48 posts
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Post by Ervald on Feb 24, 2021 23:44:53 GMT
Greetings my fellow Venetians,
I am Ervald or as known in-game, I am Fjallshima. To provide a little bit of background for those who have recently joined Venice, I was one of the first 40 nations to join this region and I was elected to the Consiglio dei Pregadi back in January. In this past term as your senator, I authored the Bill of Rights which defined the fundamental liberties and legal rights of all Venetians. I also authored the Elected Senate Amendment which changed our legislative system from a stagnant self-electing Consiglio to a Consiglio with three elected senators. That amendment is why we're standing here today, in the grand experiment of democracy. I also assisted Grand Chancellor Tunadle is crafting and passing the Citizenship Bill, Elections Bill, and the Supreme Council Amendments.
For the next term, I plan to support Tuandle to be Grand Chancellor barring anyone else competing for that position and I want to work with my fellow colleagues on forming our criminal code and judicial system which I called for in my platform when I first ran for the Consiglio. I am glad to hear that is also a priority of Tuandle's. While I do have legislative experience across many regions, I plan to be more of a book of wisdom making sure our legislative proposals can be written the best way possible which I have been doing this past term.
I think I have effectively shown myself to be an active senator this past term with a breadth of knowledge, whether writing or editing proposals, and I will continue to be one if you elect me again. A vote for me is a vote for a proven record filled with experience and activity.
I can answer any questions or comments you have. Onward, Venice!
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Post by Atlantis on Feb 25, 2021 17:37:42 GMT
Great to see you running again!
As Doge, I am curious as to how have evaluated my appointments in the past -- especially considering we are still a new region.
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48 posts
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Post by Ervald on Feb 25, 2021 21:42:59 GMT
Great to see you running again! As Doge, I am curious as to how have evaluated my appointments in the past -- especially considering we are still a new region. Thank you! You make a good point that executive nominations are very different here compared to the ones you see in much older regions. I find in newer regions like Venice, there are three type of nominations and I'll explain how I evaluate those. 1. You got the boilerplate nomination where you managed to get someone to join Venice that has experience in other regions and so because they have experience in FA, you decide to nominate them to run our foreign affairs. I typically don't have many questions and if I do, I just ask them to explain their agenda for the upcoming term if it was not made clear in the introductory post. 2. You have someone who does have experience in other parts of NS but not in the area you're nominating them for. This was the case with Areo where he has been in NS for a while and has experience in other regions, but the most amount of FA experience he had was just as a diplomat. I voted to confirm him because I thought he had the type of knowledge and character that would help him grow into the role and learn more about foreign affairs. 3. This is the enthusiastic newcomer that has very little experience in NationStates and typically, they're being nominated to run interior or culture. We saw that with Greater Remerton nominated for the position of Councilor of Activity. Because we're such a young region, this individual is probably the best person to take on the job. I vote to confirm folks like those because I trust the Doge, you, to help them learn more about what they're doing and eventually, they won't need much help themselves to run things. Confirmation hearings for a while are going to seem very casual and not filled with many questions but the longer as we exist as a region and the more folks we attract, the average amount of a political experience a Venetian have will dramatically increase. This will make confirmation hearings have higher standards and possibly somewhat political. But no matter how our confirmation hearings are, I always expect some level of activity and passion from the nominees.
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Post by tuandle on Feb 25, 2021 21:47:14 GMT
Great Answer!
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Post by CSP on Feb 27, 2021 9:34:45 GMT
You have my support, Ervy!
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98 posts
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Post by The Areopagite on Feb 27, 2021 16:25:34 GMT
So, since you mentioned the judiciary & criminal law, I wanted to ask: could you give us an idea of your plans for reform? The constitution is not too specific about judicial branch, so I would like to know how you would go about expanding upon that. Do you plan to keep the Quarantia as is, or are there any thoughts for changing its function (perhaps merging it with the Council of Forty)?
Furthermore – as someone yet inexperience in NS justice –, I would be very eager to hear what sort of provisions you would set out in a criminal codex.
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48 posts
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Post by Ervald on Feb 28, 2021 1:24:36 GMT
You have my support, Ervy! Thank you!
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48 posts
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Post by Ervald on Feb 28, 2021 1:48:29 GMT
So, since you mentioned the judiciary & criminal law, I wanted to ask: could you give us an idea of your plans for reform? The constitution is not too specific about judicial branch, so I would like to know how you would go about expanding upon that. Do you plan to keep the Quarantia as is, or are there any thoughts for changing its function (perhaps merging it with the Council of Forty)?
Furthermore – as someone yet inexperience in NS justice –, I would be very eager to hear what sort of provisions you would set out in a criminal codex. Well, what I really have in mind is a Judicature Act. Our Constitution at the moment only says that the Consiglio will get to elect the Chief Magistrate and that they will be the presiding officer. Now typically across NS, judicial branches have 3 judges but you could make the argument because we're so young of a region with a small population, we probably won't need more than one judge at the moment. Maybe in the future, we should expand the number of judges in the Quarantia but I don't think we need that at the moment. But in the judicature act, we will need to talk about how a jury is picked and how many members on the jury there are which is not clarified in the constitution. What is really needed is how does a trial even work? What type of applications can people make? In my home region of Europeia, there are criminal cases, judicial review, and advisory opinions. Personally, I think the only two type of cases we will need in Venice are criminal cases and judicial reviews. The judicature act also need to go into detail about applications, right to counsel, entering a plea, evidence, prepping the trial, how the trial will flow, jury reaching a decision, sentencing, appeals, and more. I am not a judicial expert but I hope with the input of my colleagues and the Doge, we will have a judicature act that allows the Quarantia to actually function. That's my vision of reform, I don't want to change the structure of the Quarantia. I just want to make sure it can function. For a criminal code, we need to classify the different type of classes that a crime can be and what crimes there are. From my home region, we have high crimes, felonies, misdemeanors, and infractions. Each crime would have a sentence (ex: 8 month ban for attempted extortion). We would also need to identify the statute of limitations. Another idea that is being experimented is the idea of community service for misdemeanor or infractions. Let say you are a juvenile-minded new citizen who decided to post 60 threads in the campaigning subforum with images of Jeff Goldblum. You claim you just thought it was funny. The regional government want to prosecute you and you are declare guilty by the jury but instead of being banned for so many weeks or months, the Chief Magistrate make you do community service. The only form of community service I have seen far on NationStates have been asking the convict to do a specific number of recruitment telegrams for the region. I think that would be a good idea to talk about and test out.
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Post by tuandle on Feb 28, 2021 3:35:53 GMT
Great Ideas!
I support your ideas and will support you if re-elected.
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48 posts
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Post by Ervald on Feb 28, 2021 4:09:01 GMT
Great Ideas! I support your ideas and will support you if re-elected. Thank you, and you too!
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