The Provincial Law and Government Act 2006

[Joseph Walkland]

I have noticed that the amount of action in provincial affairs is minimal, and so I dreamt up this bill to amend that.

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RZ _____ The Provincial Law and Government Act 2006

WHEREAS There are so little provincial affairs in modern Talossa, and

WHEREAS it is in the country's interest to get that provincial spirit going, and

WHEREAS it is very important to get the spirit going, as quickly as possible, so

THEREFORE the Ziu enacts that:



1.
Each province shall have its own board on Wittenberg for provincial affairs

2.
a) Each province shall have a "Provincial Secretary" (ProvSec) who's job is similar to the Secretary of State, and shall administer the the Laws and elections of the province.
b) The ProvSec shall be appointed by the Cunstavál.
c) In the event of the absence of the ProvSec, the Cunstavál stands in.

3.
The Premier has the right to appoint Provincial Cabinet ministers, who may make decisions on a provincial level, but may be overridden by the National counterpart.

4.
Competitions between provinces are hereby encouraged; may they be sports, intellectual or artistic.

5.
a) Each province shall have a regional police force; consisting of at least two members, who shall police the province and may arrest people in the name of provincial/national law.
b) The members of the police force shall be appointed by the Cunstavál or the Premier, and are decommissioned by the Cunstavál or Premier, or by a vote of the Assembly.

6.
a) Bills are introduced to the Assembly by any holder of seats, the Premier, or the Constable.
b) I)Bills are then debated for a period more than two days, and less than one week.
II) The exact amount of time is decided by the ProvSec.
III) In the event of more then one bill being introduced at a time, the ProvSec may chose to introduce them at the same time.
c) After the period of debating, the finished bill is presented to the Assembly, at which point the seat-holders vote on the proposed bill. This takes one week.
d) If a bill is passed by the Assembly, it may be subject to veto by the Cunstavál.
e) If vetoed by the Cunstavál, the Assembly may force the proposed bill through by voting again in a 2/3+ majority.

7.
a) The Premier can introduce Prime Dictates, which affect Provincial Government policy and have the force of law. The Cunstavál may veto the PD, and so may the Assembly with a 2/3 majority. In the case of the Cunstavál vetoing a PD, the PD may be forced through with a 2/3 majority in the Assembly.

Ureu q’estadra så: Joseph Walkland MC (Cézembre)

[Sir X. Pol Briga]

I heartily agree - we have been making do with groups.yahoo.com/group/Cezembreassembly/ but it would be better to be integrated to the main board for the kingdom.

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

This is a good idea, but may need a little tweaking. We *do* need to get the provinces running. Some comments by section:

1. Okay.

2. This may be inorganic as far as elections go, because the OrgLaw says that the Secretary of State's office directs provincial elections, which are conducted at the same time as general elections to the Ziu.

3. I'm not sure national ministers should be able to override provincial ministers. That seems to infringe on the autonomy of the provinces under the OrgLaw. Maybe national ministers should be permitted to override provincial ministers when the latter are interpreting or applying national policy or national law - i.e., provincial cabinet ministers could serve as deputies of the national ministers for some purposes, and only in that capacity would be subject to being overridden.

4. Yeah! Go Maricopa!

5. Any particular reason the police force must have at least two members? For 5(b), I would just say that police officers shall be appointed and dismissed as provided in the province's constitution.

6 & 7 contain things I would prefer to leave to each province to specify in its constitution.

[King John]

I'd like to see us take most of the stuff about Provincial government out of the Organic Law, and replace it with something vague like "The Ziu may, by law, provide for the government of the Provinces". Then we could allow Provinces to decouple their elections from national elections, write their own Constitutions, etc.

I think there should be some form of national oversight — like permitting the Uppermost Cort to overrule Provincial legislation (our Provinces are not sovereign States as in the US), or requiring that the Provincial Constitutions establish a form of government responsive to the will of the people. (This last has been a problem in the past, with Provincial governments establishing a kind of autocratic rule, which led to Provincial politics being no fun for anyone, and no way at the Provincial level for anyone to change the situation.)

I very much like the office of Cunstavál, appointed by the Crown to act as the Crown in Provincial affairs. Very high Talossan Coolness Factor.

It doesn't take legislation to make Witt boards for Provinces. Is this something people want? If so, I can just do it. In fact ... I will, and we'll see how it goes.

— John Woolley, UrN

[Joseph Walkland]

Right, How about this:


RZ _____ The Provincial Law and Government Act 2006

WHEREAS There are so little provincial affairs in modern Talossa, and

WHEREAS it is in the country's interest to get that provincial spirit going, and

WHEREAS it is very important to get the spirit going, as quickly as possible, so

THEREFORE the Ziu enacts that:


Article XVII Section 14, 15, 16 and 17 will be created, stating:

Section 14.
Each province has the right to decide upon it's own constitution, symbols and laws, providing that they do not contradict the Organic Law or Staturaty Law.

Section 15.
All laws made in the provinces are subject to vetoe from the Uppermost Cort.

Section 16.
Each Province shall operate it's own judicial system (for crimes on a local level), including it's own police force, officers are dissmissed/appointed in accordance with the Provincial Constitution.

Section 17.
Publishing laws and elections are orginised and run by a "ProvSec" (provincial secutary), who is appointed by the Secutary of State to run the respective tasks. When a ProvSec is not appointed, the laws are published in accordance with the Provincial Constitution.

Ureu q’estadra så: Joseph Walkland MC (Cézembre)

[Danihel Laurieir]

I'm a bit of a Province-skeptic.

I like Talossa's national politics, and that's where--along with the nation's cultural enterprisess--our greatest sense of community comes from. I've always viewed the provinces as distracting, and potentially as diluting of Talossa's sense of community. That said, many of us seem to like provincial affairs...I like Sir John's suggestions...Let's decouple the Provinces from the national elections and pass a law giving those who care about it the power to do certain things at a provincial level (flags, symbols, titles--whatever) (such powers may already exist...I don't read that part of the Organic Law very often)...

But please, please, please do not pass an amendment that forces the Cort to act as a Provincial overlord. If a province passes inorganic legislation, someone who cares should simply file a case about it. Do not force the Cort to review all the legislation from the provinces...That's a terrifying idea.

Having the Provinces set up their own Corts, which while Organically contemplated, also seems like an ill-advised idea to me. For a nation as small as Talossan, we already have a cumbersome legal system...Do we really want more Cort cases? More justices? More Talossan lawyers?

While I don't think I could support this amendment as written now, your proposal has inaugurated a debate we need to have.

I say (along with Sir John, I think): Let's scrap Article XVII of the Organic Law (the article dealing with provinces) and write a new article--one that changes the relationship of the provinces to the national government, frees everyone to live in whichever province they prefer and which unleashes all that apparently pent-up provincial creativity.