Dan's Constitution Revised

Constitution of the Anglosphere Commonwealth

Article 1: The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth of Australia, the Republic of Ireland, The United Kingdom, and The United States of America,
in order to secure the prosperity and security of their people,
in order to more fully realize democracy and the rule of law,
in order to break down the barriers that divide nations from their common heritage,
do freely enter into this Commonwealth.

The organs of the Commonwealth are the Common House of the Anglosphere and the Network Organisations of the Anglosphere.

Article 2: Ancient Liberties the Foundation

1. The foundation of this commonwealth is the ancient Liberties of the English Speaking People which we understand to be at the minimum as follows.
· That no subject, citizen, or person lawfully resident within a state shall be deprived of life, liberty or property by the government there of without due process of law.
o That no one shall be deprived of their life unless they are convicted of treason, murder, rape or involvement in the slave trade.
§ But treason shall consists only in levying war against the government, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort.
o That no person shall be guilty of a felony unless pronounced so by the unanimous verdict of a jury of 12 chosen by lot from among the subjects or citizens of the district where in the crime shall have been committed.
· That no state shall levy any tax without the consent of the representatives of the people
· The state shall make no law abridging the right of free speech or press, but may by law punish incitement or conspiracy to commit a crime, incitement to false panic, or libel where libel is understood to mean the uttering or printing of falsehoods which damage another person’s reputation.
· No state shall make a law abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble to petition for the redress of grievances.
· The state shall not take private property for public use without the payment of just compensation.
o To be just compensation must be more than the price last paid for the property or more than the tax assessment for the property, unless the property has been subsequently significantly damaged..
o Public use means use by the state for fortifications, roads or necessary public buildings.
· The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures not to be violated. Warrants shall be issued only on probable cause upon oath or affirmation naming the place to be searched and persons or things to be seized.
· No state shall make a law violating the freedoms of association or contract.
· The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind. A government violating the rights of the people or violating its constitution has no authority and the people there of have the right to overthrow it or to distrain and distress the officials there of until such time as they content themselves with their lawfully given authority.
2. By joining this commonwealth, the executive and legislative officials of a nation agree to abide by the ancient liberties of our people.
3. Nations joining this commonwealth recognize that persistent and willful violations of the liberties enumerated above shall be cause for expulsion.

Article 3: Membership of the Commonwealth

Membership of the Commonwealth is open to all nations upon application.

Membership may be denied by a majority vote of the Council of State.

Members may be expelled by a 2/3 vote of the Council of State.

Members found by a commission of inquiry to have persistently and willfully violated the ancient liberties of our people maybe expelled by a majority vote of the Council of State.

The founding members of the Anglosphere Commonwealth are the Commonwealth of Australia, The United Kingdom, The United States of America and the Republic of Ireland.

Article 4: The Common House of the Anglosphere

All members of the Commonwealth are members of the Common House.

The Common House consists of four elements:
The Mediator of the Commonwealth
The Speaker of the Assembly,
The Council of State,
The Assembly of the Commonw House.

Article 5: The Assembly of the Common House

The Assembly of the Common House shall be composed of delegates who are subjects or citizens of member states who have an agreement of representation signed by at least 100 other subjects or citizens of member states.

Any delegate may make a motion before the Assembly, upon any subject without limitation.

Any delegate may make a joint assertion before the Assembly, upon any subject without limitation.

Debate on any motion or joint assertion shall be without limit unless the motion or joint assertion shall itself limit the time for debate or the Assembly shall pass a motion to limit debate, except that debate on a motion to limit debate shall not exceed 24 hours and debate on a motion to limit debate may be closed by a motion to end debate passed by the vote of 2/3rds of the Assembly, but this is the only instance were a motion to end debate may be made.

A motion to limit debate shall take the following form: “Resolved that the Assembly shall limit debate on _______ to ______.” Where the first blank shall be filled with the name of the motion or joint assertion in question and the second black shall be filled with times proposed as follows. If the motion to limit debate is adopted, the Speaker of the Assembly shall state that it is the will of the assembly that debate be limited and shall put to a vote one after the other to fill the second blank: one month, three weeks, two weeks, a week, five days, three days, two days, 36 hours, 24 hours, 18 hours, 12 hours. The first period to win a majority shall fill the blank, but if none of them win a majority then the blank shall be filled with: six hours.

Delegates shall speak on any motion or joint assertion in the order of the number of signers they have to their agreement of representation, the delegate with the most signers having the right to speak first or to reserve his right to speak in which case he and all others reserving their right to speak shall speak in inverse order. However the person making the motion or joint assertion shall have the right to speak to his motion or joint assertion for five minutes at the time he makes it. If a number of delegates have equal numbers of signers they shall speak with in the limits of the forgoing at the discretion of the Speaker of the Assembly. Any member of the Council of State may speak on any motion or joint assertion ether before or after the regular order of debate. The Mediator of the Commonwealth may speak on any motion or joint assertion at the point in the order of debate of her own choosing.

The time for debate shall be apportioned among the delegates wishing to speak in proportion to the number of signers they have to their agreement of representation. Delegates may pool their time so that one of their number may speak for a longer time. If a member of the Council of State chooses to speak he shall be granted time equal to half the time as the delegate with the largest number of signers. If the Mediator of the Commonwealth chooses to speak she shall be granted the same about of time as the delegate with the largest number of signers and the house may by unanimous consent grant her additional time.

On all votes in the Assembly, each delegate shall have a number of votes equal to the number of signers they have to their agreement of representation.

Any set of delegates may establish working committees of the Assembly of the People, which shall be supported by those nations with participatory delegates.

Every two years the Assembly shall elect the Speaker of the Assembly.

An agreement of representation is contract between a delegate and the people he represents. The agreement of representation states that the delegate will represent the people who sign the agreement before the assembly and states what if any compensation the represented will pay to the delegate. It may also bind the delegate to vote in certain ways. Such clauses are binding, but they like any clause may be changed by the delegate as long as he gives the represented 30 days notice. The any of the signers may terminate the agreement as for himself on 10 days notice. Delegates shall have one agreement of representation that is the same for all people represented.

A delegate shall receive no compensation for his service other than the money paid to him under the agreement of representation and any gifts or donations given to him by those who have signed his agreement of representation.

Article 6: The Council of State

The Council of State shall be composed of one representative from each member state of the Commonwealth, the Speaker of the Assembly and the Mediator of the Commonwealth.

The Mediator of the Commonwealth shall be President of the Council of State, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided.

The Council of State shall by simple majority of votes:
vote upon membership applications for the Commonwealth,
lay down rules for the procedures of itself,
lay down rules for the procedures of the Assembly of the Common House not inconsistent with this constitution,
expel any member Commonwealth found by a commission of inquiry to have persistently and willfully violated the ancient liberties of our people.

The Council of State may by a two-thirds majority of votes:
Amend this Constitution if supported by two or more founding members and a majority of the votes in the Assembly of the People,
Expel a member state for any reason.

Any member of the Council of State may:
commit their support to motions or joint assertions of the Assembly,
require a vote from the Council upon the continued membership of a member of the Commonwealth.
Each member of the Council shall have an office and a staff, supported by their own Nations contributions.