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Based on the input I got from the earlier topic, I am in the process of writing a proposal that would transform the Storting into an open assembly which elects Officers on a regular basis. Because it's such a lengthy process that requires the modification of multiple portions of the Fundamental Laws, I'm going to post them here for input one section at a time as I'm able to write them before finally putting them together in one proposal.

This is my draft of what Article I of the Fundamental Laws would look like:

The Storting Reformation Amendment Act

1. Article I of the Fundamental Laws shall be amended as follows:

Article I: The Storting

1. The legislative authorities and duties of Wintreath shall be vested in a unicameral legislature called the Storting.

Membership of the Storting
2. The Storting shall consist of all Citizens of Wintreath.

3. The Storting shall have the authority to suspend a member's voting rights for a period of no more than three months at a time with a 3/4 supermajority vote of those voting. At the conclusion of the three-month period, the Storting may consider an additional suspension.

Storting Officers
2. The Speaker shall serve as Presiding Officer of the Storting.

3. The Storting shall have the right to create, modify, and remove any other Officer positions. The Storting shall have the authority to delegate duties to these Officers, except for those duties which require the full participation of the Storting.

4. All Officer positions shall come up for election on the first day of December, March, June, and September, and elections shall last for a period of seven days, after which the winners shall take their Offices. All Citizens whose voting rights are not suspended as of the end of the election may run for any Officer position.

The Legislative Process
5. All legislation shall be introduced in the Storting, which shall have the right to discuss and amend the legislation before putting it to a vote. Unless specified otherwise in this document, legislation shall pass the Storting by majority vote of those voting.

6. Upon passage by the Storting, the Speaker shall present the legislation to the Monarch for Royal Assent. Legislation signed by the Monarch shall become law immediately, while legislation vetoed by the Monarch shall not become law unless the Storting votes to override the veto with a 2/3 supermajority vote of those voting. In the event that the Monarch neither signs or vetoes the legislation, it shall become law one week after passage by the Storting.

7. Legislation concerning matters subject to alternative approval methods as approved by both the Storting and Monarch (or the previous Overhusen chamber) shall be exempt from Section 6 and instead follow the methods specified in the relevant legislation. Legislation concerning the Procedural Rules of the Storting, the voting rights of members, and Officers of the Storting shall also be exempt from Section 6 and shall be considered law upon passage by the Storting.

Authorities and Duties of the Storting
8. The Storting shall have the authority to pass legislation, repeal previously passed legislation, propose amendments to these Fundamental Laws, and take any other action deemed necessary and proper to execute the authorities and duties vested in the Storting by these Fundamental Laws.

9. The Storting shall have the authority to create and revise their own procedural rules.

10. The Storting shall have the authority to declare war upon another region or organization.

11. The Storting shall have the authority to ratify or reject treaties with other regions and organizations.

12. The Storting shall have the authority to issue non-binding resolutions expressing the opinion of the Storting in relation to all matters.

13. The Storting shall have the authority to interpret these Fundamental Laws and statutory laws and consider the constitutionality over laws brought before the Storting, determine rulings and verdicts in regard to violations of these laws, and determine punishments for violations of these laws within the parameters of these Fundamental Laws and any other laws.

14. The Storting shall have the authority to issue advisory opinions on matters of constitutionality and legality to anyone whom the Storting has determined has standing to seek an advisory opinion.

15. The Storting shall have the authority to create and revise the rules of judicial proceedings for judicial panels.

2. Article III Section 1 of the Fundamental Laws shall be amended as follows:

1. Upon the filing of cases within the Storting, a judicial panel shall convene to determine whether to accept the case and then to make an initial ruling if the case is accepted. The judicial panel shall be presided over by the Monarch or their designee as Chief Justice, and the Speaker of the Storting and a random Citizen who has voted in the last four votes of the Storting shall serve as Associate Justices. In the event that no Citizen has participated in the last four votes, a random Citizen from those has participated in the most consecutive votes including the last shall be chosen instead.

3. Article IV Section 2 of the Fundamental Laws shall be amended as follows:

2. Elections shall follow the optional preferential voting system, and the results shall be determined by either via instant runoff in single-seat positions or single transferable vote in multi-seat positions. Elections shall be overseen by the Monarch or the Monarch's designee. No person shall oversee an election in which they are running.

3. Article IV Sections 4-6 of the Fundamental Laws shall be removed, and subsequent sections renumbered accordingly.

4. Article VII shall be amended as follows:

1. No section under Administration may be amended without the consent of The Winter Nomad.

2.The Storting shall have the authority to propose amendments to these Fundamental Laws by a two-thirds supermajority vote of those voting, after which amendments shall require consent of the Monarch to be considered ratified.

5. Upon ratification, this Amendment shall go into effect on 8 March 2016, with Speaker elections beginning one week prior.

Basically this transforms the Storting into a one-chamber open-assembly which elects Officers every three months, and has new provisions for the Monarch to sign/veto legislation and for the Storting to override such vetos. I also included some language to prevent previous legislation that specified some other way approval mechanism (PnG declarations by the Storting and Citizenship revocations, for example) didn't become unconstitutional. Also thought to add in a mechanism for the Storting to suspend a member's voting rights, which I thought might be a nice option to have in the event someone was abusing the open assembly format or was being otherwise harassing within the Storting chambers.

Any thoughts? I'll get to writing the additional parts ASAP, and will consider any input given.

Wow, nobody? Is this thing on?

I like it, though I have some concerns. I'm not comfortable with a 2/3 majority to overthrow the monarch's veto. Something like 80% would make me much more comfortable, and what would make me most comfortable of all is if we're not at all able to overthrow the veto.

In NationStates, it is not at all impossible for a large hostile region to fill our ranks and dictate our laws, while destroying us from the inside by declaring wars and so forth. That is my only concern with this. Granted, it is a prothet-of-doom situation, but everything that can go wrong, will.

Thank you for posting, Laurentus.

I figured 2/3 was the norm for something like this, but it goes without saying that I would be comfortable with a higher threshold as well. I'm not as comfortable with not having an override at all, because then it almost gets to the point of why not just have the Monarchy decree the laws? I'd like to legislature to have some purpose, even if it seems we're doomed to it not having much of one.

If we want to make it harder for foreign agents to influence us, we could look at restrictions on voting rights...how long should someone be a Citizen before they can vote? What sort of involvement or activity should they have? Things like that...

With a group like NPO's skill at slowly and subtly occupying a region, I'm not sure how effective that would be.

It goes without saying that you wouldn't use your vetoing power too harshly (or at least, I believe so), so I really don't see why it couldn't work. On very busy days, it would be unreasonable to expect the monarch to write up bills for all necessary legislation too, since it would just be too much work.

Perhaps some sort of compromise would be the appointment of three members whom both the citizenry and monarch feel comfortable with to have absolute vetoing power?

And yet the Monarch is writing up this Constitutional Amendment.

I'm not sure a group like the NPO would have much interest in Wintreath, but assuming that a group with similar skill did, I imagine that they would slowly work their way up the Monarchy as well. In Lazarus, Milograd and company did lots of work and performed many good deeds for the region, and their ultimate goal was only realized by many two years later. At the end of the day though, there's only so much influence a foreign region can exert over a region with an active founder.

I'm open to making it 3/4, or even an absolute veto if there's support for that, but to me appointing more members to manage vetos seems a bit much.

Just so I'm clear, I wholeheartedly support the monarch (note the use of the word "monarch" and not "monarchy", thereby not potentially indicating members of the royal family) having absolute veto power, I just gave a possible alternative with the three appointed members.

Ultimately, there's just much less room for the legislature to be used against us by a foreign power if the monarch has absolute veto rights.

Ahem. What do my fellow Skrifa think?

@BraveSirRobin
@taulover
@HannahB
@Sapphiron
@Bodobol
@Barnes

Also, mentioning some people who have historically had decent input in laws.

@Gebriel (Pengu)
@Chanku
@Crushita Telcontar
@Aaron Specter
@Aragonn
@Gerrick

And the OH.

@Colberius X
@Joshua Bluteisen
@Wuufu

Sorry for double posting. @Gabriel (Pengu)

I agree with the Monarch having absolute veto power, but only because I know our current Monarch won't blatantly abuse it.

Just read through this again (I had no contribution to make when I first saw this) and thought of something.

What would the Officers be for? It doesn't look like we're expanding the Storting's power, so wouldn't these positions be superfluous?

I agree with the Monarch having absolute veto power, but only because I know our current Monarch won't blatantly abuse it.

The problem, of course, is the possibility of Wintermoot stepping down as Monarch or becoming less active in the unforeseeable future.

Realistically, depending on the heir, Wintreath would probably come to an end if the current monarch becomes inactive. So I don't see why it's even relevant.

I am opposed to absolute veto. Always have been, always will. I am also opposed to this change, as it just seems to be change for the same of change or change to try and make us like another region.

I have little trust in the monarchy, even though I am apart of it. The monarch has flipped-flopped on several issues like the issue on the Pacific. First he believes that they are not being punished enough so we bar them. Then he complains about other regions quickly forgetting what they do...then he does the same thing in pushing for a repeal of the things because it is inconvenient for him to continue those and because someone, whom i don't even think has been active since getting citizenship (correct me if i am wrong), has citizenship here and has/had citizenship in nearly every GCR and a few other UCR's at the time (again correct me if I am wrong).

I love what the monarch has presented so far in this! I think for some sort of way to keep hostile regions from invading is and destroying us from within we could have a 1-month period in which citizens could not be enfranchised right as they joined (sort of like the real-world can't vote until 18 thing) but that they can autocorrect after that month. (I think that it'd be a bit obvious if 30 suspicious accounts joined at the same time, so we'd probably be fine with that then )

Did that make sense? I've done all of this as a rant on an iPod, after all...

I have little trust in the monarchy, even though I am apart of it. The monarch has flipped-flopped on several issues like the issue on the Pacific. First he believes that they are not being punished enough so we bar them. Then he complains about other regions quickly forgetting what they do...then he does the same thing in pushing for a repeal of the things because it is inconvenient for him to continue those and because someone, whom i don't even think has been active since getting citizenship (correct me if i am wrong), has citizenship here and has/had citizenship in nearly every GCR and a few other UCR's at the time (again correct me if I am wrong).

Wow...just wow. I'm not going to give much time to this, but I will say that what you call 'flip-flopping' I call responding to changes in the situation. A lot changed between the invasion of Lazarus and the repeal of those provisions, and to pretend like it hasn't does neither Wintreath or the world in general much good. It makes no sense to stage a moral war over an issue everyone else, including Lazarus itself, has moved on from. And you know, if you're not happy being a part of the Monarchy, you're free to leave it if that's what you want.

Anyway

Hopefully I won't be going anywhere anytime soon, but I like to hope that this community of ours is something that's grown bigger than any one person...even me. I'm always on the lookout for a potential heir, and I know that just as I had complete faith in Charax, I'll also have complete faith in the person I choose on everything from working for this region to upholding its principles and values. Although I've never said much about it, finding an heir isn't something I am taking lightly.

So how does 3/4 override and the provisions BraveSirRobin suggested sound? Or do we still want to go for absolute veto?