CallistaBoard

The document enclosed, by the authority of the Tsar and regional officers of Callista, is established as the sole and indisputable framework of the regional government and shall be acknowledged by all members, present, and future, foreign and domestic.

§2. Establishment of the Callistan Government

1. The rules laid forth in this dispatch shall lay out the government's structure and contain all of the frameworks of said government.
2. The government of the region shall be known as the Tsardom of Callista.

§3. Government of Callista11

1. The region will solely possess a Council of State.
2. This Council shall contain the Tsar (the Governor of Callista), a World Assembly Delegate (which will be automatically appointed as either the Prime Minister, Lieutenant Prime Minister, or the Head Justice in that order), and three other Ministers.8,10 Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I feel like this section is redundant now. I rarely hear mentions of this 'council of state', and its role is probably overshadowed by the cabinet anyways.
3. Members of the executive branch will have their own, different duties in the region.
4. A welcome telegram shall be established by the Council of State to be sent to all new members of Callista automatically.10

§4. Privileges held by citizens

These privileges listed below will only be accessible by residents through filling in the citizenship form.
1. All citizens are entitled to certain privileges, which take effect immediately upon their entry into the region and shall not be accessible the moment they leave Callista. What if you leave for a brief movement to handle affairs in a separate region? Or what if there are some other reasons as to why you wish to do this? What if you leave for only five seconds? What are the concerns regarding this?
Suggestion: All citizens are entitled to certain privileges, which take effect immediately upon their entry into the region and shall not be accessible the moment they leave Callista for a significant period of time. While I understand the concern regarding Citizens leaving, if they only leave for all of 5 seconds, they shouldn't have their status revoked.
2. A citizen is defined as a human being who resides in Callista and has been accepted as a citizen. No citizen is permitted to control more than one nation inside Callista. What about aliens /j
3. These privileges are as follows:
i. All citizens may give, receive, withdraw, and otherwise exchange endorsements freely as long as they do not violate the endorsement cap of the region. Doesn't mention anything about what happens if citizens violate the endorsement cap.
Suggestion: All citizens may give, receive, withdraw, and otherwise exchange endorsements freely as long as they do not violate the endorsement cap of the region. If Citizens violate the endorsement cap, those who endorsed them will be requested to remove them, and if they still violate such cap, then they will be pressured to leave the WA temporarily. This is only a suggestion, and one that I'm not too fond of, as I don't like when Callista pressures people unreasonably, however this was the solution taken upon in October when Baloo had too many endorsements.
ii. All citizens may vote in general elections held by the Tsardom.
iii. All citizens may contest the position of Prime Minister, Lieutenant Prime Minister, or Head Justice, before elections. Doesn't mention Minister of Roleplay. This one's pretty obvious. Add Minister of Roleplay.
iv. All citizens may express their thoughts freely without fear of repercussions unless those thoughts violate the Regional Message Board rules of Callista or NationStates rules.
4. Citizens also reserve the right to have their citizenship automatically updated based on their residency status. Nations that leave Callista for a historically significant or friendly region may have their citizenship status updated to honorary citizenship and honorary citizens who move to Callista may have their citizenship status updated to citizen. Every month, a citizenship check will take place to confirm the proper status of a nation’s citizenship. In order to remain a citizen, a nation must post at least once a month on the Regional Message Board of Callista. This does not apply to Honorary Citizens.8,10
5. A list of all of the known past and present citizens of Callista shall be created and maintained on Callista Dispatches.10 If you look on the list of Citizens, there is not one single mention of former citizens in Callista, and it is purely bureacratically impossible for Callista to manage that. The section regarding past citizens should be removed all together.
6. A list of all warnings and regional bans both temporary and permanent shall be created and maintained on Callista Dispatches.10
7. If a citizen ceases to exist, the nation must resubmit a new citizenship application before becoming a citizen again.
i. If an honorary citizen ceases to exist but moves to Callista after being refounded, they must resubmit a new citizenship application before becoming a citizen again.12

§5. The Cabinet

1. The region shall possess a Governor, who shall be referred to as "the Tsar". The Tsar will serve as Monarch of Callista.
i.The Tsar will hold executive powers and will be responsible for appointing members to the internal Cabinet after an election or vacancy.
ii. The Tsar may only use their executive powers in times of emergency. A time of emergency is defined as a raid, constitutional crisis, refusal to acknowledge election results or other situations that put a threat to regional security that cannot be handled by the elected cabinet.
iii. The Tsar must remain officially politically neutral, and is forbidden from joining political parties and contesting elections. The Tsar's vote will not count in official government election, bill and amendment polls. They are forbidden from becoming World Assembly Delegate unless it is a time of emergency. What if the WA Delegacy accidentally falls into the hands of the Tsar? Does it specify what the Tsar is to do if he accidentally violates it? It would be probable to add a clause alleging when this would happen.
iv. If The Tsar is found to have abused their power or violated this section of the constitution, a court case may be presented whereas if found guilty the Head Justice shall determine appropriate punishment at their discretion.
2. The region shall possess a successor, who is appointed by the Tsar. The successor can be any citizen of the Tsardom and, under the circumstances of the Tsar resigning or ceasing to exist, will become the new Tsar. No other person other than the Tsar can appoint a successor.9
3. The World Assembly Delegate will be appointed as either the Prime Minister or the Lieutenant Prime Minister in the case of the Prime Minister not being able to become the World Assembly Delegate. The WAD will only hold World Assembly powers and shall, under any circumstance other than the Tsar's nation ceasing to exist, not hold executive powers. Earlier it stated that the Head Justice would also be included, but it is left out in this section. So yeah, add the Head Justice section.
4. There will be seven members of the Cabinet. The duties of the members are as follows:7,8
i. A Minister of Foreign Affairs will be appointed by the Prime Minister and shall be responsible for negotiating with other regions, establishing relationships between Callista and other regions and organizations, and speaking on behalf of the region. It's difficult to determine what 'speaking on behalf of the region' is or means. It needs to be more detailed:
maybe add a clause, such as;
[clause number here]. Speaking on behalf of the region is defined as expressing what is explicitly told or implied that the MoFA should do, and what topics regarding the region they should cover that are told of them by the region's administration.
ii. A Secretary of the Press shall be a puppet nation, controlled by the members of the Cabinet, but primarily controlled by a Prime-Minister-appointed citizen. They shall be used for posting official dispatches. They cannot be replaced and will always be the nation Callista Dispatches.10 Gee, I hope no one violates their right to use the Callista Dispatches Account! (Foreshadowing)
iii. A Head Justice shall be elected by the People of Callista. The Head Justice will have the final say in legal disputes between residents and has the power to overturn Amendments, Bills, and Laws if they are deemed unconstitutional. The Overturning of Amendments, Bills, and Laws can be rejected by an absolute majority majority in the Cabinet and the Tsar6
iv. A Prime Minister and a Lieutenant Prime Minister shall be elected by the people of Callista. They will have the power to oversee the duties of all of the aforementioned Ministers, the ability to accept or deny citizenship forms, guarding the region from foreign threats such as quorum raiders, manage the World Factbook Entry and pin/unpin dispatches, holding regional events, enforcing the regional rules, ban-ject and eject nations deemed "suspicious"; and vetoing, adding, accepting, or removing amendments to or from the constitution. How does one define suspicious? Is it 'ban someone willy nilly' because you think that they're (susamogus sorry i had to use that reference). The Constitution needs to define what 'being suspicious' is. Add a clause doing so.
v.A Minister of Domestic Affairs will be appointed to be responsible for regulating the RMB, regulating conflicts between regional members, giving out warnings to members, investigating suspicious activity, and acting as an acting Head Justice in the case of a resignation of that position. Again, what defines as 'suspicious'?
vi. A Minister of Roleplay shall be elected by the People of Callista. The Minister of Roleplay will have the power to end all roleplay disputes and can only be contested by a unanimous vote by current roleplay moderators. [color=red]In this scenario, what count as a dispute? The Constitution needs to outline what a 'dispute' in this circumstance is. Otherwise the MoRp could easily shut down the dialogue they're opposed to.
5.All cabinet members have permission carry out regional recruitment as they wish8

§6. Legislations, Internal Cabinet & Amendments

1. The Internal Cabinet (which includes all regional officers except the Secretary of the Press) shall possess the ability to create bills and overturn existing laws at any time, along with propose amendments to the constitution.3 The portion in bold confuses me. Are all members of the internal cabinet allowed to overturn any laws whenever they see fit? The Constitution needs to supply certain requirements for a RO official to overturn a law, or else people could just overturn them willy nilly.
2. All submitted proposals shall be debated by the Internal Cabinet, and require a majority vote in a public referendum to pass.1, 10
3. No regional officers other than the members of the Internal Cabinet have the power to add/remove amendments. Can they remove it at will, whenever they want? (above concerns)
4. Laws are to be defined as legislation that does not inherently alter or affect the contents of the constitution directly. Not specific on what 'inherently alter or affect the constitution'. How do you differentiate a law from a bill? How do you know if its a bill or an amendment? Couldn't anything classify as 'altering the constitution'? To what degree should an amendment be permitted as to 'altering the constitution', if allowed
i. Laws are to be drafted as bills by a member of regional cabinet or a co-operating citizen of Callista who has been given permission to draft a bill. Citizens have to gain permission before they can draft? This has never been insisted on anywhere. This part of the clause should be struck out, as it has never happened before, and if enforced, gives exclusive monopoly for the administration to draft bills in the first place.
ii. Bills are to include a preamble, defining the contents of said bill, and at minimum 3 sections detailing how the bill will be enacted.
iii. Once a bill has been drafted, it is to be given at minimum a 24 hour consultation process where citizens of Callista may voice their opinions on the proposed legislation.
iv. After the consultation process is finished, the bill will be put to a vote where a majority of votes in favour is required to implement it into law.
5.If a Callistan citizen who is not a member of the regional cabinet drafts a bill, it shall be sent to the MODA for review via telegram. If the bill is found to be constitutional, it shall then be presented to the Internal Cabinet where it shall be debated upon and either published to the region for the the public consultation period or sent back to the author for editing. The Internal Cabinet must provide specific edits that they wish to be made to the bill to the author if it is sent back. In this case, the author may then either choose to remove the bill from discussion, closing debate, or add the proposed edits and send it back to the MODA.
6. A citizen's bill may be rejected for the following reasons:
i. not properly following the guidelines of the Bill Editing Proposal
ii. is presented in a self-serving manner, such as changing citizenship laws so the author may alone become a citizen
iii. being deemed unconstitutional, such as wishing to impeach the Tsar and establish the author as the Tsar of Callista
iv. is written in the form of an amendment, in which case it should be filed as an amendment and not a bill
7.If a citizen believes that their proposed bill has been unlawfully rejected or that proposed edits by the Internal Cabinet are unfair or do not fit the character of the bill, they may file a court case against the MODA. The Head Justice shall lead the case unless the Head Justice themselves is implicated in which case the Tsar shall lead the court case. If found guilty of unlawfully rejecting a bill, the MODA may at maximum be stripped of their status and a new MODA shall be appointed. If proposed edits are found to be unfair, then they shall be struck out null and void and the bill may be presented to the region for public consultation. What if the entire cabinet makes the decision? Is it the MODA's Fault only? Needs to make a statement regarding not just MoDA rejection, but also cabinet rejection.
8.The MODA must reply to a proposed bill within a week of it being sent and present it to the Internal Cabinet. If they are unable to do so due to personal circumstances, which must be stated publicly, the responsibilities of processing bills shall be given to any other willing member of the regional cabinet who must state that they are taking on the responsibility of processing bills within a 60-hour time frame from when the MODA announced their inability to do so.3

§7. Vacancies in Government
1. If the office of the Delegate becomes vacant, the Lieutenant Prime Minister shall become the next Delegate, followed by the Head Justice, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Roleplay, Minister of Recruitment, and finally the Tsar.8, 11 Earlier it was specified that the Tsar is only allowed to be a delegate in emergency situations. Does an office being vacant count as an emergency?
2. If the office of any non-elected Cabinet member becomes vacant, the Prime Minister will choose a replacement that will serve until the end of that position's term. 12 What happens if the vacant person comes back?
3. Should the office in question be that of the Prime Minister, the Lieutenant Prime Minister will fill the position until a special election can be held to replace the Prime Minister. What if both the LPM and PM are vacant?
4. Should the office in question be that of the Head Justice, the Minister of Domestic Affairs will fill the position until a special election can be held to replace the Head Justice.12 What if both the HJ and MODA are vacant?
5. Should the office in question be that of the Minister of Roleplay, the Prime Minister will appoint someone to the position until a special election can be held to replace the Minister of Roleplay.12 What if the PM, LPM, and MoRP are vacant? ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN!1!11!!11
6. Special Elections occur two days after it has been announced that the Office becomes vacant, and shall follow the standard election procedure. 12
7. Should the office in question be that of the Lieutenant Prime Minister, the Prime Minister will choose a replacement that will serve until the end of that position's term.12
what i'm essentially implying here, is that there needs to be a detailed line of succession, maybe similar to the WA line of succession.
Ex: If the Prime Minister is unavailable, he will be replaced by the LPM, followed by the HJ, then the [insert line of succession here]
§8. Impeachment7

1. Should any official be accused of any infraction or questionable action, the informant will take any information to the Minister of Domestic Affairs. The Minister of Domestic Affairs will take action according to the information received. What is defined as an 'infraction or questionable action'? Not specific. Needs to detail what an infraction or questionable action is.
Ex: An Infraction or Questionable Action is defined as whether or not an RO infringes on the rights given to people via the Constitution, whether the RO violates the powers given to them, whether the RO engages in nepotism/bribery/corruption, etc.
2. Should the Minister of Domestic Affairs be accused, the Tsar will carry the case. WHAT IF THE TSAR IS ACCUSED?!?!?! (i think its stated earlier but im too lazy to check :P).
3. Should the accused be found guilty, the Tsar or the Head Justice will be called upon to deliver the punishment.
4. Any citizen may petition the Minister of Domestic Affairs (or the Tsar in cases of the Minister of Domestic Affairs being accused) to initiate an investigation without presenting evidence against any elected or appointed official.
5. Should any elected or appointed official be found guilty of a crime, they will be instantly fired or temporarily suspended from their position. 12 This contradicts the statement that the Tsar/HJ will deliver the punishment. What if the punishment is mild and therefore they only deserve a mild punishment without termination? I believe this clause should be removed and replaced with a more detailed section regarding punishments.
i. Once terminated from their position, the official cannot be reappointed to the same office until after the term is completed.
ii. If the Official is only temporarily suspended from their position, they will return to their office once the temporary suspension expires.

§9. Elections

1. Campaigning for any elected position may only begin 2 weeks before the Prime Minister election.
i. Campaigning persons must be a citizen of Callista.2 ik that it specifically doesn't mention honarary citizens, but they could tech be classified as citizens. you never know!1!1!!!11
ii. Candidates must submit a telegram to Callista Dispatches announcing their candidacy.
iii. Preemptive campaigning is defined as announcing publicly that a candidate is seeking a particular office before the two week campaign season. Citizens may discuss the possibility of an electoral run, but they may not officially announce a campaign dispatch, any potential appointments, or ask citizens to vote for them before campaign season has begun.
iv. Preemptively campaigning results in a strike, to be logged in the warnings dispatch. After 3 strikes, the offending citizen will be subject to a court trial where if found guilty they shall be disqualified from contesting the upcoming general elections. Their strikes are reset after the general election has finished.
2. Candidates may run under any political organization that they want or they can run as an independent candidate.
i. Citizens campaigning for Prime Minister must determine and announce their L. Prime Minister.2 by when? needs to add a 'by when' detail.
ii. Citizens who are already in office under an elected office must finish the term of their previous office before accepting the responsibility of their new candidacy.5 wait so that means that anyone who currently is in office can never run for election?!?!?!?!?!1 no but seriously this makes no sense. as of March 19th, 2024, 90% (over exaggeration) of all candidates have positions in government right now. wouldn't this clause mean that they would have to finish their terms or resign from their offices before campaigning?
iii. The holder of an elected office at the time of an election will hold the responsibilities of their office in the scenario described above.5
3. Campaigns cannot be declared after elections have started unless no candidate is running. difference between declared and mentioned? what if a campaign is simply mentioned, but not declared?
4. Prime Ministerial elections will be held on the 1st day of January, April, July, and October.January is new year, winter break, i might have different spring breaks than others but mine includes april 1st as part of it. not a lot of people active on these dates. i need to take some copium.
i. If there is only 1 candidate, that person automatically becomes the Prime Minister. If there are multiple candidates, the election will be decided via a two-round system, whereas the top two candidates advance to a second round if no one wins 51+% of the vote.14
ii. All Elections will last 24 hours with the second round being held the next day for 24 hours.
iii. The election poll will be held for a total of 24 hours.2
5. Head Judicial elections will be held on the 8th day of January, April, July, and October; 1 week after the Prime Minister elections are held.2
i. If there is only 1 candidate, that person automatically becomes the Head Justice. If no candidate reaches 51+% of the vote, a second round will commence with the top two candidates advancing.14
6. For all elections of public officials, if a tie is to occur, the affected leading candidates will discuss how they want to resolve the tie.
i. If within 16 hours of the election elapsing the affected candidates have not reached a consensus, then a game of random chance will be held by the Tsar to determine the winner.
ii. Random chance games must be best out of 5 or agreed upon by the affected candidates as otherwise.
iii. If the Tsar is not present to administer the game live, then the game may be administered to another person agreed upon by the affected candidates; otherwise the game will be delayed until the Tsar can administer the chance game.
7. An election will be held on the 14th day of January, April, July, and October for the Minister of Roleplay.
i. If there is only 1 candidate, that person automatically becomes the Minister of Roleplay. If no candidate receives more than 51+% of the vote, a second round will commence with the top two candidates advancing.14
8. In order to vote, you must be accepted as a citizen no less than 24 hours before the election starts.4
i. Citizens that have ceased to exist but are refounded must submit another citizenship form and be accepted no less than 24 hours before the election starts.
9. In the event that a scheduled election is not held on the date it is meant to be held, the election in question will be held the day in Eastern Standard Time after the error is first highlighted on the regional message board.
10. The Head Justice of Callista reserves the right to order an investigation into the results of any election if they have reason to suspect election manipulation. 11
i. Upon the order, the election is to be frozen and no new votes are to be counted.
ii. If it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that election manipulation has taken place, the election is to be scrapped with the candidacy of the perpetrating party disqualified. not specific about what reasonable doubt means. needs to be elaborated.
iii. If it is not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that election manipulation has taken place, the election is to commence as normal.

§10. Court Proceedings7

1. Any resident may sue any resident. Doesn't say anything about institutions, government, foreigners, etc. Should probably add some.
Ex: Any resident can sue any other resident, foreigner, the government or any other institution, etc.
2. The plaintiff may either prosecute the litigant/defendant themselves, or transfer the case to the Minister of Domestic Affairs; in cases of the Minister of Domestic Affairs being accused, the plaintiff may transfer the case over to the Tsar. are they required to take the case, or no? doesn't specify, it should probably do so.
3. The litigant/defendant may hire another resident to be their attorney, or proceed pro se.
4. The plaintiff or the Tsar or the Minister of Domestic Affairs, and the litigantr agai/defendant have 24 hours to present evidence for onst the litigant's/defendant's innocence.
5. After the 24-hour deadline expires; the plaintiff or the Tsar or the Minister of Domestic Affairs, and the litigant/defendant are to be given at least 24 and at most 72 hours to present their oral arguments.
6. If the 24-hour deadline given to present evidence expires without the prosecution having presented any evidence, the litigant/defendant will be declared innocent.
7. After the deadline given to the parties to present their oral arguments expires, the Head Justice will give their verdict. is the head justice allowed to stop the trial early? they've done it before. should add a clause allowing them to stop it early.
i. If the Head Justice cannot participate in the trial for any reason, then a Jury, consisting of the Prime Minister and the cabinet (barring the Minister of Domestic Affairs and Secretary of the Press), as well as the Tsarverich will vote on whether the defendant is guilty or not.13 are they allowed to stop the trial early? same concerns as above.
ii. If the defendant is a member of the cabinet or the prime minister, he shall not be part of the jury in his trial.13
iii. If a member of the cabinet or the prime minister cannot participate in the trial, they will not become part of the jury.13
8. If the deadline given to present oral arguments expires without the prosecution having presented any, the litigant/defendant will be declared innocent.
9. The Head Justice must first refer to the Constitution when giving a verdict. doesn't mention anything about laws separate from the constitution, though i believe it was implying that.
10. In cases of there not being any laws in the Constitution regarding the case, the Head Justice must consider former precedent when giving their verdict.
11. In cases of there not being any laws nor any precedent, the Head Justice will give a verdict based solely on his own reasoning.
12. After a verdict is given, a Regional Officer -- ideally the Head Justice -- is to carry out & enforce the ruling given.
13. After a verdict is given, the prosecution or the litigant/defendant may wish to appeal. - Can they be prevented from appealing, or delayed from appealing? Also, it says nothing about the HJ accepting the appeal. should probably have something about the HJ accepting the appeal
14. The Tsar will consider the appeal, and may nullify the verdict if he deems the previous verdict to be unjust.
15. If the previous verdict is nullified, the Tsar is to preside over the case.
Some things never mentioned in the Constitution.
1. Arbitrary Bans - I have large issues with these, starting with the fact that they mess up the entire process of the appeal process. You immediately get banned, and the only thing you can do is appeal. The Constitution mentions nothing about how an 'arbitrary ban works'.