STANDING ORDERS OF THE CONCLAVE
The Conclave of the East Pacific hereby resolves within this agreement the procedures
and duties of its bench, with the commitments to protect the basic rights and well being of citizens, and mechanisms to justly interpret the laws governing these citizens. This agreement is living, and encourages its updating to ensure the activity, independence, and proper functioning of the Conclave. No portion of this agreement may be taken to establish rights for any party which is not contemplated by the Concordat or Laws of The East Pacific, but instead as privileges within the justice system.
SECTION 1: SPECIFICATION OF CONCLAVE DUTIES
1.1. The Conclave of the East Pacific shall:
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a. Hold and preside over trials for criminal activity or civil disputes,
b. Interpret laws of passed by the Magisterium and clearly decide on interpretation or voiding of it,
c. Render clear and fair verdicts and sentences in trials,
d. Follow statutory law and precedent as closely as possible in verdicts,
e. Elect from among themselves a Viceroy to administrate Conclave upon election request,
f. Remove a Vizier for inactivity or high crimes by a 2/3 vote,
g. Remain active and punctual in all duties.
1.2. The Viceroy of Conclave shall:
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a. Lead Conclave and representing it to the other branches of government,
b. Execute all duties as outlined in this agreement,
c. Appoint a Viceroy Designee which shall assume Viceroy duties when tasked by the Viceroy, assume Viceroy duties in case of the Viceroy’s absence over 2 days, and oversee election of a new Viceroy in case of the Viceroy’s absence over 28 days, resignation, or removal,
d. Oversee the election of the new Viceroy when motioned,
e. Institute administrative rules not covered in this agreement with Arbiter vote,
f. Refer cases of chronically inactive Arbiters to the Magisterium for removal.
g. Maintain the Conclave’s resources and documents so they are well-kept and accessible.
1.3. Arbiters are not to discuss any matter in the Closed Chambers with or have their decisions influenced by outside sources.
SECTION 2: SPECIFICATION OF CONCLAVE FUNCTIONS
2.1. The following functions shall be executed by Conclave:
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a. Judicial Review - official review of legislation or the Concordat and the review of constitutional challenges to laws.
b. Advisory Question - legal questions referred by any citizen, with the question seeking answers through unofficial judicial opinions.
c. Trials - instances wherein the Conclave is asked to determine guilt in a specific matter.
2.2. There shall be three kinds of trials:
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a. Civil - official challenges to government action or action by a resident,
b. Criminal - official charges brought against a resident by The East Pacific,
c. Appeals - official re-trials of a civil or criminal trial.
JUDICIAL REVIEW
2.3. Judicial Review shall take place following a request by a resident with a confirmation vote by the Conclave or at an Arbiter’s request within a week of a change to regional law being passed (with the Arbiter’s request concerning said change).
2.4. Upon receipt of request, the Viceroy shall initiate public and private threads which outline the bill in its entirety, along with the end-date for the deliberation of the law.
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a. The public thread shall be available for citizens to refer precedent or applicable laws to the Conclave, but the Viceroy may delete posts that are disruptive and do not contribute to the matter at hand.
b. The private thread shall contain the deliberations of the Conclave and be used to draft verdicts and debate the law.
c. The Conclave may reverse its decision to hold a Review with a vote at any time during this time period. In such cases, the Conclave shall provide a reasoning as to why in the public thread.
d. The Viceroy shall post updates every week in the public thread on the general on-goings of the Review in Closed Chambers, such as if a draft verdict has been written or other general conduct.
e. If no discussion occurs within Closed Chambers on a Review for more than 60 days, the Review shall automatically be closed and stated as such in the public thread.
2.5. The Review shall rule on the interpretation or constitutional validity of a law (or interpretation of the Concordat itself), factoring the Concordat, all applicable statutory laws, precedent of the court, and traditional values of The East Pacific for their deliberations.
2.6. Draft verdicts are prepared by Arbiters, listing reasoning and legal references to be voted upon.
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a. For the first vote, a draft verdict may only pass by unanimity.
b. If the vote fails, consequent votes shall be held until a draft verdict receives majority support.
c. The dissenting minority of Arbiters may choose to file a minority report of their verdict to be appended to the majority verdict.
2.7. The majority verdict of a Judicial Review shall take full force of law and shall form precedence for that and similar laws. The verdict may rule on including, but not limited to: constitutionality, applicability, meaning, or validity of a law or applicability or meaning of the Concordat. Laws that violate the Concordat shall be repealed in full.
ADVISORY QUESTION
2.8. Any private resident may submit an Advisory Question to the Conclave to obtain an unofficial advisory opinion from Arbiters. This must be done in an approved manner, if specified.
2.9. An informal opinion issued by single Arbiters may be posted in reply to this request, but shall not form precedence for any law.
- a. While not forming precedence, a prominent informal advisory opinion may be used as a justification for bringing civil suit or filing an appeal.
2.10. Informal opinions must be issued by at least one Arbiter, and over half of Conclave must either issue an informal opinion or recuse themselves from answering the Advisory Question.
TRIAL TIMELINE
2.11. A trial shall progress through the following steps in order to follow protocol (elaborated further on):
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a. Motion for Suit
b. Scheduling of a Trial
c. Pre-Trial
d. Trial
2.12. The full Trial period as indicated in Section 2.11.d shall be further split into:
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a. Statement of Presiding Arbiter and parties to suit in Trial
b. Indication of presence of parties in suit
c. Statement of Claim by Plaintiff or Statement of Criminal Charge by Prosecution
d. Statement of Defense
e. Further evidence
f. Deliberation (and Voting)
g. Verdict (and Sentencing)
TRIAL PROCESS
2.13. Motion for Suit - Conclave receives motions for suit either through (a) an application process as published by the Conclave on its respective subforum of The East Pacific or (b) a telegram to an Arbiter from the plaintiff in a civil case stating their motion for suit and the legal basis for the suit.
2.14. Scheduling of a Trial - Once a motion for suit has been made, the Viceroy shall schedule a pre-trial date and a full trial starting date as soon as possible. The Viceroy shall at this point notify the parties involved via telegram, forum message, or other applicable communications with the dates. Parties may request the Conclave to change the scheduling dates at any point during the trial.
2.15. Pre-Trial - A public thread shall be posted in the appropriate area for the pre-trial at least one week before the appointed pre-trial date. Questions and concerns of the pre-trial and trial shall be addressed in this thread throughout the trial. The Viceroy shall post the schedule dates in this thread.
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a. By the appointed pre-trial date, the whole of Conclave will rule on the admissibility of this motion, determined by the merit and need for trial; the Viceroy shall also appoint the Presiding Arbiter by this date. If the Conclave by unanimous vote rules the motion in admissible, the case is dismissed. This action is not subject to appeal. The ruling of the Conclave of the admissibility of this motion shall be posted in the public thread.
b. The pre-trial shall also determine whether limits shall be placed on time allotted for trial. If no time is specified, then the Presiding Arbiter will decide when to move the trial forwards.
c. Once the trial begins, the Presiding Arbiter shall handle matters of scheduling.
2.16. Trial - The following steps will occur for a trial:
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a. To begin the trial, the Presiding Arbiter shall state their name and the names of the parties involved in the suit. Only the parties listed to be involved in the suit may post in the trial.
b. The parties named in the opening statement (and those accepted by the Presiding Arbiter) shall declare their presence in a reasonable time frame (which cannot exceed four days) set by the Presiding Arbiter.
If a party fails to declare presence in that time frame, the Arbiter shall rule in favour of the present party. If this is the case, the verdict shall not be considered as precedence forming.
c. Plaintiff or Prosecution provides the reason for their claim, and brings forth evidence. Must be executed in the time allotted by the pre-trial. The Presiding Arbiter shall rule on the admissibility of evidence if it is objected to by an opposing party.
d. The defense provides the counterargument, introducing evidence for their argument. Must be executed in the time allotted by the pre-trial. The Presiding Arbiter shall rule on the admissibility of evidence if it is objected to by an opposing party.
e. Evidence and arguments are made and presented to the Presiding Arbiter until that Arbiter feels the issues have been properly addressed. Motions regarding addition of witnesses shall be heard and ruled upon at this time.
f. The Presiding Arbiter shall close the debate, and no further evidence may be presented at this time. The Presiding Arbiter shall review pertinent laws and precedence to render a decision.
g. The decision reached shall be presented at the end of the trial, and shall remain locked from that point. The verdict at this point shall form precedent and constitute a legally binding order for the relevant officials to enforce its provisions.
TRIAL APPEALS
2.17. An accepted appeal of a trial shall be heard by the full Conclave, the Viceroy serving as Presiding Arbiter. The trial shall follow the process as laid out prior in Section 2, with special requirements as laid out for appeals, and as below.
2.18. A request for an appeal must be presented to the Conclave in the form of an application by any party in that suit, the Delegate, or any Arbiter.
- a. This application must outline the Presiding Arbiter], parties to the suit, the verdict, and the reason(s) for appeal.
2.19. Upon receipt of the application, the Conclave shall hold a hearing to rule on approval. Recognized reasons for appeal shall be as follows:
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a. New substantively compelling evidence,
b. Breach of protocol,
c. Mistrial (including bias, prejudice, etc.),
d. Delegate request for appeal,
e. Arbiter endorsement of appeal application.
2.20. During Trial, should the applying party fail to be present, the appeal trial is closed and declared void.
- a. Should the non-applying party fail to be present, Conclave shall consider only their arguments made in the first trial.
2.21. The trial shall be locked by majority vote of the Conclave or by discretion of Viceroy. Conclave shall then move to deliberation in private chambers, following the process laid out in Section 2.6.
2.22. Upon a decision, The Viceroy shall then present the verdict (and Minority Report, if applicable) and thereby lock the trial.
- a. The decision may uphold, reverse, mitigate, or generally change the previous verdict.
2.23. The Arbiter who was Presiding Arbiter in the original trial shall recuse from all matters involving this trial and may not participate in voting or discussions for this trial.
ADMINISTRATIVE RULES
2.24. Administrative Rules shall be binding procedural rulesets that specify on Conclave procedures beyond these Standing Orders.
2.25. Administrative Rules shall be enacted, amended, or repealed by a binding Conclave vote. Only Arbiters may propose the enactment, amendment, or repeal of an Administrative Rule.
2.26. A violation of Administrative Rules may be cause for a breach of protocol appeal in matters concerning a trial.
2.27. In cases in which the Standing Orders of the Conclave and its Administrative Rules conflict, the Standing Orders shall take effect. The Viceroy shall make the official determination when such a conflict exists, and should take steps to fix the Rule in question as soon as possible.
SECTION 3: VOTING
3.1. The Viceroy is charged with outlining the purpose, choices, and time-frame of all Conclave votes in accordance with the Concordat and this agreement. All votes shall take place in Closed Chambers.
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a. The numerical outcome of a vote may be publicly posted on an appeal verdict or judicial review.
b. A voting period may last no less than 48 hours or more than one week, or until all Arbiters have voted on an issue.
c. Only 3 Arbiters may vote in favor or against a binding decision of the Conclave (i.e. passing a Judicial Review verdict). If 4 Arbiters vote without abstaining, the Viceroy shall change their vote to abstain.
d. At least 2 Arbiters must vote in favor for an item to pass. If less than 2 do so, the item at vote fails.
3.2. In the case of a tie, a short grace period for debate is held, and the matter voted upon again. Upon the case of another tie, the Viceroy must change their vote to abstain if they had voted. If the Viceroy did not vote, then they must vote in order to break the tie.
- a. This shall not violate any requirements on the number of votes as set out in the Concordat.
3.3. Any Arbiter which does not vote in a matter shall be considered as abstaining and their non-participation shall be noted. Such Arbiters shall be considered ‘inactive’ in that matter.
3.4. Any Arbiter who brings a matter before the Conclave (with the exception of a Judicial Review request regarding a recent law change) or is materially involved in a matter to be considered must recuse themselves and may not be considered an active Arbiter in that matter. Once recused, the Arbiter must not participate in any part of the matter.
SECTION 4: AMENDMENTS
4.1. Amendments to the Standing Orders may be proposed at any time by an Arbiter.
4.2. Proposed amendments shall be discussed in Closed Chambers until a motion for a vote.
4.3. The Viceroy is charged with opening a vote for the amendment for the appointed length of time. This vote shall last at least 72 hours. Amendments to these Orders are considered procedural motions and thus all four Arbiters may vote.
4.4. A majority is required to pass an amendment to the Standing Orders, which will then be enacted by the Viceroy.
4.5. In cases in which a Judicial Review verdict, Administrative Rule, or the Standing Orders of the Conclave have a formatting or redaction error, the Viceroy may make a discretionary edit to the said item solely to correct said error. The Viceroy shall make a public notice whenever such an edit is made, detailing what the edit was and why it was made.