Edit: Maybe this should have been in a different thread.Bustos has a legitimate point that is worth examining formally. The thread linked is not really relevant to the question (the Sergeant did turn out to be involved) but we don't have to worry about the grievance being moot here.
Out of compulsive habit, I'll try to organize this (hopefully I have Bustos' argument right):
Legal question:
Does the militia act allow for anyone other than the Citizen-Sergeant to order military actions?The relevant part of the law (important lines bolded):
[...]
II.The Militia shall be led by a Citizen-Sergeant.- The Citizen-Sergeant shall be elected by the Ecclesia to a four month term.
- The Citizen-Sergeant may be removed from office by a majority vote of the Ecclesia.
- The Citizen-Sergeant shall lead the Militia strategically, and shall act as military advisor to the Ecclesia.
III. Militia shall be organized.- The Citizen-Sergeant shall delineate rank and responsibility within the Militia.
IV. The Militia shall be supervised by the Ecclesia.- The citizen-sergeant shall be able to order military actions, and the Militia shall respond to treaty obligations.
- All military occupations lasting longer than three major in-game updates must be approved by the Ecclesia by a two-thirds majority vote.
[...]
Before going on, I'll note (Eluvatar can correct me here) that I'm fairly sure the act was intended to allow for some latitude in decision making if the Sergeant felt the need to delegate authority, since some actions are time sensitive and we can't realistically expect someone to be around all the time. From a practical standpoint, this means the picky legal arguments might be best avoided by just clarifying what was meant and accepting that it wasn't clear in the first place (spirit of the law, etc.). But let's proceed anyway, in excruciating detail:
- First, the law states that the sergeant
shall be able to order military actions, and that the Sergeant shall
lead the militia. Neither specifies exclusivity, although it does say that the Sergeant will act as
military advisor, which I suppose is exclusive (but not relevant). At this point, we need to determine whether the ability to order military actions is implicitly given to anyone else.
There is only one line to this effect, which says the sergeant shall "delineate rank and responsibility within the Militia." The Citizen-Sergeant, by the act, is a member of the Militia. Hence the question is whether the Sergeant can empower a member of the militia with the Sergeant's
explicitly defined power to order operations.
- The Sergeant is an elected official, and implicit in that is the notion that the powers defined within the law are granted specifically to the
elected individual for the usual reasons (accountability, trust in their competence, and so on). In most of our other laws, delegation refers to appointment of individuals (Citizen-liaisons, etc.) that 'assist' the elected official with tasks, not effectively assume the position.
- So the issue here is about who acts in the absence of the elected official to execute the powers normally given to them. A core principle of our government is that the Ecclesia will respond to exceptional cases
when they arise, thereby obviating the need to explicitly specify all the annoying details that normally bloat legislation. In particular, if a position should go vacant because someone goes missing, the Ecclesia will respond to fill it. The Sergeant's position is special, however, because actions can be time sensitive and the Ecclesia is a relatively slow moving, deliberative body (this is clear from the way the law is worded, e.g. section IV and also the discussion on the law prior to its passage).
- My opinion on this: I think that if we accept the premise that 'acting' leaders are to be selected by the Ecclesia on a case by case basis (which is suggested by the omission of such provisions in our existing laws), then the law should be interpreted to allow the Sergeant to delegate any of his/her powers to someone else at short notice, which includes ordering operations. If there is an abuse of power, the Ecclesia can deal with it.
I reaaaallly shouldn't post this late.
