Standing Orders of the Magisterium
Current as of: 11 February, 2024
SECTION I. ADMITTANCE OF NEW MAGISTERS
…1.1. A Resident wishing to join the Magisterium (“applicant”) shall :
…1.1.1. Recite the Magister’s Pledge in the appropriate thread in the Magisterium sub-forum.
…1.1.2. Supply the name of their Resident nation and, if applicable, their World Assembly (“WA”) nation. If an applicant is on a military operation, only the Resident nation and the involved military must be supplied.
…1.1.3. If applicable, endorse the Delegate and all Viziers.
…1.1.4. Complete an official Public Disclosure Form.
…1.2 If the applicant has their WA nation in The East Pacific (“TEP”), or is confirmed by the Overseeing Officer of the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army (“EPSA”) to be a member of the EPSA and meets the conditions outlined in 1.1, the Provost shall admit the applicant to the Magisterium.
…1.3. If the applicant does not meet one of the conditions outlined in section 1.2 but meets the conditions outlined in the subsections of 1.1, the Magisterium shall, by majority vote, decide whether the applicant will be accepted.
…1.4. If the applicant has not satisfied the conditions as described in Section 1.1 & 1.2; within 72 hours of notification of an incomplete application, the Provost shall deny their application.
…1.5. The Provost may deny applicants convicted of any crime and applicants who have committed subversive acts in TEP or abroad.
SECTION II. LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE
…2.1. The Magisterium may exercise legislative action through four different kinds of bills:
…2.1.1. A “Legislative Proposal,” ( “Proposal”) defined as a bill that, upon enactment, shall form part of the binding body of law of TEP or an amendment thereof.
…2.1.2. A “Resolution,” defined as a bill outlining the non-binding opinion of the Magisterium.
…2.1.3. A “Proposed Amendment to the Concordat,” ( “Amendment”) defined as a bill that, upon passing a Magisterial vote, shall be placed before the Citizens in referendum to amend the Concordat, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Concordat.
…2.1.4. A “Standing Orders Amendment,” defined as a bill that will amend the Standing Orders of the Magisterium.
…2.2. Any Resident may start a debate on or introduce a Proposal, Resolution, or Amendment ( “Bill”). Only Magisters may start a debate on or propose a Standing Orders Amendment.
…2.3. The Resident or Magister that introduced a Bill or Standing Orders Amendment shall be its sponsor. They may amend the Bill at any time during the debate, and designate other Residents as sponsors.
…2.4. Any Sponsor or Magister may motion the Bill or Standing Orders Amendment to vote at any time during debate. A Magister must second that motion. If a non-Sponsor makes and seconds the motion, the Sponsor may object within 48 hours if they believe the Bill or Standing Orders Amendment still needs amendment. The Provost shall be deemed sponsor if the sponsor(s) are absent or inactive longer than 21 days within the Bill’s thread.
…2.4.1. Should a motioned Bill fail to be seconded within 48 hours, the Bill shall return to being debated. Any Sponsor or Magiste may immediately move the Bill to vote again.
…2.4.2. Should a Bill fail to be seconded on two separate instances, a mandatory 72 hour waiting period shall apply.
…2.4.3. If a Bill fails to attain a second following the waiting period defined by Section 2.4.2, it shall immediately be tabled and may not be brought back for the remainder of the current legislative session.
…2.5. Should a Bill fail for reasons other than lack of quorum, the Bill is considered defeated and may not be brought back for the remainder of the legislative session.
…2.6. Nominations by the Delegate, ratifications of a treaty, or any other motion which is not a Bill or a Standing Orders Amendment shall follow the same procedure as a Bill.
…2.7. Should a Bill that has passed the Magisterium vote be vetoed by the Delegate, it will be returned immediately to debate for a minimum of 3 days before one of the Bill’s original sponsors may decide to move it to an override vote. It must then be seconded by a Magister who is not one of the Bill’s sponsors before it can be returned to vote in accordance with 4.1 through 4.3.2 .
SECTION III. PROVOST AND DEPUTY PROVOST
…3.1. The Magisterium shall appoint a Provost from among its members.
…3.1.1. An election shall be held when the position is vacant or before the end of the Provost’s three-month term (on the last days of March , June , September , and December ), organized by the previous Provost, a Deputy Provost, or a representative thereof.
…3.1.2. An individual who is running for election as Provost may not organize the election.
…3.2. A 4 day period for nominations is to be held.
…3.2.1. Any Magister may be nominated by another Magister.
…3.2.2. A Magister may nominate themselves. Another Magister must second that nomination before it is official.
…3.2.3. If a Magister was not self-nominated, they must explicitly accept their nomination period for it to be official.
…3.2.4. Officially nominated candidates may create a campaign thread that shall contain all campaigning for that Magister.
…3.2.5. Any Resident may ask a candidate questions within the candidate’s respective campaign thread.
…3.3. If there are no valid candidates, another 4 day period for nominations shall be held and the incumbent Provost will remain in office until a new Provost is elected.
…3.3.1. Upon election of a Provost, all campaign threads relating to the previous election must be locked.
…3.4. After nominations, the Magisterium shall vote for a period of 3 days. The candidate receiving the most votes shall be elected as Provost.
…3.4.1. If more than two valid candidates have accepted a nomination, Provost elections shall be conducted using Instant Runoff Voting.
…3.4.2. Should the election result in a tie and no candidate concedes, a new 3 day vote shall be held.
…3.4.3. If a tie persists, the vote shall be opened to all Residents for a period of 3 days.
…3.5. The Provost shall appoint up to four (4) Magisters as Deputy Provost, who can conduct the Provosts’ duties upon the request of the Provost.
…3.5.1. Deputy Provosts shall serve at the pleasure of the Provost.
SECTION IV. VOTING
…4.1. When a motion to vote has been seconded in accordance with subsection 2.4, the Provost shall then immediately officiate a voting period of seven days on the proposal.
…4.2. Voting is conducted as per the following procedure:
…4.2.1 Magisters shall submit a vote via poll or a reply if they are unable to vote via poll in the designated voting thread.
…4.2.2 Should a Magister submit a vote via both poll and reply, only the poll vote will be considered.
…4.3. A vote will be concluded when:
…4.3.1. The prescribed voting period ends, or;
…4.3.2. The Provost concludes the voting period, given that all eligible Magisters have voted.
…4.4. A motion shall pass if:
…4.4.1. Greater than 50% of the votes not including Present or Abstain are in favour of it; and
…4.4.2. The quorum number of 50% or more of eligible Magisterium voters has been met.
…4.4.3. This order is notwithstanding any special requirements set out by the Concordat for certain types of votes, and in the case of extended requirement, the quorum shall always be achieved.
…4.5. When a Bill has passed, the Provost or Deputy Provost shall then:
…4.5.1. Notify the Delegate in the appropriate thread if it is an Act or amendment of such.
…4.5.2. Notify the Conclave in the appropriate thread if it is a Concordat amendment.
…4.5.3. Close the voting thread with a written post detailing each Magister’s vote. Such post shall include, when possible, an image of the final poll results.
…4.6. Upon signature of the Delegate, or after 10 days of passage as defined in the Concordat, the Provost shall implement said Act as a thread within “Laws of the East Pacific” ( “the Laws”).
…4.6.1. Any amendments shall be logged in the appropriate thread within the Laws.
…4.6.2. A rewrite of an Act shall replace the Act within the Laws, with said previous Act, as well as any repeals, being moved to “Repealed Laws”.
…4.7. Any Magister that was approved during any voting period shall not have their vote counted for that particular voting period.
…4.8. Any Magister removed or resigned from office or on an official Leave of Absence during any voting period shall not have their vote counted for that particular voting period.
…4.9. Threads that have been voted on, tabled, or abandoned for over 60 days, shall be locked.
…4.9.1. The Provost shall be responsible to lock said threads.
…4.9.2. A thread locked as a result of tabling or abandonment can be unlocked by the Provost upon a reasoned request by any Magister
…4.10. A voting record from each Magisterium shall be publicly available in a forum thread.
SECTION V. CLOSED SESSIONS
…5.1. A Magister may motion a matter to be considered in a closed session. If the motion is seconded and a majority of votes on the motion are in favor, the matter will be considered in a closed session.
…5.2. The Foreign Policy Committee is established as a meeting of the Magisterium to discuss matters of treaty and war, and it shall meet in closed session.
…5.2.1. The Foreign Policy Committee will be chaired by the Provost.
…5.2.2. The Delegate and any minister(s) they designate will be members of the committee without voting privileges.
…5.2.3. The Delegate or the Provost may initiate a meeting of the committee to discuss treaty negotiations or declarations of war without a vote .
…5.2.4. The Provost shall publicly announce the opening and closure of each such meeting.
…5.3. Votes on Closed Session discussions shall be public, including the full text of the motion being voted upon.
SECTION VI. RESIGNATION, ABSENCE OR REMOVAL OF PROVOSTS
…6.1. If the Provost resigns, is removed, or has been absent for a period exceeding 3 days without official Leave Of Absence (LOA), then:
…6.1.1. The longest serving Deputy shall temporarily assume the Provost’s duties and hold a special Provost election until another is elected.
…6.1.2. If no eligible Deputy exists then the longest serving Magister shall temporarily assume the Provost’s duties.
…6.2. Any Magister may motion for the removal of the Provost by majority vote. If a Magister seconds the motion: the Provost shall be immediately suspended and can no longer exercise any of the Provosts’ duties.
…6.2.1. A Deputy Provost or a representative thereof (where there are no eligible Deputy Provosts) shall temporarily assume the Provost’s duties and officiate a vote to remove the Provost for a period of 72 hours. If the removal vote passes then a Special Provost Election shall immediately follow.
…6.2.2. If the vote to remove the Provost fails, the Provost is unsuspended. Both the Magister who proposed and seconded the suspension cannot re-motion for the remainder of the Magisterial term.
…6.3. Special Provost Elections follow the same nomination, campaigning, and election procedures as Provost Elections.
…6.3.1. If any Special Provost Elections begin less than a month before Provost Elections, then the Provost Elections will be called off, and the Provost will serve the next full term in addition to the remainder of their predecessor’s term.
SECTION VII. CHANGE OF WA STATUS
…7.1. Magisters may petition the Provost to change the WA status of their membership within the Magisterium.
…7.1.1. Magisters accepted under Section 1.2 may convert to Non-WA status subject to a vote as outlined in Section 1.3.
…7.1.2. Magisters accepted under Section 1.3 may convert to WA status provided that the requirements of Section 1.2 are met by the petitioner.
…7.2 A Magister may not invoke Section VII more than once per legislative session.
SECTION VIII. REMOVAL OF MAGISTERS
…8.1. The Provost may hold a roll call and require that Magisters respond within 1 week to confirm their activity
…8.1.1. Any Magister not responding to a roll call can be suspended by the Provost, Deputy Provost, or removed by a majority vote of the responding Magisters.
…8.1.2. Any Magister who has informed the Magisterium of their absence shall be exempt to this rule, as long as the roll call is within the time frame of inactivity as stated by the Magister.
…8.2. A Magister may be suspended by the Provost, and removed by a majority vote if:
…8.2.1. The Magister has not logged into the forums for more than two weeks and has not informed the Magisterium of said absence; or
…8.2.2. In the previous calendar month, with at least two votes conducted, The Magister has not voted or confirmed attendance in at least half of all votes; or
…8.2.3. The Magister was accepted under Section 1.2. but currently has their WA nation outside of TEP, unless they are a verified EPSA soldier or following EPSA orders.
…8.3. Any suspended Magister may be unsuspended by informing the Magisterium of the reason for their inactivity and voting in any legislative proposal. If said Magister was suspended per Section 8.2.3., they must also return their WA nation to TEP and inform the Magisterium why their WA nation was moved outside TEP.
…8.4. A Magister will be removed automatically, which shall be announced by the Provost, if:
…8.4.1. The Magister is found to have supplied falsified information in their Magister’s Pledge or official Public Disclosure Form; or
…8.4.2. The Magister has no resident TEP nation.
…8.5. A Magister may resign at any time.