UORPC.NET

This is the submitted draft of the Seventh Royal Constitution of the Kingdom of Britannia which will replace the current Sixth Royal Constitution of the Kingdom of Britannia. The new document incorporates the previously approved amendments to the Sixth, which were Articles VII, VIII and XIII.

Please review the draft copy and leave comments below. We shall take a final vote on this during the 491st session (August 8th, 2016).

Link to the Sixth Royal Constitution of the Kingdom of Britannia.
UPDATED 7-20-16 - See Article XVII for additions.

I have outlined the changes below.

General Changes:
Removed any reference to a King or Queen; substituting Royal or Crown where appropriate. References to Lord British are mostly unchanged.
Grammatical tweaks were done to streamline verbiage where appropriate without changing meaning.
All gender specific pronouns were made more inclusive. (if you find a gender specific pronoun let me know!)
Changed ALL references to X number of days to “ten days,” except for those listed in Article XVII (voting).
All numbers not part of a referential citation have been spelled out.

Article I:
Reworded Section C to use proper geographical place names for land masses. Modernized section with addition of Haven Isle and Ariel Haven colony.
Added a subsection to specify what a Crown City is.
Added Section D acknowledging Wind as a sovereign city and not part of Britannia.

Article II
Fixed capitalization issues.
Changed mentions of city of Virtue to Crown City to reduce verbosity.

Article III
Fixed capitalization issues.

Article IV
Fixed capitalization issues.
Removed Section C, Subsection 1, paragraph d, line iii. The High Court has no jurisdiction regarding peace treaties, that is solely a matter for the High Council.
Added two new decree types: Travel Advisories (g) and Security Decrees (h) which pertain to the buildings in Compassion Grove.
Added the ability to sit in on meetings of the Security Committee as this was already being done anyway.

Article V
Fixed capitalization issues.
Various grammatical word tweaks.
Toned down the abundant usage of the ‘of Virtue’ honorific.
Rephrased Section A, Subsection 4, Line g. to accurately reflect reality. Removed bizarrely recursive self-referential line.

Article VI
Fixed capitalization issues.
Various grammatical word tweaks.
Toned down the abundant usage of the ‘of Virtue’ honorific, thereby reducing verbosity without changing meaning.
Removed redundant wording about seniority in Section C, subsection 2, clause a.
SWAPPED SECTIONS D & E.
Added Subsection 1 to Section D to limit abuses of power.
Removed explicit reference to the Virtues from Section E, subsection 1 as it is adequately covered by the phrase “the higher laws and tenets set forth by Lord British,” without unduly infringing on potential religious convictions.
Folded Section F into Section D as Subsection 2. Altered it to recuse a Justicar’s adjutant as well, to avoid bias. Removed unnecessarily redundant appointment information.
Old Section G became section F.
Added new Section G regarding the Justice Committee and its powers.

Article VII
Minor verbiage tweaks for better flow.
Added a line E, 1, a - requiring a majority vote to dismiss a Grand Marshal.
Turned section J into clause 1 of section G as it is more fitting there.

Article VIII
Recently amended; unchanged.

Article IX
Removed ‘Crown’ from the title as it was overly pretentious and may conflict with agents of King Blackthorn.
Tweaked section A, subsection 3 to be a bit more restrictive regarding past criminality.
Added section C, explicitly granting the Advocate of Justice the ability to investigate.
Fixed capitalization issues.
Added missing words.

Article X
Fixed capitalization issues.
Fixed improper list formatting schema.
Small grammatical tweak.

Article XI
Shortened the article title.
Fixed capitalization issues.
Various grammatical word tweaks.
Confirmation Committee – combined clauses C & D as they were virtually the same. Gave the Confirmation Committee final say over confirming ministers over holds placed by other committees. A vote of the full council still supersedes any committee hold.
Changed the name of the Defense Committee to the Security Committee as this is a more appropriate name. Reorganized this section to conform to the other committees. Added the ability to issue Security Decrees, similar to what the Chancellor may do (writs, warrants). Added the ability to recommend censure or a court martial to the Grand Marshal (this is a recommendation, not an order!). Stated that the Chancellor and the Grand Marshal may be present during committee meetings (as is presently done).
Justice Committee - Added the ability for recommending the removal of a justicar to Section B, subsection 3, clause c, item ii. Stated that the Chief Justicar may be present during committee meetings

Article XII
Fixed capitalization issues.
Various grammatical word tweaks – large chunks of text changed without altering the meaning of the sections.

Article XIII
Recently amended; unchanged.

Article XIV
Removed the word immediate from Section A. Added subsection 1, making excused absences NOT a reason to trigger Section A. (i.e. kidnappings, etc)
Fixed capitalization issues.
Various grammatical word tweaks.

Article XV
Fixed capitalization issues.

Article XVI
Fixed capitalization issues.
Various grammatical word tweaks.

Article XVI
Fixed capitalization issues.
Various grammatical word tweaks.
Removed the title ‘Governor’ for non-Crown cities to reduce confusion.
Changed Section A’s ‘votes which require a two-thirds majority may only pass by unanimous vote if only two voting members are present’ to ‘votes which require a two-thirds majority may pass even if only two voting members are present’ to lessen verbosity.
Tweaked Section D to indicate to whom a sealed vote should be turned in.
Added Section H preventing Councilors and Ministers, and their adjutants, from participating in a vote specifically regarding them. This is to prevent abuses of power.

Article XVII
Fixed capitalization issues. Minor verbiage tweaks.
Rewrote Section B to better cover potential outcomes of governor elections, including disinterested governors. Added B, 1, c, i – Saying that Governor-councilors are not subject to term limits or challenges outside the Crown’s election system.
Added A, 2, c, i and B, 2, c, iii, c, 1 – Both allow for an expedited vote when only a single nomination has been received.
Section D – Reworded this section to remove the two-week oath penalty triggering a new election. Now it simply states that the appropriate oath much be taken before assuming duty. (This section, if followed as originally written, could lead to fairly onerous loops.)

Article XVIII
Fixed capitalization issues.
Folded Section G into Section B as it fit better there. Added sub-section 2 to address wholesale updates to the constitution.

Article XIX
Fixed capitalization issues.
Removed the word ‘King’s’ from Article.
Changed all instances of “meeting” to “session.”
Added subsection 1 to Section B, regarding council session minutes. This includes a clause regarding redactions of session minutes.
Folded original Section D into Section C as sub-section 1.

Article XX
Added ‘High’ before Court for specificity in Section A.
In Section B, changed ‘incarcerated’ to ‘arrested,’ and changed 48 hours to twenty days. (48 hours isn’t realistic) Added subsection 1 dealing with detention of PoWs.
Split out the proscription against using a belief system as a defense for law breaking into its own subsection. (How it was previously listed was fairly nonsensical.)

Article XXI
Fixed capitalization issues.
Various grammatical word tweaks.

Article XXII
Fixed capitalization issues.
Added a restriction against slaves and indentured servants to Section A, subsection 1, clause b.
Folded subsection 2 into subsection 1 for better flow.
Added new subsection 2 pertaining to city “boundaries” and areas of theoretical patrol as displayed on the Britannian Sea Chart.
(NOT DISPLAYED FULL SIZE HERE!)

Vesper double listed. I.C.1.a

Redlow wrote:Vesper double listed. I.C.1.a

Thank you for catching that! Cove was also missing...

These have been fixed and a new version posted.

Updated PDF file with:

Article XVII:
Added provisions for single-candidate ballots to be yea/nay so voter opinion is actually heard, instead of such candidate skating through without any effort. (A, 2, c, ii and B, 2, c, iii, c, 2)

Since there have been no suggested changes or revisions to the current draft of the 7th, the last posted document is to be considered the final draft.

We will be voting on the document THIS MONDAY.