Supreme Court Act

From Liberalia Wiki

Influenced by the practise of the High Court in Great Britain & Ireland and written by Curiaistan, the Supreme Court Act is intended to solve queries over interpretation and resolving conflicts in Liberalia Law.

[edit] The Bill

Preamble

This is a bill to define the roles of the Guardian Council in interpretation of current Acts making up the statute book.

Article I Purpose

Clause 1: A Supreme Court shall be set up consisting of the members of the Guardian Council.

Clause 2: The purpose of the Supreme Court will be to make a decision on interpreting and resolving conflicting legislation.

Article II Procedure

Clause 1: Any Liberalian Citizen may petition the Supreme Court to interpret a law or to resolve contradictory legislation.

Section a: The petition is to consist of arguements for a particular view on the law, any petition without this will be struck down as invalid.

Section b: A Guardian Council member may bring forward a petition.

Section c: Should a Guardian Council member bring forward a petition, they may not vote on the petition as per Article II Clause 5.

Clause 2: A chair and deputy chair of the Supreme Court shall be chosen by the members of the Guardian Council within 1 week of the Guardian Council Elections results being declared.

Section a: The chair and deputy chair shall be a current member of the Guardian Council

Section b: The chair will not ordinarily have voting rights but will hold a casting vote in case of a tied vote.

Section c: The chair shall otherwise be able to take full part in the proceedings.

Section d: Should the chair bring forward a petition, then the chair must hand over to the deputy chair who at that point will be subject to the provisions of Article II Clause 2 Sections b & c.

Clause 3: The Guardian Council shall meet to discuss the petition.

Clause 4: There will be an opportunity for Liberalian Citizens to make representations for or against the petition before a vote is taken by the Guardian Council.

Section a: A minimum of three days must be allowed to give Citizens a chance to make representations.

Section b: A member of the Guardian Council shall not have right of representation as per Article II Clause 4.

Section c: The Guardian Council may ask questions of the Citizens making representations.

Clause 5: The Guardian Council, after considering all arguements for and against the petition will vote on the petition.

Section a: It will require a simple majority of the Guardian Council (including casting vote of the chair or the deputy chair if necessary as per Article II Clause 2 Section b) to approve or disapprove the petition. This shall be the case even if a Guardian Council member brings forward a petition as per Article II Clause 1 Sections b & c.

Section b: The Guardian Council shall decide on the most appropriate way of holding a vote.

Article III Interpreting a Law

Clause 1: The Guardian Council when considering interpretation shall have regards to the following:

Section a: What is the implied intent of the law?

Section b: What precedent, if any, is there to help interpret a law?

Section c: The region of Liberalia takes precedence over the nations of Liberalia.

Section d: Are there any other laws that directly or indirectly impacting on a decision?

Clause 2: The Guardian Council will not strike down a law on which there is a question of interpretation only.

Clause 3: The decision on an interpretation shall be recorded for future reference.

Section a: Decisions shall be numbered sequentially.

Article IV Resolving Conflicting law

Clause 1: The Guardian Council when resolving conflicting laws shall have regards to the following:

Section a: What is the implied intent of the law?

Section b: A newer law takes precedence over a older law.

Section c: Preservation of Democracy Act shall be considered the pre-eminent legislation and no law may take precedent over PoDA as per Article IV, Clause 1 Section b.

Section d: What precedent, if any, is there to help resolve a conflict?

Section e: The region of Liberalia takes precedence over the nations of Liberalia.

Section f: Are there any other laws directly or indirectly impacting on the laws under consideration?

Clause 2: After a decision and a vote, The Guardian Council may:

Section a: Strike down all or part of an older law.

Section b: The Guardian Council may not strike down a newer law, this will require a repeal and to be presented for vote in parliament as per the Rules of Parliamentary Procedure.

Section c: Make a recommendation to present an amendment to Parliament for debate and vote.

Section d: Make a recommendation to present a repeal to Parliament for debate and vote.

Section e: The Guardian Council shall abide by the results of the vote in Parliament.

Section f: The Speaker of the Liberalian Parliament will take responsibility for arranging the vote in Parliament as per the provisions in Article IV, Clause 2 Sections c & d.