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Title
1. This shall be titled the Judicial Offices Omnibus Amendment Act

Amendments
2. The entire Judicial Offices Act is to be amended to read as follows:

     

1a. Title
      1.1 This Act shall be cited as the "Judicial Offices Act".
    1b. Purpose
      1.2 The purpose of this Act is to create the offices of the Judiciary
           and outline due process.

    2. The Offices of the Judiciary
      2.1 In accordance with Section 3 (parts 1 and 2) of the Fundamental
           Laws of Wintreath, upon acceptance of a case by the Storting, the
           Monarch will select a Peer from the Overhusen and two Skrifa from
           the Underhusen. The Peer will serve the duration of the trial (or 1
           month) as Chief Justice, and the Skrifa will serve the duration of
           the trial (or 1 month) as Associate Judges.

      2.2 The term of a judicial appointment lasts either the length of a case
           or a duration of 1 month from appointment, whichever comes first.
           At the end of the 1 month period, if the case is still being heard, it
           falls to the Monarch to reappoint members of the Storting to the
           Judiciary, or to the Speaker of the Undehusen and the Chairman of
           the Overhusen in the case of Monarchical absence.

      2.3 A Peer or a Skrifa of the Storting may not hold more than one
           judicial position at any one time if the combined number of
           members from both houses exceeds 14. If the combined number of
           members from both houses is less than 14, a Peer of Skrifa may
           hold two judicial positions at any one time.

    3. Powers of the Judiciary
      3.1 The Plaintiff may call up to three witnesses on a given day to
           provide evidence on a case. A defendant can also request up to 3
           witnesses in their defense on a given day.

      3.2 After all evidence is heard by the Court, the three Judges must
           discuss their verdict privately and inform no-one of the judgement
           until it is publicly announced by the Chief Justice.

      3.3 A Court can return a NOT GUILTY, a GUILTY or a
           RECOMMENDATION verdict.
             NOT GUILTY - The Court finds the defendant innocent of his/her
             charge or specific charges, if more than one is brought.
             
             GUILTY - The Court finds the defendant guilty of his/her charge
             or specific charges, if more than one is brought. The punishments
             for a GUILTY verdict are to be drawn from the Code of Criminal
             Law Act upon its passage.

             RECOMMENDATION - The Court finds the defendant either
             innocent or guilty but recommends special provisions be made
             that fall outside of the remit of the Code of Criminal Law Act. It is
             up to the Monarch to decide whether to implement these
             recommendations. A case can therefore have an INNOCENT -
             RECOMMENDATION verdict and a GUILTY - RECOMMENDATION
             verdict.


    4. Due Process
      4.1 When a Court is formed and a case brought before it, a topic must
            be created with the title laid out as follows by the Chief Justice:
           [CASE NUMBER]-[DEFENDANT NAME] v. [PLAINTIFF NAME
           ]-[CHIEF JUSTICE]/[DATE]

           The first post must then outline the name and charge of the
           defendant, the name of the Prosecution, the name of the Chief
           Justice and the names of the Associate Judges. This post should
           be updated to list witnesses called and by whom.

      4.2 Only the Court Officials (Chief Justice and the Associate Judges),
           the defendant, the plaintiff and any witness called may post
           within the thread. Uninvolved citizens may observe the proceedings
           but cannot comment.

      4.3 During the first 12 hours of a trial either the defendant or the
           plaintiff may motion to dismiss, with the judges privately voting
           on it and the Chief Justice posting the decision, should the vote be
           successful then the Case shall be dismissed. Otherwise the case
           shall continue as normal.

      4.4 During the proceedings, the plaintiff or defendant, whom ever
           called the  witness, must pose their questions within the same post
           they summon that witness. A witness then has one post to provide
           their responses to the questions put to them. At any time, a Court
           Official, the Plaintiff, or the Defendant may post a question(s)
           for the defendant so long as no other questions for the defendant
           are unanswered and so long as no witness has questions left to
           answer.

      4.5 Once the Court feels it has enough evidence to reach a verdict,
           the Chief Justice must post to inform the public that the Officials
           are withdrawing to debate their verdict. From this point on, no-one
           is allowed to post in the thread until the next post by the Chief
           Justice announcing a verdict.

      4.6 The Chief Justice will then post the verdict in the thread and lock
           it once he/she has done so. The verdict should go through charge
           by charge and provide guilty/not guilty/recommendations for each
           individual charge the defendant is in court for. Punishments will be
           assigned for each individual charge and enacted upon as soon as
           the verdict is posted.

      4.7 If the Chief Justice and his Associate Judges feel more than 3
           witnesses are required per day, they may argue the Monarch to
           raise the limit for the duration of a specific court case.

      4.8 If the two parties has reached a settlement they must announce
           to the court that they have done so, afterwards the justices shall
           discuss and debate whether or not the court will accept the
           settlement, should the court not accept it then the trial shall
           continue.

      4.9 During the case the Justices may privately meet and dismiss the
           case, if they dismiss the case without prejudice then the
           Prosecution shall be allowed to amend their case and seek retrial,
           otherwise if it is dismissed with prejudice then the case shall never
           be retried unless the monarch invokes a recall.
        4.9.1 With Prejudice shall be allowed only if Proprietorial Misconduct
                occurs or a Harmful error occurs. Furthermore the acceptance
                of a settlement by the case shall be Dismissed With Prejudice
        4.9.2 Without Prejudice shall be allowed if there were filling issues,
                procedural issues, or if the Prosecution wishes to revise their
                claims by a motion to dismiss.

    5. Recall and Appeal
      5.1 The Monarch has the Right of Recall. If after a one week period
           has passed since a verdict was decided the Monarch wishes for a
           retrial, he/she may summon a new Court to hear the case again.

      5.2 A defendant, if found guilty, may Appeal his/her case after 2 weeks
           have passed since a verdict was decided. To do so, a defendant must speak directly with the Monarch and gain his/her approval.

    6. Compliance with previous and future law
      6.1 Upon passage of the legislation, the Judicial Offices Act will enforce
           Section 3 [clause 1 and 2] of the Fundamental Laws.

      6.2 Upon passage of the legislation, the Underhusen is required to
           present a Code of Criminal Law Act within the next term. At such a
           point, Section 3 Clause 3 of this Act regarding punishments for
           GUILTY verdicts is to be amended.

Peers may choose to vote Aye, Nay, or may choose to Abstain.

Wait, what?

How did this pass the Underhusen? I thought it was tied with one abstention? O_o

You know what? I'm voting nay on this without prejudice to the legislation content.

I feel that there are several irregularities with the passage of this Act through the Underhusen...namely that in this act an abstention was counted neutrally, while an abstention for the Omnibus Judicial Repeal was counted as the ultimate nay vote that killed it. I also note that Pengu's request for clarifaction for abstain votes was essentially ignored by the Underhusen. Additionally, it seems voting was held open past the one-week deadline for Nox's aye vote, in seeming direct violation of the Underhusen's procedural rules.

With all these irregularities, I cannot vote for this in good conscience as I feel the passage of this Act from the Underhusen is illegal.

I'm actually going to voice in on this as well.

As it stands, as Mooty pointed out, this is what I'd consider an illegal amendment on a couple of grounds.

First off, in the previous Judicial act which was a Repeal made by Reon, there were 3 Aye votes, one Nay, and one Abstain. The abstain in that instance was used as a Nay and the Repeal was failed since it wasn't a supermajority pass.

In this one, there were 2 AYES, 2 NAYS, and one Abstain, and the Abstain in this instance was used as an AYE and thus the act was brought here.  The inconsistency in what is done with these Abstains is exactly why I have been trying to push for clarification, and have even stated that I'm open to changes in what I've written for it.

Second, the 2nd Aye vote was a week after the deadline, and was still counted.  If it wasn't for Nox's late AYE, it wouldn't have even been a tie...the act would have failed.  But again, if the SPeaker had done the same thing he did with the repeal, it would have still failed because that abstention would have been treated as a 3rd NAY.  But instead he used it to pass his own act (and used it to fail an act he absolutely disagreed with), which doesn't sit well with me.

So I'll Nay until I'm blue in the face.

I'm with them. 

Nay.

As Jone hasn't been online (in the forums anyways) for 37 days and counting, I'll go ahead and end the vote with 3 Nays.

This will remain open until Saturday, March 21st in case Jone pops up to record his vote.

With it being the deadline, I hearby close this thread and consider it officially defeated.