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The Constitution of the INWU

Constitution of the International Northwestern Union

Establishment of the Constitution
It is the firm belief of the writers and signers of this Constitution that democracy and equality among nations be established within the region of the International Northwestern Union. The goal of this Constitution is to enable the nations of the International Northwestern Union, hereby referred to in abbreviation as INWU, to achieve this belief through peace, security, and prosperity.

The Bill of Rights
Acknowledges
That a citizen of the INWU is defined as any nation present in the INWU at the signing of this constitution, and any nation that has gone through the process of naturalization. These rights may not be amended at a later date.

I. That all citizens have the fundamental right to not be deprived of the following rights without due process of law.
II. That all citizens will have the right to practice free speech and free publishing in accordance to the rules of NationStates, on both the Regional Message Board and the Regional Forums, as both are considered Regional territory.
III. That all citizens have the right to petition the INWU’s government, the right to assemble and debate, and the right to protest.
IV. That all citizens have the right to privacy, and a warrant must be used to require a nation to forward any telegrams to the Court. Warrants may only be given by the Court.
V. That all citizens are subject to the due process of law, and shall be considered innocent until proven guilty without reasonable doubt.
VI. That all citizens shall have the right to a fair trial, to unbiased legal advice, and to a lawyer. Instead of a single judge, the three justices are considered a jury.
VII. A citizen cannot be tried twice for the same crime.
VIII. That the citizens of the International Northwestern Union have additional rights not specified in the Constitution.
IX. That all powers not given to the government of the INWU are hereby granted to the citizens.
X. No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.

Government of the INWU
The government of the International Northwestern Union shall be chosen by the people, with the exclusive responsibility of serving the interests of the INWU’s citizens and the region.

I. Executive Branch
The Executive Branch has the sole responsibility of administering the region and enforcing the laws that the legislature passes, as well as this Constitution, in addition to maintaining relations with foreign entities.

A. The World Assembly Delegate
The WAD is an elected position that is granted with several responsibilities:

i. The WAD has the authority to establish agencies with the power to enforce the laws of the INWU and defend its sovereignty and foreign interests.
ii. The WAD is responsible for the establishment of embassies, the appointment of ambassadors, and communicating diplomatic information between the INWU and other regions. If the WAD wishes, he/she may appoint a foreign affairs minister to perform these duties.
iiv. The WAD is granted access to the regional controls, unless in times of emergency, which can be declared by the Founder or the Legislature.
v. The WAD may lock the region if the internal peace and security of the region is threatened by an outside threat. While this may be done initially in an emergency, the lock must be approved by a simple majority in the Northwestern Federal Assembly within two days.
vi. The WAD, apart from the Founder, is the only governmental official with the authority to ban and/or eject a citizen from the region after they have been found guilty by a neutral jury. Any nation that is not a citizen and threatens the peace and security of the region may be banned immediately, but this may be overturned by a simple majority from the Northwestern Federal Assembly.
vii. The WAD is to be a site admin of the off-site forums while he or she is in office.

B. The Chancellor
The Chancellor is the non-WA executive of the region:
i. The Chancellor may veto any bill that the Legislature passes, thus returning it to the legislature, where it can only pass again with a ⅔ majority, and unanimously for constitutional amendments. If the Chancellor approves legislation, it goes into effect immediately.
ii. Should the WAD go inactive for more than seven days without notice, or fourteen days with notice, the Chancellor will assume the office of the WAD for the remainder of the term, in addition to his duties as Chancellor.
iiv. The Chancellor is responsible for hearing the initial accusations of a case, and is responsible for initiating a trial for every case brought before him, unless the citizens have settled their dispute before the start of the trial.
iv. The chancellor is responsible for appointing three judges each time a new chancellor is elected. If none of those judges are considered neutral for a case at hand, the chancellor has the authority to appoint temporary judges for that particular case.

II. Legislative Branch
A. The Legislative Branch shall be referred to as the Northwestern Federal Assembly , hereby referred to as NFA in abbreviation, and has the responsibility to fulfill all the legislative needs of the INWU.
B. The NFA will consist of an odd number of legislators, the total number of which will change as the regional population changes.. The Legislature will be 5% of all the World Assembly nations in the region, and half of the non-world assembly nations, rounded to the nearest odd number down. There is to be a minimum of three legislators.
C. Each term of office will begin immediately after the election results are known, and end three months after that. There is to be no limit as to how many terms a legislator may serve.
D. Each term, a Speaker will be selected as the nation that receives the most votes in the election for the NFA. If two or more nations tie for receiving the most votes, then the new session of the NFA must vote in a simple popular vote for the next Speaker. The Speaker also has the responsibility of running the legislature and posting dispatches with all newly passed legislation on the RMB. The Speaker is also the Vice-Chancellor.
E. A simple majority is needed to pass a bill. If the Chancellor vetoes, a ⅔ majority is needed to pass the bill again, at which point the legislation takes effect without the Chancellor’s approval.
F. To amend the constitution, any citizen of the region may submit a potential amendment. This potential amendment is first discussed for at least two days, before being voted upon in the NFA, and in order to pass requires a ¾ majority. Should the Chancellor veto, the NFA must pass the proposal again, unanimously, for the amendment to take effect.
G. Proposals/Bills can be posted in the NFA forum by any citizen, and must be at a minimum discussed by the legislature.
H. It is the responsibility of the NFA to impeach members of either the Executive or Judicial branches should they become inactive or are found to be in violation of the constitution.
I. If ever the circumstance arises, the power to declare war on other regions is reserved exclusively for the NFA. Declarations of war must pass with a ⅔ majority.
J. To repeal a law, the same process and format as passing one is used.
K. The NFA must approve all embassy requests with a simple majority, in order for the INWU to accept the requests.
L. The NFA must approve any Justices appointed by the Chancellor with a ½ majority vote.
M. If a legislator is inactive for more than seven days without notice, or fourteen days with notice, then a legislator may be impeached by the remaining legislators with a simple majority vote, and begin elections to fill their spots until the remainder of the term. If there is only one active legislator, or all legislators are inactive, then the Chancellor will impeach them and start elections to fill the spots for the remainder of the term.

III. Judicial Branch
The judicial branch of the INWU shall be granted the responsibility of judicial review and the responsibility to resolve all cases that come before the court.
A. Justices shall be appointed by the Chancellor, and approved by the NFA, though if ever the legislature impeaches an inactive justice the Chancellor will appoint a new justice in the impeached one’s place.
B. The Judicial branch shall consist of 3 members, and among them they will elect a Chief Justice. If they all vote for themselves, the Chancellor shall decide.
C. An inactive Justice is defined as one that does not participate in a case unless he or she has stated that he or she is on leave. If Justices are found to be inactive, they may be impeached by the legislature which requires a simple majority vote for a conviction.
D. Members of the judiciary may take leave at any time, but must notify the NFA or the Chancellor they are leaving. Should a case be brought before the judiciary while a member is on leave, the Chancellor will fill the missing representative’s place with a neutral judge.
E. The Court will have a special category on the forums, in which all cases will be held.
F. Once the court has made a decision, it cannot be overturned. The verdict is final. However, the convicted offender may appeal after thirty days time.

IV. Special Positions
This section of the Constitution is designed to be amended as the region changes in size, to allow for adaptability by either creating new positions or eliminating unnecessary positions. This section is used for miscellaneous regional positions that don’t fit well into any particular category.
I. The Founder
a. It is the responsibility of the founder to maintain the security of the region.
b. Since the founder is given very little power, he may run for any government position, and/or take part in the military without restriction.
c. The founder may lock the region if there is a significant threat from outside the region. While this may be done initially in an emergency, the lock must be approved by a simple majority in the NFA within two days.
d. The founder may ban and/or eject specific nations, if those nations are not citizens, and pose a threat to regional peace and security.

II. Minister of Roleplay
a. The Minister of Roleplay will be elected. The Minister of RP will serve a term of three months. Once elected, the MRP has control of the roleplay category of the off-site forums.
b. The MRP can appoint any number of moderators below him.
c. Despite being the lead position with regards to RPing, any citizen can propose, start, and moderate their own RPs on the forums. However, when resolving conflicts in RPing, the word of Minister of RP is law in all roleplay.
d. The MRP may be impeached for inactivity lasting longer than seven days without notice.
III. The Minister of Intelligence
a. The Minister of Intelligence is an appointed position with a term length of six months. It is the responsibility of the former MI to introduce the new MI to the job, and to pass along major intelligence.
b. The MI has the responsibility of administering the Intelligence Agency, which shares in the power of the WAD to perform background checks on new recruits before they become citizens. The intelligence agency is to have a classified area of the forums, and the MI is to be the mod of that forum. The MI has the power to appoint and expel nations from the agency.
c. The agency has the responsibility to infiltrate raiders and gather information on possible targets for the military. Agents are to be known.
d. The MI may be impeached for inactivity longer than seven days without notice.

Additional Definitions
Process of Naturalization: the process by which one becomes a citizen. The process of naturalization requires only that one is a resident of the INWU, has spent at least two weeks in the region, and is registered on the offsite forums.
Election Process:
1.) The Election Process will begin two weeks before the end of terms: one week to register, one week to vote.
2.) Candidates will be given a week to register themselves before voting begins. In order to register, the potential candidate must be a citizen, and to run for WAD, must have spent at least one month in the region in addition to being a citizen.
3.) Elections will be held on the off-site forums using private polls over a one-week period. Forum admins and mods will watch for suspicious behavior, and if they detect any, alert the former (and still reigning) session of the NFA for an investigation to occur. The votes will immediately be discounted.
4.) Once the polls have ended, the winners will be probed and fed a hearty meal of Malkbacconne before officially entering office.
5.) Should there be a tie, the election will be run again between the tied candidates if the number of original candidates was more than the number of tied candidates. In the case that the result is still tied, or if the original election resulted in an all-way tie, the election is decided by the Chancellor unless that nation is involved in the election. In that case, it goes to the WAD, then to the founder.

Warrant Process: Should there be cause for reasonable suspicion of a nation, a simple majority vote is needed from the court to issue one. Only the court is allowed to use said warrant.
Candidacy: A citizen may only be a candidate for one position. Citizens may only hold one government position at a time. A candidate for a position may also hold an official position, but must resign from the former position if he or she is elected. Exceptions are made for minor positions, such as the ministers.
Inactive: A nation is considered to be inactive if they are 14 days offline with a statement of leave or 7 offline without one.

VI. Amendments
It is both expected and encouraged for this Constitution to be amended to meet the changing environments of this region over time.

SIGNERS OF THE CONSTITUTION:

FOUNDER SIGNATURE: Xin Prussia
The Kingdom of Hockesin
The Democratic Republic of Estradia
El Fiji Grande
The Valen Empire
The Empire of Grothbord
The United Republic of East Ibsenia
The Sotoan Union
Falling Stars
The Commonwealth of Luso
Topsail Empire
Othelos

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