Wast Learniversity

[Wast]

WAST LEARNIVERSITY

About the Learniversity

Wast Learniversity provides a unique learning environment for its students, allowing them complete freedom to choose topics of interest to them from a list selected by Wast. Anyone is welcome to apply, even adorable kittens, and admission is free! We only ask that you bring DIVERSITY and a POSITIVE ATTITUDE to your studies here at the Learniversity. At the Learniversity, there are no professors or students - everyone learns, and everyone teaches except Wast who doesn't bother to do any of that.

Inaugural Lecture Series

Wast Learniversity is proud to present its Inaugural Learncture Series, with special lectures by our esteemed Taijituan colleagues! If you wish to present a Learncture, please submit an abstract to Wast (via PM). Consult the current lecturer before posting your own to avoid clutter. Lectures include the following:

• Eluvatar, Constitution of the North Pacific
• Myroria, The McRib Sandwich: A Study in Deliciousness
• Limi, OMG KITTEH
• Gulliver, Politics of Equestria
• Wast, A Survey of Approaches to Voting Theory using Permutation Modules

[Eluvatar]

The Constitution of the North Pacific as it stands is a document with a long history and great breadth, detail, and complexity. Understanding it requires significant study.

That is why we have this class here for you now.

Lesson 1: An Outline

The Constitution is divided into a number of Articles labeled with roman numerals, which are in turn subdivided into sections labeled with Arabic numerals, subdivided into what I call clauses labeled with capital letters.

(Preamble - An introduction which notably uses the word cognizant)
Article I - Declaration of rights and limitations on government.
Article II - Defines Membership and how it works
Article III - "Elections and Elected Offices" specifies that the legal code will provide for election rules (see TNP law 5) and enumerates and describes the various governmental positions, as well as term limits.
Article IV - Defines, in great detail, the legislative that is the Regional Assembly, and the Security Council as a committee within it.
Article V - Establishes the court system for both criminal and civil cases, as well as specifying the impeachment by recall system.
Article VI - Sets up how nations can be expelled from TNP.
Article VII - Defines how to amend the constitution.

Please take the time to examine this outline and understand it. If there are any questions, please feel free to ask. We will soon move on to address the parts of the constitution sequentially.

[Eluvatar]

Lesson 2: History of the Blackshear Constitution and Preceding Drafts

The adoption of a Constitution for the North pacific was a lengthy process, with many times when various drafts were made and forgotten. In the end, a constitution written by Blackshear was adopted in July of 2004. We shall ignore the 2003 proposal by Jenniver of a constitution as the following proposals had no relation to it and Jenniver was not truly a North Pacifican and soon left the region.

The true story of the North Pacific Constitution begins in January of 2004, with a proposal published by Nastic, written by Silentica at his request, during the delegacy fo the Twoslit Experiment. This draft was not actually ratified however, but after some discussion, further proposals began.

In early February, the Twoslit Experiment began discussions on what a constitution should be like, asking who should vote and what basic ideas belonged in a constitution. Immediately after, OPArsenal proposed a document outlining some ideals. Discussions continued for a time, but then there was somewhat of a lull until late April.

As Magicality became Delegate of the North following Blackshear's sudden disappearance, she began the final push toward a constitution. Thel D'Ran brought forth a proposal, which was however soon superceded by Blackshear's proposal (which he had not time to propose while Delegate). While there were some voices raising issues with Blackshear's proposal, it soon came to a vote and passed. However, it was not technically ratified at that time due to Magicality's disappearance; discovering that, UPS Rail took it as a chance to ignore it and set up his own government after seizing the delegacy from an inactive Magicality.

After the eventual successful capture of the North by Better Times (Free4All) from Great Bight, Thel D'Ran took the reigns as Delegate. His first action was to formally ratify that Constitution of the North Pacific.Thus did the North Pacific attain its first Constitution. We shall spend the next lesson understanding that constitution, its strengths, and its flaws.

Bibliographic information:
Extensive research was performed in the original "Old Blue" North Pacific forum, also known as "S2".
Many thanks to Thyatira and Thel D'Ran for reviewing the factuality of this lesson.

[Eluvatar]

Lesson 3: The Blackshear Constitution

(As Amended)

Outline

Article I - Membership
Article II - Elections and Elected Offices
Article III - The North Pacific Legal Code (How it was to be made and what it could do)
Article IV - Trials
Article V - Amendments

Article I - Membership

The Blackshear constitution established "members of The North Pacific" as those who abide by the law, do not use "force" in a "manner inconsistent with the policies of the North Pacific" and "refrain from giving assistance to any state or region against which The North Pacific is taking defensive or enforcement action" (with NPA and NPIA members excepted).

In other words, it defined members as those who accepted the sovereignty of the government and stood for Defender ideals and did not practice Region-Crashing/Invading/Raiding-- and cared to keep a nation in the North Pacific.

Article II - Elections and Elected Offices

Elections were established as occurring every 3 months, and all positions were up in each election.[list=1]

• Regional Delegate: They were not elected in elections, and did not have a vote unless there was a tie. They were "elected through the UN election mechanism already in place in NationStates."
  
• Minister of Immigration and Internal Affairs: They were to communicate with new nations, answer questions, performing domestic intelligence, and enforcing "regional guidelines".
  
• Minister of External Affairs: They were to establish and maintain relations and alliances, as well as manage the Diplomatic Corps.
  
• Minister of Defense: They were to run every aspect of the North Pacifgic Army "for the protection of the region and its allies".
  
• Minister of Communications: They were to coordinate debates, UN resolution discussion, and discussions.
  
• Minister of Arts and Entertainment: They were to moderate Role-Playing, Games, and Out of Character forums, and "initiate and oversee activities and topics for the general entertainment of The North Pacific's member nations".
  

Candidates had to be members of TNP (or NPA), have been on the forum for 1 month, be elected to only 1 cabinet position, and had to appoint a deputy. If a Minister would not appoint a deputy, the Delegate had the power to appoint one.

The Minister of Justice would hold the trial of any cabinet member other than himself, who would be tried by the Delegate-- afterward, the full cabinet would vote on the verdict; a guilty verdict would result in removal from all offices.

The delegate elections held through "the UN election mechanism" did have some rules: those running for Delegate also had to meet Minister requirements, had to announce candidacy before hitting half the endorsements of the sitting delegate, and were not permitted to perform "Outright endorsement swapping or slander."

Article III - The North Pacific Legal Code

Separately from the Constitution there was a Legal Code. Bills had to be approved by the Minister of Justice, and then voted on by the members. 60% would be necessary to pass a bill, 50% to keep it from becoming "dead" and having to wait at least 1 month before revival.

Nations could be expelled from the region if found guilty of violating the laws, Constitution, or rules of NationStates. The constitution stated that "The Delegate may not expel nations without the express consent of the nations of the region by either vote or by a trial". The Delegate of Minister of Justice were empowered to call a regional vote on expulsion by the members; "explicit spamming" was exempted from the vote requirement.

It is worthy to note that as Minister of Justice, Gracius Maximus (also known as Pierconium, Ivan Moldavi, and The Minister) interpreted that the Delegate carries the "express consent of the nations of the region" by holding a great number of endorsements. The validity of this interpretation could not legally be challenged except by the Delegate and Cabinet.

Article IV - Trials

The Minister of Justice, as noted, had the power to organize trials. He was also the Prosecution. He also selected a jury of 5 out of a pool of volunteers. The Minister of Justice would announce the verdict and the Delegate would enforce it.

Article V - Amendments

Amending the Constitution was to require majority support in cabinet and the 65% approval of TNP members.

Summary

Much of the current constitution, including some of its quirks, has its origins in this document. The single most major change between constitutions was the gutting of power of the Delegate and parallel creation of the separate Prime Minister. The second change was a more separated Judiciary. The final way this constitution differs from our contemporary one is in its relative lack of verbosity.

All of these changes were caused by the history of the North Pacific civil war. Said civil war began with the driving of the Delegate by extreme strife and anguish to push the limits of their power under this constitution, using a creative Minister of Justice, and eventually abandon it entirely under the urging of that Minister. One assumes that the increased verbosity of our current constitution was intended to avoid ambiguity.

Bibliographic Information:
Again, much information was garnered from "Old Blue" or "S2".
The Rise and Fall of the NPD by Pierconium
Those with further interest in the history of the North Pacific Civil War may be interested in S4.
Please note that all of these sources can be considered biased.

[Wast]

Thank you Eluvatar, for initiating the Learncture series! I hope that some other community member will follow your most excellent example and provide us with even more knowledge!