The Practice Legislative Assembly is designed to let new players get their feet wet in the process of drafting, debating, and voting for legislation. I would like to see current laws, failed proposals, and even new proposals discussed here. New players cannot be expected to propose their own practice legislation, so feel free to submit any idea even if you aren’t going to practice.
First things first, though. We need to simply the Magisterium’s Standing Orders (SO) and add more common parliamentary procedure. I’d like students to be comfortable in any region’s legislature, not just TEP’s.
Here is the current, I will propose a simplified version later:
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Standing Orders of the Magisterium
SECTION I. ACCEPTANCE OF MAGISTERS
…1.1- Citizens wishing to become Magisters must do all of the following:
…1.1.1- Recite the Magister’s Pledge in the appropriate designated location in the Magisterium sub-forum;
…1.1.2- Supply the name of their TEP nation as well as their WA nation if they have a WA nation, except if their WA nation is involved in EPSA, in which case it may remain classified;
…1.1.3- List any current positions elsewhere in NationStates;
…1.1.4- Have posted at least 10 times in the TEP forum.
…1.2- Citizens wishing to become Magisters must have accomplished at least 3 of the following:
…1.1.1- Move their WA Nation to TEP.
…1.1.2- Join the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army.
…1.1.3- Join the the Eastern Pacific News Service.
…1.1.4- Join the Eastern Pacific Police Service.
…1.1.5- Enroll in the The East Pacific University.
…1.1.6- Contribute to a TEP roleplay or create a new roleplay.
…1.1.7- Contribute to TEP’s “Game Room”.
…1.3-The Magisterium shall, by majority vote, decide whether the new Candidate-Magister will be accepted.
…1.4- Citizens who are denied acceptance into the Magisterium may appeal the decision and demand a referendum from all citizens of The East Pacific:
…1.4.1- The appellant must present a petition for Regional Referendum on Magister Acceptance to the Conclave, endorsed by at least 5 citizens;
…1.4.2- The petition will be reviewed by the Conclave and if valid, the Conclave will schedule a regional election;
…1.4.3- If elected by a majority vote of the citizens voting in the election, the appellant will be accepted into the Magisterium.
SECTION II. LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE
…2.1- Any Magister may propose a bill, resolution, or amendment to the Concordat and the Magisterium shall debate that proposal immediately.
…2.2- The Magisterium shall continue to debate that proposal until a Magister has motioned to vote and another Magister has seconded that motion.
…2.3- A Magister may motion to amend proposed legislation at any time during debate;
…2.3.1- If the author(s) of the legislation accept the amendment upon its proposal, in which case the legislation shall be amended as motioned without a vote;
…2.3.2- If that motion is not accepted by the author(s), yet receives a second, the Magisterium shall vote on the amendment for not less than 72 and not more than 96 hours;
…2.3.3- Were the motion to receive majority support, the legislation shall stand amended as motioned.
…2.4- The same procedure shall be used for nominations by the Delegate as well as motions to overrule a Delegate’s veto.
SECTION III. PROVOST AND DEPUTY PROVOST
…3.1- The Magisterium shall immediately act to appoint a Provost from among its members;
…3.1.1- An election is to be held whenever the position is vacant or at the end of the Provost’s three-month term; to be orchestrated by the previous Provost or a representative thereof.
…3.2- When the position has become vacant, a 48-hour period for nominations is to be held. A Magister may decline nomination for the position of Provost.
…3.3- The Magisterium shall then vote for a period of 72 hours and the candidate receiving the most votes shall be elected as Provost.
…3.4- The Provost shall name a Magister as Deputy Provost, who shall assume the Provost’s duties temporarily in the case the Provost is absent for more than 72 hours for any reason.
SECTION IV. VOTING
…4.1- When a motion to vote has been seconded in accordance with subsections 2.1 and 2.2, the Provost shall then officiate a voting period of one week, or 168 hours, upon the motion.
…4.2- Each time a Magister votes, (s)he must also explicitly supply her/his WA nation (if applicable) in the same post.
…4.3- A motion shall pass if a majority of votes are in favour of it:
…4.3.1- 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.
…4.4- A vote will be concluded when:
…4.4.1- The prescribed voting period ends;
…4.4.2- The Provost concludes the voting period, given that all eligible Magisters have voted.
…4.5- When a vote has concluded, the Provost shall then proceed as provided by the Concordat, according to the type of vote.
…4.6- Quorum numbers and voting eligibility will apply to the Magisterium size and its members prior to the voting period.
…4.7- Any Magister that was approved during any voting period shall not have their vote counted for that particular voting period.
SECTION V. QUORUM AND UNANIMOUS CONSENT
…5.1- In order for any exercise of the Magisterium’s powers, a quorum must be shown to exist. If the quorum is not achieved, the vote is considered ineffective and may not be acted upon.
…5.2- To achieve quorum, at least 1/2 of eligible Magisters must have made their presence known during a vote, by providing their vote or abstention.
…5.3- In the case of a vote under section 8 to remove a Magister for inactivity, any Magister who has not logged into their forum account for more than 72 hours may be excluded for the purposes of determining if a quorum exists for that vote.
…5.4- Where a Magister has made a motion on any procedural matter or suspension of procedural rules for the purposes of expediting the conduct of the Magisterium’s business, the Provost may then choose to proceed accordingly, provided there is no objection within 72 hours of the motion being made.
…5.5- Under no circumstances shall this procedure of unanimous consent be used to pass legislation or exercise any of the Magisterium’s powers.
SECTION VI. CLOSED SESSIONS
…6.1- A Magister may move that a matter be considered in closed session, and if the motion is seconded and a majority of votes are in favour of doing so, the Magisterium shall consider that matter in closed session.
SECTION VII. ABSENCE AND REMOVAL OF PROVOSTS
…7.1- If both the Provost and Deputy Provost have been absent for a period exceeding 72 hours:
…7.1.1- The current active, and longest serving, member of the Magisterium shall assume the Provost’s duties temporarily;
…7.1.2- Said member will be recognized as an “Interim Provost” and carry the duties of the Provost until another Provost is selected.
…7.2- Any Magister may move for the removal of the Provost and upon a Magister seconding this motion, the Deputy Provost shall officiate a vote of a period of 72 hours. The Provost may then be removed by majority vote.
…7.3- The Deputy Provost may be removed and replaced by the Provost at any time.
SECTION VIII. REMOVAL OF MAGISTERS
…8.1-The Provost may, from time to time, hold a roll call and require that Magisters respond within 1 week, or 168 hours, to confirm their activity:
…8.1.1-Any Magister not responding to such a roll call may then be eligible to be suspended or removed by a majority vote of the active Magisters.
…8.2- A Magister may be suspended or removed by a majority vote of the active Magisters 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;
…8.2.2- the Magister has not voted or confirmed attendance in at least two successive votes that have taken place at least seven days apart from each other;
…8.2.3- the Magister is found to have supplied falsified information in their Magister’s Pledge;
…8.2.4- the Magister is found to have supplied falsified information or no information at all about their WA nation attached to a vote in accordance with Order 4.2;
…8.3- In case of any of the conditions described in Standing Orders 8.1, 8.2.1, or 8.2.2, the Provost may temporarily suspend a Magister after having warned the Magister(s) in case and upon receiving no answer within 48 hours:
…8.3.1- the suspension will be automatically lifted upon the return of the Magister;
…8.3.2- if an objection is raised against the suspension by any Magister before a week has passed, the suspension will be decided by majority vote.
…8.4- A Magister may resign at any time.
SECTION IX. AMENDMENTS
…9.1- The Standing Orders shall be amended in the same manner as a legislative proposal. Any alterations that conflict with past resolutions shall be remedied.
…9.2- The Standing Orders shall have any headings shown in bold, underlined all-capital text, with the “big” script, (Headings to be known as titles of sections with the numbers immediately preceding them).
…9.3- Any following Order under the Headings shall be removed from the margin by three (3) periods (to distinguish between orders), and shall be notified with the number of the Section and the number of the Order, in bold (example 5.3, being Section 5, Order 3):
…9.3.1- Every Order with no Provisions shall each end with a period “.”;
…9.3.2- Orders with Provisions shall end in a colon “:”, and each consecutive Provision to end with a semicolon “;”, the final Provision ending in a period “.”. The use of the period marks the end of the Order.
…9.4- Any order with necessary addenda shall be added in the form of ‘provisions’, and shall be notified as outlined in the above, but with an added number for the provision. This number may not be bolded, but additionally removed from the margin with seven (7) periods (example 5.3.2).
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