A. Judicial Matters
1. Judicial Review
a. Any citizen may call judicial review whenever a question of rule interpretation arises.
b. Judicial Review is binding if 2 of 3 Judiciary members agree with the review2. Public Investigations
I. General Principles
a. No Member of the Judiciary may initiate or sponsor a
Public Investigation.
b. A member of the Judiciary is considered absent if they do
not respond either by post or PM within 24 hours of being
contacted.
c. A citizen may only be Investigated once per charge, per
particular event.
d. The Verdict of the Public Investigation is final and
may not be appealed.
e. The term "law" shall apply to any part of the Constitution,
Code of Laws or Judicial Reviews for the Demogame III.
f. If a Member of the Judiciary is the Accused in a
Public Investigation, they are immediately suspended
for that case.
g. If a member of the judiciary is determined to be absent,
or is the Accused in a Public Investigation, they may be
replaced on a case-by-case basis by the Chief Justice.
This replacement is for that case only. If the Chief
Justice is under investigation, the President shall
determine the replacement.
This appointment must be confirmed by a Moderator.
h. The Accused is ALWAYS considered Innocent unless proven Guilty.
II. Roles of the Judiciary
a. Chief Justice
1. Supervises the efforts of the Judiciary.
2. Coordinates all activites and ensures that all cases and
reviews are handled in a timely manner.
b. Judge Advocate
1. Represents the interests of the Citizens
2. Determines if a charge is valid
3. Writes the text of the formal charge
4. If a charge is valid, presents the case of the people against
the accused
c. Public Defender
1. Represents the interests of the Accused
2. Presents the case of the accused to the people
III. Accusation
a. Any citizen may bring a charge against another citizen whom
they believe has violated our body of law.
1. The Accusation may be made in one or more of the
following ways:
i. A PM to the Judge Advocate.
ii. Anonymously via a Moderator who will pass the
accusation to the Judge Advocate.
iii. A post in the Judicial thread.
2. The Accusation must contain the following information
i. Name of the Accused.
ii. Law(s) believed to have been violated. Specific
articles do not need to be stated at this time.
iii. Time and Location of violation.
3. The Judge Advocate shall inform the Chief Justice and the
Public Defender that a Public Investigation has been filed.
IV. Investigation
a. The Judge Advocate shall investigate all charges brought
to the Judiciary to determine their validity. This
process shall be done in an expedious manner.
1. The Chief Justice shall post in the Judicial Thread that an
investigation has commenced against the Accused
i. The Accused shall be named in this post.
ii. The Accuser shall not be mentioned in this post
iii. The post shall mention the specifics of the charge.
iv. Citizens shall be asked to not reply to this post, or
discuss this case publically, but to PM any evidence
they have to the Judge Advocate
2. The Judge Advocate shall PM the Accuser, the Public Defender,
and the Accused to determine the circumstances of the case.
i. If the accusation was made anonymously, the Judge Advocate
shall utilize the Moderator as a go-between unless otherwise
given permission.
3. The Public Defender shall begin to confer with the Accused to
determine their side of the story.
i. The Public Defender may provide this evidence to the
Judge Advocate.
ii. The Public Defender is considered the Attorney of the
accused.
iii. The Accused may retain another citizen as their
Attorney if they do not wish the assitance of the
Public Defender.
iv. All communications between the accused and their
attorney are privledged and may not be disclosed with
permission of both parties.
4. If the accused confirms the charges, and wishes to plead
guilty at this point, the trial phase is skipped and the
sentencing phase begins
5. Once the investigation has concluded, the Judge Advocate
shall present the Chief Justice and the Public Defender
with the results of the investigation and his finding.
i. The Judge Advocate shall consider any charge that
they feel has a reasonable chance to be correct as
a valid charge.
ii. If the Judge Advocate finds that the charge is valid,
the case shall move to the Trial phase
A. The Judge Advocate shall send a PM to the Chief Justice
containing the formal charge. This charge shall state
the name of the Accused, or anonymous, and the specific
law(s) violated.
6. The Investigation should conclude within 36 hours of the
post in 2.B.
i. If the Investigation cannot be concluded in that time
period, a post should be made in the Judicial Thread
stating the reason for the delay.
ii. If such a post is not made, and the time expires, the
Chief Justice shall assume the responsiblities of
investigating the accusation.
iii. This post shall include the reason for the extension.
iv. This post may be made by either Judge Advocate or the
Chief Justice.
v. After one such extension, both the Judge Advocate and the
Chief Justice must concur on the need for any more extensions.
7. If the Judge Advocate finds that the charge is not valid, the
Accused and the Accuser are both notified by PM.
i. The Accuser may appeal the decision of the Judge Advocate to
the full Judiciary. If two out of three members agree
that the charge is valid, the case moves to the Trial
phase.
8. The Judge Advocate shall post in the Judicial Thread the results
of their investigation, naming both the Accused and
the Accuser.
i. If the charge is considered not valid, this post
shall include the evidence used to make that conclusion
ii. If the charge is considered valid, this post shall
include a link to the trial thread.
V. Trial
a. The Chief Justice is in charge of all phases of the trial, and
will make procedural rulings as needed.
1. The Chief Justice shall create a thread in the Citizens Forum
for the Trial
i. The initial post shall contain the specific charge from the
Judge Advocate and is titled "The People vs X", where X is
the name of the Accused.
ii. The first post is reserved for the Judge Advocate to expand
upon the charge and provide evidence
iii. The second post is reserved for the Attorney of the Accused
iv. The third post is reserved for the Accused
2. Once 24 hours after the thread was created, or after all three
parties have posted or indicated they do not wish to post, the
Chief Justice shall open the thread.
3. All citizens may produce evidence or ask questions of all
parties. All posts must be on topic, and show respect to all
parties.
4. The Chief Justice may request the Moderators to censure
individual posts or posters if these guidelines are violated.
5. The Accused may change their plea to Guilty at any point by
posting this in the thread.
i. Once this post is made, the decision shall be confirmed by
the Chief Justice.
ii. After this confirmation, the plea may not be withdrawn
iii. The trial shall immediately move to the Sentancing phase
6. 48 hours after the general discussion started, the Chief Justice
shall create a Judgement poll for each law the accused is charged
with violating.
VI. Judgement
a. The Chief Justice shall create a poll requesting the jury to
determine the Guilt or Innocence of the Accused.
1. The poll shall have three options: Guilty, Innocent or Abstain.
2. The post shall include the formal charge and a link to the
discussion.
3. Guilt is determined by a majority of the non-abstain votes.
4. No discussion is permitted in the poll.
5. The poll shall be open for 2 days (48 hours).
6. The Judiciary is not permitted to vote in this poll.
7. If, at the end of this time, the vote is tied, the Judiciary
shall meet, examine the evidence, and determine Guilt or Innocence.
8. If the accused is found Guilty, the case shall move to the
Sentencing Phase.
VII. Sentencing
a. The Chief Justice shall create a poll to determine the sentence
handed down to the guilty party.
1. If there are multiple Guilty verdicts, the Chief Justice shall
determine if multiple polls (one per charge) or a single, combined
sentence poll shall be used.
2. The poll shall include options determined by the Chief Justice
i. The Chief Justice shall consult with the Judge Advocate
and the Public Defender for appropriate options, but the
final decisions shall rest with the Chief Justice.
ii. The options shall be ranked in the order of most severe
to the least severe.
iii. There shall be no abstain option.
iv. Some of the sentencing option the Chief Justice should
consider are:
A. Expulsion (removal from the current DG)
B. Suspension (time to be determined by Moderators)
C. Impeachment (removal from office)
D. Final Warning
E. Public Apology (wording to be approved by Moderators)
F. Warning
G. No Punishement
v. The preceding list should not be considered complete.
The Judiciary may add additional options as needed.
vi. Options may be combined at the discretion of the
Judiciary for a single sentencing option.
3. There shall be a minimum of three options with varying
levels of severity.
4. There shall always be an option of "Warning"
5. The poll shall be open for 2 days (48 hours)
6. The poll shall allow each citizen to select only one option.
7. Once the poll has been closed, the Chief Justice shall
determine the sentence for the accused.
i. Each vote shall be determined as a vote for the option
selected, and all less-severe options.
ii. The sentence selected shall be the most severe sentence
that a majority of the citizens supported.
Example:
Option A - 4 Votes
Option B - 12 Votes
Option C - 13 Votees
The sentence carried out is option B.
Option A has 4 total votes. Option B has 16 total votes.
Option C has 29 total votes. A total of 29 citizens
voted, making Option B is the most severe sentence that
a majority of the citizens support with a total of 16
votes in support and 29 votes overall.
8. The Chief Justice shall announce the sentence in the sentencing
poll, and PM the accused with it.
9. Sentencing shall commence once the sentence is announced.
10. The guilty party may appeal the sentence to a Moderator.
VII. Conclusion
a. The Chief Justice shall post a summary in the Judicial Log
1. The post shall include the formal charge(s), verdict(s)
and sentence(s)
2. The post shall include a link to the discussion thread and
the sentencing poll(s).
B. Code of Laws Amendments
1. Amendments to the Code of Laws must receive the vote of a
plurality of the citizenry that choose to vote and the vote of a majority
of the full Senate before they take effect. The quorum for a citizen poll is
1/3 of the citizens who voted in the most active poll in the most recent full elections.
a. If the number of votes divided by 3 is a decimal, it is
rounded up if the decimal is above .5 and down if it is .5 or smaller.
2. A Code of Laws amendment may also pass by receiving superplurality
(double the votes for Yes than in any other option) support by the citizenry.
If this happens, the Senate poll is skipped and the amendment goes into
effect immediately.
3. A CoL amendment citizen poll must be open for at least 48
hours for the amendment to take effect.
