# \[Amendment\] Law Standards Act

**URL:** <https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340>\
**Category:** The Magisterium\
**Tags:** amendment\
**Created:** [September 8, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340 "2025-09-08T13:58:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 17\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/lucklife/32/11496_2.png) [@Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Lucklife)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/1 "2025-09-08T13:58:09Z")

</div>

I was thinking that The Standard Date and Time Act should be merged into the Law Standards Act.

Using Ladona’s suggestion below, here is the new amendment

> [@Law Standards Act](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/law-standards-act/17710/1):
>
> # Section I. CITATION
> 
> 1. This Act shall be referred to as the “LawFormatting Standards Act”.
> 
> # Section II. DEFINITIONS
> 
> 1. “Format of this Act” refers to the section, clause, and subclause style used by this Act.
> 2. “Legislative Proposal” or “Proposal” refers to a proposal to exercise legislative action through a Bill.
> 3. This Act uses the same definitions for each category of Bill that can be found in the [Standing Orders of the Magisterium](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/standing-orders-of-the-magisterium/16205).
> 4. This Act uses the same definition for “Sponsor” that can be found in the Standing Orders of the Magisterium.
> 5. 
> 
> “The Forums” refers to [https://forum.theeastpacific.com](https://forum.theeastpacific.com)
> 
> # Section III. LAW FORMATS
> 
> 1. Unless specified elsewhere in this Act, the Standing Orders of the Magisterium, as well as all legislation and amendments thereto, must be written according to the Format of this Act.  
> …1. Until it is amended, any legislation that was passed on or before Tuesday, September 9, 2025 4:13 AM does not need to comply with this Act.
> 2. All amendments being brought to vote must be made with the `[add][/add]` and `[remove][/remove]` tag pairs to indicate where changes are being made.  
> …1. If the amendment is a rewrite that requires the entire Legislative Proposal to be considered as a whole, then tag pairs are not mandatory, especially if their inclusion affects readability or comprehension.
> 3. Nominations, Repeals, Removals, and Overrides are not required to follow a particular format. The Sponsor must clearly identify the target of the Legislative Proposal and why they introduced it.
> 4. Resolutions should be written with the first section being titled “CITATION”, the second section being titled “FINDINGS”, and a third section titled “RESOLUTIONS”.
> 5. Treaties and Declarations of War must use the Format of this Act where practical.  
> …1. Sections may be referred to as Articles instead.
> 
> # Section IV. DATE AND TIME FORMATS
> 
> 1. All dates and times used for official purposes on the Forums shall follow “Discourse Standard”, defined as YYYY-MM-DD.
> 2. Where applicable, dates must be expressed using the `[date]` tag for an individual date, or the `[date-range]` tag for a range of dates.
> 3. All uses of the [date] and [date-range] tags should, when applicable, represent individual dates as `YYYY-MM-DD`, individual times as `hh:mm:ss`, combined datetimes as `YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss`, and the timezone as `tz`.  
> …1. `YYYY` is the year the event will occur;  
> …2. `MM` is the month the event will occur;  
> …3. `DD` is the day that the event will occur;  
> …4. `hh` is the hour the event will occur, in 24-hour notation;  
> …5. `mm` is the minute that the event will occur;  
> …6. `ss` is the seconds that the event will occur, typically 00; and  
> …7. `tz` is the appropriate timezone for the event.
> 4. Compliant examples and a list of timezones have been included in Appendix A.
> 
> # Section IV. RESPONSIBILITIES
> 
> 1. The Sponsor is responsible for formatting a Legislative Proposal according to the standards defined in this Act.
> 2. The Office of the Provost may, at its discretion, request that a Sponsor reformat a Legislative Proposal to comply with the standards defined in this Act.
> 3. The Office of the Provost may reformat a Legislative Proposal to comply with the standards defined in this Act before the Proposal is brought to a vote.
> 
> # Section VI. ALTERATIONS
> 
> 1. A Sponsor may alter their implementation of the Format of this Act as necessary. They must provide a justification for the alteration.
> 2. The Office of the Provost may alter a Legislative Proposal’s implementation of the Format of this Act as necessary. They must provide a justification for the alteration.
> 3. The Office of the Provost must not make unreasonable alterations when reformatting a Legislative Proposal to comply with this Act, including changing the intended meaning of a Resolution or the legal effect of a binding Legislative Proposal.  
> …1. The Conclave may, by majority vote, reverse any edit that violates this paragraph of this Act.
> 
> # Appendix A. COMPLIANT EXAMPLES
> 
> - Individual date & time: `[date=2023-02-07 time=11:30:00 format="LLLL z" timezone="UTC"]`
> - Date & time range: `[date-range from=2023-01-07T11:30:00 to=2023-01-07T11:30:00 format="LLLL z" timezone="America\Los_Angeles"]`
> - A list of appropriate timezones can be found here: [List of tz database time zones - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ladona/32/15492_2.png) [@Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Ladona)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/2 "2025-09-08T14:17:07Z")

</div>

So, after looking at the original [Standard Date & Time Act](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/standard-date-time-act/16693), I’ve realised that it has an implication beyond just legislation. As an example of this, if an Arbiter reconfirmation fails and the Magisterium reminds the Delegate that they have 7 days to come up with a new nomination, because that’s a legal deadline (as it is mandated in the Concordat) that must follow the Standard Date & Time Act.

I definitely don’t like the inclusion of Unix timestamps, as that would have very little frame of reference for anyone outside of IT or niche uses (like setting Discord timestamps) - 1757340728 doesn’t really mean much to anyone.

I would rather see something like this.

> [@](#):
>
> # Section I. CITATION
> 
> 1. This Act shall be known and cited as the “Standard Date & Time Act”
> 
> # Section II. DEFINITIONS
> 
> 1. “The Forums” refers to [https://forum.theeastpacific.com](https://forum.theeastpacific.com).
> 
> # Section III. STANDARDS
> 
> 1. All date/timestamps used for official purposes on The Forums must use the Discourse-native date code functionality. Examples of this are displayed in Appendix A.
> 
> 2. All dates used for official purposes on The Forums must follow the format YYYY-MM-DD, where YYYY is the year the event will occur, MM is the month the event will occur, and DD is the day the event will occur. Examples of this are displayed in Appendix A.
> 
> 3. All date/timestamps used for official purposes on The Forums must include the relevant timezeone. Examples of this are displayed in Appendix A.
> 
> * * *
> 
> # Appendix A. COMPLIANT EXAMPLES
> 
> - Individual date & time: `[date=2023-02-07 time=11:30:00 format="LLLL z" timezone="UTC"]`
> - Date & time range: `[date-range from=2023-01-07T11:30:00 to=2023-01-07T11:30:00 format="LLLL z" timezone="America\Los_Angeles"]`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ernestdrake](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ernestdrake/32/15981_2.png) [@ernestdrake](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/ernestdrake)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 10:39am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/3 "2025-09-12T10:39:07Z")

</div>

I concur with Ladona on the subject of unix timestamps. They’re a completely unintuitive format.

I’d like to ask wiser and more experienced Magisters if the absence of the ampersand is normal in this subclause:

> [@Standard Date & Time Act](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/standard-date-time-act/16693/1):
>
> ## SECTION I. CITATION
> 
> …1.1. This Act shall be known and cited as the “Standard Date Time Act”.

The name of the statute is “Standard Date **&** Time Act”, after all.

Regardless, Luck does point out the fact that there’s an issue with clutter in our legislation. That’s something that I fully agree with him on, and would wish to see reduced where possible. In striving to include Ladona’s suggestion to guarantee that the standard for dates and time is consistent throughout more than just our legislation, I’ve attempted to incorporate it into the _Law Standards Act_ like so:

> ## Section III. FORMATS
> 
> […]  
> 6. All official deadlines must follow this standard, with date formats using the Discourse standard (YYYY-MM-DD, Universal Coordinated Time, UTC) wherever applicable. Examples are displayed in Appendix A\*.  
> …1. All dates used for official purposes on The Forums must follow the format YYYY-MM-DD, where YYYY is the year the event will occur, MM is the month the event will occur, and DD is the day the event will occur. Examples of this are displayed in Appendix A.

Really, I would welcome a combination of the two statutes into one similar to the above.

\*This Appendix A would have to be added, naturally.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ladona/32/15492_2.png) [@Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Ladona)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 2:31pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/4 "2025-09-12T14:31:05Z")

</div>

I’m still wary of including merging the changes into the Law Standards Act simply because it has impacts beyond just defining a standard format for laws to follow. Maybe if the Act were renamed to the Formatting Standards Act, Section III renamed to LAW FORMATS and a new Section IV added called DATE AND TIME FORMATS?

Regardless of where the amendment gets made, I would very much like to see:

1. Removal of UTC as a mandatory timezone to use.
2. Removal of term “Discourse standard”, as while this is all addressed in ISO 8601, there’s three formats that need to be followed; one for dates, one for times, one for datetimes.

So, ultimately something like this:

> [@Law Standards Act](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/law-standards-act/17710/1):
>
> # Section I. CITATION
> 
> 1. This Act shall be referred to as the “LawFormatting Standards Act”.
> 
> # Section II. DEFINITIONS
> 
> 1. “Format of this Act” refers to the section, clause, and subclause style used by this Act.
> 2. “Legislative Proposal” or “Proposal” refers to a proposal to exercise legislative action through a Bill.
> 3. This Act uses the same definitions for each category of Bill that can be found in the [Standing Orders of the Magisterium](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/standing-orders-of-the-magisterium/16205).
> 4. This Act uses the same definition for “Sponsor” that can be found in the Standing Orders of the Magisterium.
> 5. 
> 
> “The Forums” refers to [https://forum.theeastpacific.com](https://forum.theeastpacific.com)
> 
> # Section III. LAW FORMATS
> 
> 1. Unless specified elsewhere in this Act, the Standing Orders of the Magisterium, as well as all legislation and amendments thereto, must be written according to the Format of this Act.  
> …1. Until it is amended, any legislation that was passed on or before Tuesday, September 9, 2025 4:13 AM does not need to comply with this Act.
> 2. All amendments being brought to vote must be made with the `[add][/add]` and `[remove][/remove]` tag pairs to indicate where changes are being made.  
> …1. If the amendment is a rewrite that requires the entire Legislative Proposal to be considered as a whole, then tag pairs are not mandatory, especially if their inclusion affects readability or comprehension.
> 3. Nominations, Repeals, Removals, and Overrides are not required to follow a particular format. The Sponsor must clearly identify the target of the Legislative Proposal and why they introduced it.
> 4. Resolutions should be written with the first section being titled “CITATION”, the second section being titled “FINDINGS”, and a third section titled “RESOLUTIONS”.
> 5. Treaties and Declarations of War must use the Format of this Act where practical.  
> …1. Sections may be referred to as Articles instead.
> 
> # Section IV. DATE AND TIME FORMATS
> 
> 1. All dates and times used for official purposes on the Forums must be expressed using the `[date]` tag for an individual date, or the `[date-range]` tag for a range of dates.
> 2. All uses of the [date] tag must include `date=YYYY-MM-DD`, `time=hh:mm:ss` and `timezone="tz"`.  
> …1. `YYYY` is the year the event will occur;  
> …2. `MM` is the month the event will occur;  
> …3. `DD` is the day that the event will occur;  
> …4. `hh` is the hour the event will occur, in 24-hour notation;  
> …5. `mm` is the minute that the event will occur;  
> …6. `ss` is the seconds that the event will occur, typically 00; and  
> …7. `tz` is the appropriate timezone for the event.
> 3. All uses of the [date-range] tag must include `from=YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss`, `to=YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss`, and `timezone="tz"`.
> 4. Compliant examples, including a list of appropriate timezones have been included in Appendix A.
> 
> # Section IV. RESPONSIBILITIES
> 
> 1. The Sponsor is responsible for formatting a Legislative Proposal according to the standards defined in this Act.
> 2. The Office of the Provost may, at its discretion, request that a Sponsor reformat a Legislative Proposal to comply with the standards defined in this Act.
> 3. The Office of the Provost may reformat a Legislative Proposal to comply with the standards defined in this Act before the Proposal is brought to a vote.
> 
> # Section V. ALTERATIONS
> 
> 1. A Sponsor may alter their implementation of the Format of this Act as necessary. They must provide a justification for the alteration.
> 2. The Office of the Provost may alter a Legislative Proposal’s implementation of the Format of this Act as necessary. They must provide a justification for the alteration.
> 3. The Office of the Provost must not make unreasonable alterations when reformatting a Legislative Proposal to comply with this Act, including changing the intended meaning of a Resolution or the legal effect of a binding Legislative Proposal.  
> …1. The Conclave may, by majority vote, reverse any edit that violates this paragraph of this Act.
> 
> # Appendix A. COMPLIANT EXAMPLES
> 
> - Individual date & time: `[date=2023-02-07 time=11:30:00 format="LLLL z" timezone="UTC"]`
> - Date & time range: `[date-range from=2023-01-07T11:30:00 to=2023-01-07T11:30:00 format="LLLL z" timezone="America\Los_Angeles"]`
> - A list of appropriate timezones can be found here: [List of tz database time zones - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ernestdrake](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ernestdrake/32/15981_2.png) [@ernestdrake](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/ernestdrake)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/5 "2025-09-12T17:41:17Z")

</div>

I’m favourable to all changes suggested by Magister Ladona.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ladona/32/15492_2.png) [@Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Ladona)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/6 "2025-09-13T15:53:53Z")

</div>

Edited this to specify the correct implementation of `timezone`, add the use of `timezone` in [date-range] tags for correct conversion, and to properly number 4.2.7.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/lucklife/32/11496_2.png) [@Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Lucklife)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 3:22am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/7 "2025-10-09T03:22:43Z")

</div>

I quite like how you expanded it to all of the forums, so that covers all bases. I’ll take it wholesale and edit the OP in a bit

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/lucklife/32/11496_2.png) [@Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Lucklife)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 10:54am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/8 "2025-10-10T10:54:48Z")

</div>

@Ladona some edits to OP Section IV

→ Included .1 to define YYYY-MM-DD for places like arbiters where they might just need the date and not date tag  
 → Merged Date and Date-Range into .2 since functionally both of them need the same details

Also removed the wikipedia example of example timezones, since if it weren’t listed, the forums would just reject it and break the code

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ladona/32/15492_2.png) [@Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Ladona)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 11:22am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/9 "2025-10-10T11:22:02Z")

</div>

Hey @Lucklife.

[date] and [date-range] have different arguments. date requires date=YYYY-MM-DD and optionally takes time=hh:mm:ss. date-range requires from=YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss, and to=YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss (note the delineating T character between the date and time as well as the different argument names). The details required are conceptually different (date requires a single date, while date-range requires a start date and an end date) and have different implementations, hence their original separation.

Also, the Wikipedia link was in there so that people could actually find their timezones to begin with as UTC representation (UTC+11) is more common than tz-database representation (Australia\Sydney) unless you’re in IT.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/lucklife/32/11496_2.png) [@Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Lucklife)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 12:44pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/10 "2025-10-10T12:44:53Z")

</div>

Ye that’s right, but I don’t think we need to go into such detail since that’s going into the mechanisms of date v date range.

My intention was [if you’re using date or date range, you need that YYYY-MM-DD, HH:MM:SS, and TZ]

How one wants to write it, whether they need to phrase it as YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss, or add a from:YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss (in the case of date range), is up to them and limited by forum mechanisms.

The law wouldn’t say one needs to follow “from-to” for date range, but one does it because its a technical limitation. To use date range is to include “from-to”.

So the law just says - “Go include YYYY-MM-DD, go put HH:MM:SS and tz where applicable. How you want to format in accordance with whatever date/date range demands is up to you”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ladona/32/15492_2.png) [@Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Ladona)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/11 "2025-10-10T13:01:16Z")

</div>

Yes, but the section

> [@](#):
>
> All uses of the `[date]` and `[date-range]` tag must include `date=YYYY-MM-DD`, `time=hh:mm:ss` and `timezone="tz"`.

is wrong.

[date-range] should not include date=YYYY-MM-DD, because it’s invalid for the tag. Ultimately, it’s going to be used as a reference for people who don’t know how how to properly use the tag and want to know how to use it so they can format dates/date-ranges properly, so the information available should be as accurate as possible, especially when generalising it leads to the information presented being factually wrong.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/lucklife/32/11496_2.png) [@Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Lucklife)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/12 "2025-10-10T17:29:28Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> 3. All uses of the `[date]` and `[date-range]` tag where applicable should include the date as `YYYY-MM-DD`, time as `hh:mm:ss` and the timezone`"tz"`.

Alright, I getcha, is this factually correct now?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ladona/32/15492_2.png) [@Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Ladona)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/13 "2025-10-11T00:08:49Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> 3. All uses of the [date] and [date-range] tags should, when applicable, represent individual dates as `YYYY-MM-DD`, individual times as `hh:mm:ss`, combined datetimes as `YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss`, and the timezone as `tz`.

Would be factually correct

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/lucklife/32/11496_2.png) [@Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Lucklife)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2025, 1:46am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/14 "2025-10-11T01:46:50Z")

</div>

Aight let’s roll with that, I’ll edit in a bit

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/lucklife/32/11496_2.png) [@Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Lucklife)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 2:22am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/15 "2025-10-15T02:22:56Z")

</div>

I motion to vote

X10 different characters because the forum awawawa

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ernestdrake](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ernestdrake/32/15981_2.png) [@ernestdrake](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/ernestdrake)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2025, 2:24am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/16 "2025-10-15T02:24:09Z")

</div>

I second the motion.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/lucklife/32/11496_2.png) [@Lucklife](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Lucklife)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2025, 5:10am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/amendment-law-standards-act/19340/17 "2025-10-22T05:10:39Z")

</div>