Term 5 Judiciary

[Provolution]

Honorable justices

A threat has been sent me at the MSAV Ministry. I hope this threat will be withdrawn and apologized, since actual historical, both past and present, neglects have gone unpassed, both in omitted polls and instructions. I would like the Judiciary to review all Ministries operations, mine included, and see if any action has violated the constitution gravely enough to present a CC. I have been threatened two times by CC, one for the naming issue (based on an actually admitted mistake that is correctible) and a threat for taking me to court based on an issue involving FA, TA and Domestic.
Is it fair that MSAV shall be held responsible for a lack of foreign policy and failure to instruct/poll settlers, and that only MSAV is threatened with sanctions?

 

[ravensfire]

classical hero has come before the Court with a question:

Who has the authority over gifts? It is Trade or Foreign Affairs?

Relevant Law
From Article D of the Constitution

              2.  The Minister of Foreign Affairs shall be responsible
                  for matters involving treaties with foreign nations, 
                  as prescribed by law.
              4.  The Minister of Trade shall be responsible for all 
                  trade, domestic and foreign, and the use of resources,
                  as perscibed by law.

Citizen Comments
Octavian X, Ashburnham both commented on this, with Octavian expressing no preference and Ashburnham preferring Trade. I thank them both for taking the time to consider this matter.

Analysis
The question before the Court is which ministry should handle gifts made to other nations. There are good arguments for both sides.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs generally handles our relations with other countries, keeping track of our views of them, and their views of us.

The Ministry of Trade generally handles all exchanges of resources and technology from one civ to another.

The methodology of gifting resources, cash or technology to another civ most closely matches the actions of the Trade ministry. Note especially the “…and the use of resources” in Article D.4 of the Constitution. While the actions of this transaction will impact foreign relations, that’s a side benefit of the transaction. It is not enough to move the responsibility for handling gifts from the Ministry of Trade to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ruling
The Ministry of Trade has the authority to plan, poll and instruct the gifting of cash, resources and/or technology to other Civilizations, based upon the Will of the People.

-- Ravensfire, Public Defender

 

[Black_Hole]

Judge Advocate's Opinion on JR#33

As seen in my last post, gifts are essentially trades with nothing on one side. It cleary states that trading is under the *shock* Trade Minister.

The Trade Minister is in charge of gifitng, of course as always following the Will of the People.

 

[mhcarver]

Classical hero has requested a JR on who has power over giving of gifts, the Trade or FA ministries. As Public defender Ravensfire pointed out in his ruling each side has a valid argument. Primarily that FA handles relations with other nations, which Gift giving effects and trade is in charge of "exchanges of resources and technology from one civ to another". However I agree with the opinion of Culture Minister Ashburnham that a gift is essentially a trade with nothing in return. Therefore the power of giving gifts is with the Trade minister

 

[classical_hero]

Would that also include the gifting of cities?

Perhaps I should have stated that in my original question.

 

[mhcarver]

Would that also include the gifting of cities?

Perhaps I should have stated that in my original question.

This is an addendum to clarify my ruling. The trade minister may not gift away cities on a whim. This is because governors are "responsible for the care, management and use of the cities" . This situation calls for inter-agency cooperation. The trade minister may gift away/trade cities only if he has the approval of the Governor of the province or the Domestic Ministry, whoever has jurdisctiction.

I would like to ask my fellow justices to post their own addendums to since this is a valid question

-Mhcarver

 

[Black_Hole]

To gift cities, the governor of the province and the trade minister must agree on gifting it. If there is no governor, the city is not in a province, or the governor is absent without a replacement the Domestic Advisor should choose.

As mhcarver did point out that governors are incharge of handling cities, and giving away a city should be under his juristiction.

 

[ravensfire]

Addendum to DG5JR33 ruling

Instructions for gifting a city are still done by the Trade Minister, but require the explicit approval of the official in charge of that city.

-- Ravensfire, Public Defender

 

[Donovan Zoi]

Honorable Judiciary,

I hope you haven't put away your volumes on International Trade and Diplomatic Law yet. Because I have yet another request for clarification.

Who handles trade embargoes? It seems to me that they should be under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Ministry since they are treaties. This would cover them under Article D.2 of our Constitution:

2. The Minister of Foreign Affairs shall be responsible
for matters involving treaties with foreign nations as all
espionage and embassy missions as prescribed by law.

While I expect jurisdisction to fall under the FA department, please also state what role the Trade department should have in embargoes, if any.

Thank you your time.

Respectfully,

Donovan Zoi
Deputy Trade Minister

 

[Black_Hole]

Honorable Deputy Zoi,

JR #31 has ruled that the FA has control of trade embargoes. Below is the link to the judicial log:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2385154&postcount=35

The trade minister has really no power when it comes to trade embargoes, as embargoes are treaties and fall under the FA.

 

[mhcarver]

Well as some of you may have seen in the absence registry I will not be back until sometime on the 31st. Please forward all Judicial reviews to the term 6 court, they may issue rulings that are not official until the 1st . If someone wishes to file an anymous CC please send it to the Judge Advocate, and for the purpose of achieving Judicial quorom The JA has the power to cast my vote on the merit of any CC's after he and the PD have ruled(even though it is unlikely anywill be filed) And since I doubt much will come up I hereby declare the term 5 court closed
I would like to thank my esteemed colleagues on their excellent work this term. Good luck to Judge Advocate Black_hole on his election to the position of term VI chief Justice and the Culture minister Ashburnham on his election to the honorable position of Judge Advocate. And applause to Ravensfire for returning for a third term as Public Defender. People of Japanatica , It has been an Honor to serve you in the Judiciary these past three terms

-Mhcarver
Office of the Chief Justice(darn I won't be able to post that again for a while)