rights", covenants).

5) Official Foreign Policy (who does the PR for Neualtenburg).

Citizenship has been very successfully dealt with Aliasi's microplots, so we can safely ignore that issue

All citizens are welcome to attend the meeting (all meetings are open and free to attend), although the SC is not the RA and still does not have "procedures" for participation by non-members.

A couple of thoughts here.

*As to item 2, I had always imagined that the SC chairs themselves functioned as the constitutional court. Particularly given the small current membership of the SC, do you really want to create any more subdivisions than you have to? Where will you find citizens to sit on these sub courts? Surely each of the four courts you mentioned would require a minimum of three persons. You'd wish to avoid overlap. I'd also assume that RA members couldn't serve on any of the smaller courts either.

Neualtenburg will need separate civil/criminal/commercial courts. If you want to create the framework now, great. Realistically, however, it may be better to find one more good person, and have the chairs do "everything" (sorry ) until the population grows enough to generate a critical mass of potential lower court judges.

*Is item 5 really an SC decision? The Constitution seems silent on this point. I got the impression from Ulrika after the election that I have some official role as a representative to the outside world in my capacity as LRA . Whether or not this is the case, shouldn't the RA pass a bill (or constitutional amendment, if necessary) to delegate the foreign policy responsibilities?

I realize the SC isn't completely analagous to a judiciary but I did get the impression that the elected RA would control foreign affairs as a ministerial or cabinet level post. I am very much looking forward to creation of an effective court system, as it is truly the linchpin of what differentiates NB from the anarchy outside. Keep up the good work!

One of the items on the agenda is SC procedures. I imagine this may include terms of office. Article V section 1 reads



To me this says two seemingly contradictory things:

1. The RA sets all terms via legislation. (above the line)

and

2. All the terms are the same length and overlap is a specific order. Otherwise why would you need to designate the order in which the branches elect.

It also suggests faction elections are before RA elections, which is not how we do things and contradicts Article IV section 2, which states explicitly that the two are simultaneous. This is another one it will take an amendment to clean up.

Thoughts?

There are actually two separate things here

1 Marketing/ Chamber of Commerce - advertising Neualtenburg as a place to live and do business.- Guild

2. Foreign relations with other "states" (for example, Minerva, Cosy Home, Dreamland, Midnight City, Luskwood, etc.)

a. Trade agreements and tariffs - this is clearly under the Guild
b. Other agreements (mutual recognition of ban lists, etc.) I would think this would be more subject to RA


Ok--three things. How do we take this division of responsibility and turn it into a coherent foreign policy. Given the ability to TP anywhere, trade agreements may be nothing more than a convenient fiction, to be honest.

I would hope that examination of the four constitutional amendments the RA passed this week would be on the agenda as well.