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This is a draft decree that would set up the provisional legislative system that I announced here. I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions before making this decree final. :)

Decree 013: Regarding A Provisional Legislature and Authorities

The passage of the FLAMES Act not only represented the end of the Storting as we know it, but the beginning of a new process to find a legislative system that works best for modern Wintreath. In voting for an Act that places all legislative authority with the Monarch, the people have placed a great trust in me to shepherd the process to discovering that system, and it is not a trust that I take lightly. As I have said before, I promise to do all I can to guide us to that place.

To that end, I have thought greatly on the matter over the last few weeks, and decree this provisional system using the authorities returned to me by the FLAMES Act. This is only the beginning of the process, not the end, but I have faith that from here we will embark on a productive journey. We will discover what works, what doesn’t, and eventually iron out a system that will be placed in the Fundamental Laws with as much support as the removal of the previous one had.

As we embark, I wish a safe, productive, and drama-free journey for us all!

Legislative Authorities of the Storting
1) The following legislative authorities shall be vested in the Storting, an assembly of all Citizens:
A) Conference and revocations of commendations, titles, and other recognitions toward Citizens
B) Management of clubs
C) Adoption of community symbols
D) Creation and revision of their own procedural rules
E) Selection of a Chancellor for the purpose of enforcing procedural rules
a) The Chancellor shall be appointed by the Monarch until such time that the Storting has adopted an alternative method.

Legislative Authorities of the Riksråd
2) The following legislative authorities shall be vested in the Riksråd, which shall exercise these authorities by public vote of all non-advisory members and be called Acts of Cabinet:
A) Approval and termination of agreements with external groups and organizations
B) Declarations of war upon external groups and organizations
C) Changes in the requirements to gain or maintain Citizenship

Legislative Authorities of the Jarls
3) The Jarls of Riksråd shall have the authority to issue and revoke rules on any matter relevant to their ministry so long as it does not interfere with the authority or rights granted to another person or body in this or any other legal document. These shall be called Ministry Rules, and shall be exercised by formally posting the rule in the public forum of that Ministry.

Additional Authorities of the Storting
4) The Storting shall have the authority to repeal Acts of Cabinet and Ministry Rules by a ⅔ majority within two (2) weeks of the Act or Rule being announced.
a) To exercise this authority, the Storting must begin voting on legislation to that effect within one (1) week of the public announcement of the Act of Cabinet or Rule and conclude within two (2) weeks of the announcement.

5) The Storting shall have the authority to issue non-binding resolutions in all matters. If requested, the Monarch or their designee shall issue a public response to all non-binding resolutions within one (1) week of their passage.

Authorities and Responsibilities of the Monarch
6) All legislative authorities not expressly delegated by this decree shall be held by the Monarch.

7) The Monarch shall be the final arbitrator of disputes concerning legislative authorities, and shall update this decree when necessary to clarify the proper delegation of authorities.

8) The Monarch may modify this decree at any time, and shall notify the Wintrean community of doing so by creating a new post in the topic in which the decree was published detailing the modifications made.

Existing Laws
9) The Monarch shall have the authority to create, update or revoke laws passed by the Storting prior to the passage of the FLAMES Act for the purpose of ensuring previous laws are in line with this document or the Fundamental Laws as updated by the FLAMES Act. This authority shall expire once the Storting has become established by adopting initial procedural rules.

10) All laws passed by the Storting prior to the passage of the FLAMES Act shall remain in place unless updated or revoked by the Monarch as per Section 9 or otherwise by the relevant body as defined in this decree.

Bring Chancellor here plz I beg

Bring Chancellor here plz I beg

What would a Chancellor do?

Lol, literally just be a different name for the Speaker.

lol, very well then. I've updated the OP.

Looks all good to me.

So, I went and found an old thread I made regarding Storting reformation way back in 2016. The following are the primary concerns as raised back then, and I believe could serve as useful talking points to hammer out the specifics of any new reformation of the Storting in the present day.

1) The OA has no provision for a trust or probationary period before new citizens are allowed freedom within it to do and vote as they please.
2) Tyranny of the Majority.
3) The Veto.
4) Abstaining.
5) The role of Officers.
6) Procedural Rules / Code of Conduct.

Here is the eventual (failed) Reformation Act as per Wintermoot, dated 17th March 2016. I believe it's useful to pull up previous ideas for comparison, to see how attitudes have shifted since and to establish if there's anything we might have covered before but forgotten about this time around.

Spoiler

Storting Reformation Amendment Act

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

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 three-fourths supermajority vote of those voting. At the conclusion of the three-month period, the Storting may consider an additional suspension.

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

5. 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.

6. All Officer positions shall be brought to election on the first day of January, April, July, and October, and elections shall last for a period of five 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
7. 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.

8. 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 two-thirds 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.

9. 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 7 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 7 and shall be considered law upon passage by the Storting.

Authorities and Duties of the Storting
10. 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.

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

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

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

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

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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 on the last four bills introduced to 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 who have participated in the most consecutive votes including the last shall be chosen instead.

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

IV. Elections
1. Elections shall be overseen by the Monarch or the Monarch's designee. No person shall oversee an election in which they are running.

2. Only Storting members of Wintreath shall be eligible to vote in elections, stand for elected office, or assume any elected office. The Monarch may not stand for or assume any elected office.

3. Elections shall follow the optional preferential voting system, and the results shall be determined by either instant runoff in single-seat positions or single transferable vote in multi-seat positions.

4. In Storting Officer elections, voting members shall have the option to post their votes publicly or send their votes to the person overseeing the election via private message.

5. Any Storting member who voted in the most recent regular election shall have the right to petition for the recall of any Officer unless there are fewer than twenty-one days in the Officer's term.

6. A recall election shall be triggered immediately if thirty percent, rounded down, of the Storting members who voted in the previous regular election and remain in the Storting, including the petitioner, sign a recall petition within forty-eight hours of its creation. The Monarch shall be responsible for the verification of all signatories to the petition.

7. Recall elections shall compose of a forty-eight hour nomination period in which candidates may stand for election, followed by a seventy-two hour election period as defined by Article IV Section 3. The winner of the recall election shall assume the seat in question upon its conclusion.

8. No Officer may run in a recall election unless the Officer is the incumbent challenged by the recall. No Officer shall be subject to more than one recall election per session.

4. Article VII shall be amended as follows:

VII. Constitutional Amendments
1.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.

2. No section in Article VI may be amended without the consent of The Winter Nomad.

5. Upon ratification, this Amendment shall go into effect on 6 April 2016, with Speaker elections beginning five days prior.

Considering this new OA will have fewer responsibilities than the one we proposed back in 2016, I don't think points 1 and 2 will really be a problem. The Monarch has no veto power (at least that I can see), so point 3 isn't a problem. I'm not really sure what the abstaining problem is, so I can't comment on that. There will only be one officer, the Speaker Chancellor, who will be appointed, so officers and elections won't be a problem. And we already have a Code of Conduct in the Fundamental Laws (and I really don't want to see a bunch of procedural rules), so the last point isn't a problem.

To answer your question on the other thread, I envision the monarchy/administration taking over the important issues so that it just gets done without being bogged down by bureaucracy. Also get rid of all the useless elected offices -- if someone is elected to a position, they should have to actually do something like in the Cabinet rather than sit around and shrug that there's nothing to do (which there usually wasn't in the UH's case). Essentially, I'd like ordinary citizens to focus on making the culture/games/RPs here great rather than fake politics. If people really want politics, we should try to make this Freeholder RP/game a reality since I'm sure it'll have some sort of political RP aspect to it, but if people want any sort of the pseudo-administrative/legislative politics that the UH did, they can try to find it in other regions as we do allow dual-citizenship here. You just can't have the kind of monarchy we have here as well as a truly active political legislature since its responsibilities will be hollow at the core.

Also, man that was a nicely written bill...

In anticipation of this decree taking effect without any major changes, I have started going through current laws to see what needs to be done to make them compatible. I intend to decree these changes in a second decree as soon is this one is decreed, but for now I'm listing them here both for discussion and as notes for me.

The Citizenship and Demonym Act
Spin-off the Demonym Act as its own law as an act of the Storting, while maintaining the Citizenship Act as an Act of Cabinet. The new Citizenship Act would delegate selection of Paragons to the Storting.

The Judicial Offices Act
Grossly incompatible with current laws, but I'm currently unsure what system to replace it with or whether there even needs to be a separate judicial system. This probably needs to be a separate discussion.

The Wintreath Commendation Act
Replace reference to the Underhusen with the Storting

I'm also experimenting with a new forum-based law codex, because the old one grew to be overwhelming to browse, especially for new people. This is the format I'm going with so far, which I think easier for people trying to understand our law and more informative for people who want to know how our law has changed over time: https://wintreath.com/forums/index.php?topic=7041.msg157391

As always, I appreciate thoughts, ideas, and suggestions as we get ready for the establishment of a new, provisional legislature.

I'm also experimenting with a new forum-based law codex, because the old one grew to be overwhelming to browse, especially for new people. This is the format I'm going with so far, which I think easier for people trying to understand our law and more informative for people who want to know how our law has changed over time: https://wintreath.com/forums/index.php?topic=7041.msg157391

Law Codex sounds familiar. First Chancellor, and now this...

My concern is that that may be difficult to set up and maintain, especially if you're the one doing all of that.

Important older/more foundational laws may also be more difficult to see since a forum view will push newer topics to the top.

A second thought:

I don't think "veto" is the right word. That would imply that the assembly has the ability to unilaterally block legislation from becoming law. But in this case, it seems like what you're suggesting is that Acts of Cabinet and Ministry Rules immediately become law, and that the Storting has limited authority to repeal it.

So I'd recommend replacing the word "veto" with "repeal."

A second thought:

I don't think "veto" is the right word. That would imply that the assembly has the ability to unilaterally block legislation from becoming law. But in this case, it seems like what you're suggesting is that Acts of Cabinet and Ministry Rules immediately become law, and that the Storting has limited authority to repeal it.

So I'd recommend replacing the word "veto" with "repeal."

Thanks for the suggestion...I've made the change, with some additional text clarifying that it can only be repealed in the first two weeks.

Law Codex sounds familiar. First Chancellor, and now this...

My concern is that that may be difficult to set up and maintain, especially if you're the one doing all of that.

Important older/more foundational laws may also be more difficult to see since a forum view will push newer topics to the top.

That's one of my concerns as well, to be honest, but I'm hoping once it's initially setup the Chancellor will be the person maintaining it. The problem with our current law page is that as there've been more laws it looks overwhelming to new people. It looks like there's been all sorts of laws passed when in reality there's only a handful that've been amended a number of times, like the FL, the Citizenship Act, and the UH procedural rules. Worse, it's hard from just reading the amendments what they actually do...there's no explanation given in most of them, and no easy way to see how exactly they changed the law.

I'm hoping that this setup makes it easier for newcomers to see what exactly the law is and how that law evolved from start to present, and if it gets people more involved it's probably worth the time.

The problem with our current law page is that as there've been more laws it looks overwhelming to new people. It looks like there's been all sorts of laws passed when in reality there's only a handful that've been amended a number of times, like the FL, the Citizenship Act, and the UH procedural rules. Worse, it's hard from just reading the amendments what they actually do...there's no explanation given in most of them, and no easy way to see how exactly they changed the law.

Agreed on the explanation aspect, and I do like that you're going through the difficult work of showing all the diffs between amendments.

On the other hand, the Storting has passed a lot of laws, and most of them are not amendments to existing laws. When you transfer all of them over to a forum view, I am still concerned that from a high level overview, it may be harder to make sense of them. One thing that the current laws page does do well is keep things in a good chronological order, and by seeing the amendments you also get rough idea of which laws have been important. As I said, I'm concerned about older laws getting pushed down to the bottom when they are more likely to be more important and foundational to both our current system and whatever gets created in the future.

The problem with our current law page is that as there've been more laws it looks overwhelming to new people. It looks like there's been all sorts of laws passed when in reality there's only a handful that've been amended a number of times, like the FL, the Citizenship Act, and the UH procedural rules. Worse, it's hard from just reading the amendments what they actually do...there's no explanation given in most of them, and no easy way to see how exactly they changed the law.

Agreed on the explanation aspect, and I do like that you're going through the difficult work of showing all the diffs between amendments.

On the other hand, the Storting has passed a lot of laws, and most of them are not amendments to existing laws. When you transfer all of them over to a forum view, I am still concerned that from a high level overview, it may be harder to make sense of them. One thing that the current laws page does do well is keep things in a good chronological order, and by seeing the amendments you also get rough idea of which laws have been important. As I said, I'm concerned about older laws getting pushed down to the bottom when they are more likely to be more important and foundational to both our current system and whatever gets created in the future.

Fire the Chancellor that allows this to happen.

The problem with our current law page is that as there've been more laws it looks overwhelming to new people. It looks like there's been all sorts of laws passed when in reality there's only a handful that've been amended a number of times, like the FL, the Citizenship Act, and the UH procedural rules. Worse, it's hard from just reading the amendments what they actually do...there's no explanation given in most of them, and no easy way to see how exactly they changed the law.

Agreed on the explanation aspect, and I do like that you're going through the difficult work of showing all the diffs between amendments.

On the other hand, the Storting has passed a lot of laws, and most of them are not amendments to existing laws. When you transfer all of them over to a forum view, I am still concerned that from a high level overview, it may be harder to make sense of them. One thing that the current laws page does do well is keep things in a good chronological order, and by seeing the amendments you also get rough idea of which laws have been important. As I said, I'm concerned about older laws getting pushed down to the bottom when they are more likely to be more important and foundational to both our current system and whatever gets created in the future.

Fire the Chancellor that allows this to happen.

?? It's just a result of forum mechanics. Older topics get pushed down to the bottom.