Constitutional Discussion: Forms of Law

[DaveShack]

Here you will find discussion on how to separate our rules into different categories / layers / areas of influence. Or how to not separate them as the case may be.

History

Previous Demogames have used three systems of laws.

• One layer (Constitution)
• Two layers (Constitution, Code of Laws)
• Three layers (Constitution, Code of Laws, Code of Standards)

In past multi-layer systems, there has been a strict precedence of layers, where Con overrules CoL (and Cos), and CoL overrules CoS.

Decisions to be made

• How many layers?
• If more than one, how to categorize rules into the layers.
• If more than one, how to handle precedence.
• Planning for reusability.
• The actual categorization.

Work Products

• Ruleset framework
• Constitution language for forms of law and precedence
• Guidelines to writers of other laws to make them fit well within the framework, precedence, and planned reusability

 

[Octavian X]

Simplicity. It's all we need. The Constitution should drop any pretenses of being a legal document - it should be a guideline for play, and nothing that requires an elected official to interpret.

To that end, I propose that a single document to cover the guidelines. Complexity kills fun, and a person is more likely to find information they need if it's organized clearly and appears in a single place.

 

[Nobody]

* How many layers? I am in favor of 2 layers, Constitution and code of Laws.
* If more than one, how to categorize rules into the layers.
Constitution should only Citizens rights, goverment structure, playing the save, Elections, Ammendments. Everything else e.g. Judical procedure, polling standards, non-elected officals, citizens groups (maybe) should law. Also i think using the Judical Log to make case law is fun.

* If more than one, how to handle precedence.
Constitution takes precedence, any other law is next and case law below that
* Planning for reusability.
Constitution should be such that it is easily edited after every game
* The actual categorization.
Article A, Section 1. And for code of laws they should be named stuff like The National Honours Act Term 3.

 

[Swissempire]

nobody brings up some very interesting points, though i think non-elected officials rules and citizien groups/parties should be in the Constitution, the rules for officials being in there so non-elected officials don't get to much power, and also i beleive that the government should have a more rigid outline in the Constitution. I also feel that groups/parties should be a citziens right, and there should be a amendment making it so. We can take a vote on this, but it is my 2 cents, and i think others may support this.

 

[Cell Dude]

I would agree with Octavian in that a single document is better for several reasons. First, we don't have to do nearly as much hunting to find information we want to find. Also, everything would be organized in the same way, further adding to ease of its interpretation (probably just butchered that word!). Also, it is good because we can keep it all in one place and just need one uniform set of rules to handle it. Using a Code would just make things unnecessarily complex in my opinion.

As for orginization, I am all for the Article/Section system, but I would prefer to see Roman Numeral, Letter, but that would not be something worth vetoing it over.

 

[ravensfire]

Simplicity. It's all we need. The Constitution should drop any pretenses of being a legal document - it should be a guideline for play, and nothing that requires an elected official to interpret.

To that end, I propose that a single document to cover the guidelines. Complexity kills fun, and a person is more likely to find information they need if it's organized clearly and appears in a single place.

DG 3.

-- Ravensfire

 

[Strider]

DG3 is where all of the demogame problems began, and mostly because of the constitution. It was because of the DG3 constitution that the power struggles began, and the old hatreds were born.

We might as well just throw everything out the window now.