[BILL] The Pacificum Orientale Awards Act

The Magisterium
1

— Begin quote from ____

BE IT ENACTED BY THE MAGISTERIUM OF THE EAST PACIFIC

SECTION I. SHORT TITLE

…1.1- This act shall be known and cited as ”The Pacificum Orientale Awards Act”.

SECTION II. DEFINITIONS

…2.1- For the purposes of this act, the following are defined as:
……2.1.1- “Ribbon”- A small designed image not subceeding or exceeding the pixel dimensions of 106 pixels by 29 pixels.
……2.1.2- “Medal”- An award granted alongside a ribbon as an alternative to the ribbon itself.
……2.1.3- “Honor”- Any award, order, or function instituted by this Act to honor a nation for their dedication to the East Pacific.

SECTION III. INSTITUTION OF AWARDS

…3.1- The Order of the Golden Ocelot shall be the highest civilian award to be given within the East Pacific.

…3.2- The Order must be given only to those who hold the following traits:
……3.2.1- The recipient must have had a long-lasting impact upon the East Pacific.
……3.2.2- The recipient’s impacts must be consistent with the values of the East Pacific.
……3.2.3- The recipient must have served the East Pacific with distinction and honor.

…3.3- All who were awarded the Order from Delegates Ramaeus and Aelitia shall have their membership in the Order, and its subsequent awards, validated. They shall remain part of the Order unless removed per this Act.

…3.4- The Rookie Award shall be dictated as a civilian award given to outstanding new nations within the East Pacific.

…3.5- The Award must be given only to those who hold the following traits:
……3.5.1- The recipient has played NationStates for less than a year.
……3.5.2- The recipient’s actions have impacted the East Pacific despite being a new nation.
……3.5.3- The recipient’s impacts were consistent with the values of the East Pacific.

SECTION IV. MEDALS AND RIBBONS

…4.1- The Order of the Golden Ocelot medal’s design shall consist of the same design of the medal awarded by Delegate Ramaeus by Executive Order instated on August 19th, 2015.
……4.1.1- Its ribbon shall consist of the same design as the ribbon awarded by Delegate Aelitia by Executive Order instated on January 20th, 2017.

…4.2- The Executive shall design a ribbon for the Rookie Award and present it to the Magisterium for approval. The Magisterium must then approve the design by a majority vote.
……4.2.1- The Rookie Award ribbon can be repealed by a majority vote by the Magisterium.

SECTION V. AWARD PROCESSES

…5.1- Any honor instituted by this Act may be awarded in two ways:
……5.1.1- The Magisterium may award the honor to any nation that qualifies for the honor with a 3/4 majority vote in favor of awarding the honor.
……5.1.2- The Delegate may award the honor to any nation that qualifies for the honor.
……5.1.3- The honor must be awarded publicly in a forum thread.
……5.1.4- Upon receiving an honor, a nation shall receive all ribbons, medals, and functions associated with that honor. Additionally, should the honor be membership of an Order, said nation shall be inducted into said Order.

…5.2- The Magisterium may, by 3/4 vote, remove from any person any honor given under this Act.
……5.2.1- The Delegate may not award the relevant honor to those who had it removed.
……5.2.2- Those who had their honor removed shall no longer be considered a recipient of the honor nor its endowments.

SECTION VI. RECORDS

…6.1- The Executive shall create a forum thread for each individual honor instituted by this Act.

…6.2- All those who have been awarded shall be recorded in their honor’s respective forum thread. All honor threads shall be pinned in the Plaza sub-forum and kept updated by the Delegate, or an appointed official thereof.

…6.3- The information recorded for each inductee shall include the year they were awarded, who awarded them, and the reason(s) insofar provided for their induction.

…6.4- All repeals of an honor will be recorded in its respective forum thread established in Section 6.1.

…6.5 - The information recorded for each repeal shall include the date that the honor was removed from the recipient and the reason why the honor was removed.

SECTION VII. AWARD FRAUD

…7.1- Anyone who wears or utilizes the medal, ribbon, or other benefit of an honor in a method indicating that they had received such an honor, despite not actually having received said honor OR having had that honor removed from them per this Act, shall be guilty of Award Fraud.
…7.1.1- Anyone who had their honor removed shall have one week to remove the medal, ribbon, or other benefits from relevant areas before they are found guilty of Award Fraud.

…7.2- The Conclave may give any individual, who it finds guilty of committing Award Fraud one or more of the following sentences:
…7.2.1- Mark them as ineligible to receive for any honor, per this Act,  for a maximum period of one year. This shall not apply to any honors an individual already possesses.
…7.2.2- A two month maximum ban for a first offense.
…7.2.3- A six month maximum ban for a second offense.

SECTION VIII. ENACTMENT

…8.1- Upon Enactment of this bill, the Order of the Golden Ocelot Act is repealed.

— End quote

Co-sponsored by Arbiter Zukchiva

2

Let’s see how this goes, but first of all, you mention the Ministry of Virtual Enhancement there. That name is up to each Delegate or Minister, so we should switch that to something like “the official institution in charge of design”.

3

I would say “Executive”.

Also, I propose simply re-drafting the OGO into a Generic “Awards Act”. The way this Act is made, we can combine the two and just add on more awards as needed.

4

— Begin quote from ____

I would say “Executive”.

Also, I propose simply re-drafting the OGO into a Generic “Awards Act”. The way this Act is made, we can combine the two and just add on more awards as needed.

— End quote

That could work actually. I’ll try to have a draft by tommorow.

5

1… It feels unnecessarily strict to legislate the size of these badges, especially since none of our badges conform to set dimensions anyway.

2… It feels unnecessarily bureaucratic to have the legislative body vote on Executive awards. Let the executive decide that. We shouldn’t be in control of their reward system.

3… It feels unnecessarily bureaucratic to have a whole law ordering the creation of one badge for new nations. Just petition the Delegate for it. It would remove the messy bureaucracy all over this bill and clean up our law list.

4… Enactment section is redundant, as always.

In conclusion, I am against this law because it’s a whole page of text and two whole voting sessions of the legislature in order to decide on a single badge that the Executive awards. Let the executive decide that. This seems like an overreach of our authority and an unnecessary demonstration of bureaucracy. This could all be bypassed if you just went on over to cord mail and asked Serge if we could have a Rookie Badge.

That said, I agree that we should have a general awards template. Just not such a big law for such a small thing.

6

There’s a Latin typo there: it should be Pacificum Orientale :)))

7

1… Again, why legislate the exact dimensions of the ribbon? It seems unnecessarily strict.

2… I don’t quite like the definition of Medal. Maybe something more like “An award granted alongside a ribbon as an alternative to the ribbon itself” or something. In general tho, I don’t see why we should have a “Medal” when we have Ribbons and Honors. Also the numbering is wrong, it should be 2.1.2, not 2.1.1

3… Why make the definition of Honor if you just go on to say “award/order (honor)”? Just say honor, you made a whole section defining it.

4… Maybe add “via Executive Order” to 4.2.2

5… You have two 4.2 sections. Change the first to 4.1

6… Is the “dictated as” in 5.1 really necessary?

7… I think you should section V above Section II. You shouldn’t legislate the ribbons of the award and how to get it before legislating the awards themselves. Then renumber it as such, ofc.

8… 4.2.3 is redundant. Section 6 says the same thing with more relevance and better diction and clarity.

9… I don’t like the wording in 6.3 of “who awarded them”, it seems unprofessional. Something more like “the method used to bestow the award” would work better, since then it’s either the Delegate or the Magisterium rather than “who” which vaguely references at least one individual.

10… For 6.4, “All repeals of an honor will be recorded in its respective forum thread established in Section 6.1.” sounds better as “All repeals of an honor will be recorded in its respective forum thread, as established in Section 6.1.”

11… In 6.5, “repealed and stripped off the recipient” sounds bad. Simply “repealed” is better, and accomplishes the same function.

I don’t think I will vote against solely based on these grievances, but I will definitely follow up with an amendment that fixes all of this if it isn’t all fixed (or my points are argued away) by the time this goes to vote.

8

Sokala has bestowed upon me the powers of Co-Sponsor, so I shall address all these things:

— Begin quote from ____

There’s a Latin typo there: it should be Pacificum Orientale :)))

— End quote

Done.

— Begin quote from ____

1… Again, why legislate the exact dimensions of the ribbon? It seems unnecessarily strict.

— End quote

All our ribbon designs are pretty much made to this dimension. I don’t see why it is strict- we pretty much act on this standard, might as well legalize it.

— Begin quote from ____

2… I don’t quite like the definition of Medal. Maybe something more like “An award granted alongside a ribbon as an alternative to the ribbon itself” or something. In general tho, I don’t see why we should have a “Medal” when we have Ribbons and Honors. Also the numbering is wrong, it should be 2.1.2, not 2.1.1

— End quote

The OGO came with a medal and honestly I personally would like to keep it that way. Additionally, medals are pretty cool- theoretically we don’t even need ribbons. I’ll implant your suggested definition.

— Begin quote from ____

3… Why make the definition of Honor if you just go on to say “award/order (honor)”? Just say honor, you made a whole section defining it.

— End quote

Something I forgot to edit out.

— Begin quote from ____

4… Maybe add “via Executive Order” to 4.2.2

— End quote

Not all Delegates utilize Executive Orders. Don’t see a need for that.

— Begin quote from ____

5… You have two 4.2 sections. Change the first to 4.1

6… Is the “dictated as” in 5.1 really necessary?

— End quote

Done! Removed dictated as.

— Begin quote from ____

8… 4.2.3 is redundant. Section 6 says the same thing with more relevance and better diction and clarity.

— End quote

Assuming you meant Section 4.2.2., I like to be explicit. Section 6 implies but doesn’t explicitly say what happens when an honor is removed.

— Begin quote from ____

9… I don’t like the wording in 6.3 of “who awarded them”, it seems unprofessional. Something more like “the method used to bestow the award” would work better, since then it’s either the Delegate or the Magisterium rather than “who” which vaguely references at least one individual.

— End quote

Fundamentally it doesn’t change much, but I feel specifying “who” would lead one to list the Delegate who awarded the honor. Per your definition, it is said that they merely need to state how it was done, not who (in the Delegate’s case) awarded it. I know that most people will probably just record themselves when they give out awards, but I still think that distinction would be nice to keep.

— Begin quote from ____

10… For 6.4, “All repeals of an honor will be recorded in its respective forum thread established in Section 6.1.” sounds better as “All repeals of an honor will be recorded in its respective forum thread, as established in Section 6.1.”

— End quote

Done!

— Begin quote from ____

11… In 6.5, “repealed and stripped off the recipient” sounds bad. Simply “repealed” is better, and accomplishes the same function.

— End quote

Was going to do it, but then I realized repealed sounds a bit weird. Changed it to “remove” and changed the relevant bits of the Act dealing with the “repeal” into “removal”.

— Begin quote from ____

7… I think you should section V above Section II. You shouldn’t legislate the ribbons of the award and how to get it before legislating the awards themselves. Then renumber it as such, ofc.

— End quote

Done!

9

Beautiful. Regarding 8, I was referring to an early clause saying that the Award had to be documented in a forum thread (now to 5.1.3), since Section VI goes into detail about how forum threads must be opened and the awards must be documented within them. Just seemed redundant.

Regarding 9, I suppose you’re right, but as a native legalese speaker I feel a little punch to the gut when parts of writing in the language sound kinda informal, even if they’re still technically effective.

10

— Begin quote from ____

Beautiful. Regarding 8, I was referring to an early clause saying that the Award had to be documented in a forum thread (now to 5.1.3), since Section VI goes into detail about how forum threads must be opened and the awards must be documented within them. Just seemed redundant.

— End quote

Ah, okay.

IMO, it isn’t redundant. Section 6 goes specifically into Records, while 5.1.3. is dictating the act of awarding. Which basically means the Magi can’t award someone an OGO in a closed vote, nor can the Delegate award this to someone in a close thread. Has to be public.

To show the difference:
[AWARDS] The Order of the Golden Ocelot - The East Pacific - Tapatalk was used by Libertanny to formally award those Citizens with the award.

Nations Awarded with the Order of the Golden Ocelot - The East Pacific - Tapatalk was created by Libertanny to record the awarding of the OGO.

— Begin quote from ____

Regarding 9, I suppose you’re right, but as a native legalese speaker I feel a little punch to the gut when parts of writing in the language sound kinda informal, even if they’re still technically effective.

— End quote

IMO it would actually be better to make law more informal to make it more understandable. I feel like so long as we can keep the meaning of the words without resorting to legalese, we should do so. :stuck_out_tongue:

11

Added a new Section, Section 7, to make Award Fraud a thing again.

12

Add grace period to allow ppl to remove award from themselves so they can’t legally be banned for a year the second their award is removed

13

Also one year? Seriously?

14

— Begin quote from ____

Also one year? Seriously?

— End quote

It’s a maximum ban, the Conclave can decide to go lower.

However, I can change it hm

15

Peace

16

[spoiler]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/485185146576699404/809051246148452362/Screenshot_2.pnghttps://media.discordapp.net/attachments/485185146576699404/809051245028704336/Screenshot_3.png?width=1024&height=366
[/spoiler]

17

I would probably write this a lot more succinctly, but I don’t have the time right now to do much suggestions, and overall this is a good proposal, so no further comments from me.

18

I would like to move this to vote.

19

seconded

20

— Begin quote from ____

Peace

— End quote

War