notes-groupDecisionMaking-fluidDemocracy-bylaws-enact

How ordinary acts may be enacted

An act other than an act to amend the bylaws may be enacted in one of four ways:

  1. Adoption by one house with no veto: It is adopted by one of the three legislative houses, and not vetoed by either of the other two within the first 2 weeks that they are in session after the adoption of the first house.
  2. Adoption by two houses over the objection of the third: It is adopted by two of the three legislative houses; the second adoption must be sooner than 3 months past the time when the measure was vetoed by the third house, if it was vetoed.

If there is only one house (the case for Small Regime, when there is only the Forum), adoption by one house is necessary and sufficient (there is no other house to veto).

If there are two houses (the case for Medium Regime, when there is only the Forum and the Elect Board), then this procedure is mostly the same, except that with no third house, only "Adoption by one house with no veto" is available.

Adoption by each house must be in accordance with the proper vote thresholds, which differ according to the type of measure.

By a simple majority, any house may refer any measure to the High Court to inquire about its legality. In this case, the two week "veto clock" is paused until the High Court returns its verdict. If the High Court does not return a verdict within 3 months, the measure is presumed legal.

A measure to veto is a standing poll, or main motion without debate, with a threshold of >50%. A successful veto causes the vetoed measure to be scheduled for debate in the house that vetoed; after the debate, if the measure now passes the house that vetoed, in unamended form, then the veto is retracted and the act is enacted (because at this point, two houses have adopted it). Therefore, the initial veto can also be thought of as a delay action.

Prohibited types of acts

The legislature is prohibited from creating or bestowing decorations, awards, or titles of honor, or from using the naming of times or places to call attention to or to honor, or for issuing proclamations, commemorations, recognitions, memorials, or dictating the names or pictures of coins or medals or stamps. The legislature may, however, fund awards which are created and bestowed by the senior Chair.

The legislature may not declare anyone to be guilty of breaking any rule, and may not impose punishment for breaking a rule. In such a situation, the legislature should instead prosecute the offender in the Court.

Definition of a textual length of a bill

In the following, a page of text is defined as 2000 characters (in some alphabet with approximately 26 letters, plus numbers and punctuation). However, parts of a bill which merely strike or eliminate text from existing rules (as opposed to modifying text or adding text) are not counted in this total.

Text quota

Each house of the legislature is associated with a number called its "text quota". Each day, each house's text quota is incremented by 20 pages, until it reaches a maximum of 200 pages. No house may pass any bill which is longer than its current text quota; bills which are "adopted" over quota are not considered to have been adopted, regardless of the views and records of that chamber. Upon the passage of any bill, each house's text quota is decremented by the length of the bill.

Reading time

No bill or amendment to a bill may be debated or voted upon until at least 10 minutes per page, excluding the first page, has elapsed after its presentation to the legislative body in the form in which it is to be voted upon (if a bill is presented and then amended, then, providing the time for reading the initial presented form and the amendments are satisfied, no additional time is needed for the amended form of the bill).

This "presentation" may be via posting in a designated spot on the internet and does not necessitate gaining the floor in any house of legislature.