The Fall of Houses Act of 4028

[Kaiser B'caw I]

(A preliminary proposal for doing away with the Houses. Much reworking of terminology, had to find an alternative to the Line of Succession, the Lands section is obviously heavily altered. It doesn't entirely do away with feudalism for the purposes of Imperial Law, but if I'm doing this right it disconnects nobility from governance somewhat - basically, subdivisions should still have to have a Ruling Noble, but how that noble is picked and what powers zie has should be more ambiguous. I eliminated the Land Tax altogether, not only because of its frequent references to Houses, but because it would make no sense in a context where Counties are optional.)

Be it resolved that Lawbook II.A.2 shall be amended to read:

Subsection 2: Line of Succession
a. If the former Kaiser has not appointed an heir, the throne passes to one of the subdivisions of Shireroth in rotation.
a.i. The order of rotation shall be determined by the alphabetical order of the subdivisions.
a.ii. A subdivision receiving the honor of the throne by this method may do so only after those before it in the rotation have done the same.
a.iii. All subdivisions having had their turns, the rotation shall return to its beginning.
b. Once the Kaisership has been granted to a particular subdivision, that subdivision may decide which of its members shall become Kaiser, by any means they choose.
c. If a subdivision has no available individual, no individual eligible for the Kaisership, or declines the throne, then the Kaisership shall pass to the next eligible subdivision based on the previous provisions.
c.i. A subdivision may, if utterly inactive or if felt to be otherwise unsuitable, be declared ineligible for the Kaisership.
e. A subdivision has 4 days to choose from amongst its members who shall be Kaiser before the Kaisership will pass to the next eligible subdivision.
f. The succession of the throne shall be overseen by the Arbiter of the Imperial Judex, in consultation with the Landraad and Imperial Advisory Council.
g. Until a Kaiser is crowned, the Steward shall maintain the functions of government.

Be it resolved that Lawbook III.E.1 shall be removed, and that the remaining subsection be renumbered accordingly.

Be it resolved that Lawbook III.F.1.a shall be amended to read:

a. Any Noble that has legally attained the rule of a subdivision, whether by appointment by the Kaiser, or by inheriting their title, or by some other method, shall be known as the "Ruling Noble" of their respective subdivision and associated lands.

Be it resolved that Lawbook V.A.1 shall be amended to read:

Subsection 1: Definitions
a. The Judex is the system of Courts within the nation of Shireroth.
b. The Arbiter is the officer of the Judex who deals with all cases not solely within the purview of a sudivision or fief; the Arbiter holds court in the Judex forum.
c. Ruling Nobles act as Arbiter for their subdivision and have jurisdiction on any case solely within their subdivision; they hold court in the forum for that subdivision.
d. Lesser Nobles act as Arbiter for their Fief and have jurisdiction on any case solely within their fief; they hold court in the forum for that fief.

Be it resolved that Chapter VII of the Lawbook be renamed to "Lands and Subdivisions" and that , Sections D, E, F, G, and H of the same Chapter be merged into one section and amended to read as follows, with all subsequent sections in the chapter relettered accordingly:

Section D: Subdivisions

Subsection 1: Definition
a. All parts of the territory of Shireroth, excluding the Imperial County, the Dominions, and the Protectorates, shall be composed of subdivisions.
b. Each subdivision shall be defined by the boundaries that are established for it and are subsequently recorded for it by the Directorate of Cartography.

Subsection 2: States of Activity
a. Each subdivision may be considered to be in one of three states: active, dormant, or inactive.
*a.i. An active subdivision shall be one that has at least 3 recognized citizens, and which has gone no more than 14 days between posts.
*a.ii. A dormant subdivision shall be one that does that has been determined not to meet the requirements of an active subdivision, but which may immediately be recognized as active upon meeting said requirements.
*a.iii. An subdivision may be determined to be inactive after no less than 90 days in a dormant state.
b. The determination of the state of activity of a subdivision shall be the immediate responsibility of the Landsraad.

Subsection 3: Governance
a. Any subdivision that qualifies as active is entitled to form a subdivisional government, which may have such name and structure as the inhabitants decide, so long as it is compliant with Imperial Law.
b. A subdivisional government may pass laws concerning matters that fall entirely within its borders or between its residents, so long as they are compliant with Imperial Law.
c. A dormant subdivision shall not be automatically entitled to form a subdivisional government, but may be permitted to do so by the Landsraad if active citizens reside there.

Subsection 4: Borders
a. The internal borders of each subdivision may be changed at the will of its government, provided such changes do not affect its external or national borders.
b. The external borders of active and dormant subdivisions may not be changed without the consent of their governments; if such subdivisions have no governments, their external borders cannot be changed unless and until they attain a government or are declared inactive.
c. The borders of an inactive subdivision cannot be changed without the consent of the Kaiser.

Subsection 5: Provisions for Inactive Subdivisions
a. The lands of inactive subdivisions are open to any Shirerithian interests that wish to explore, exploit, develop, or colonize them. Citizens of Shireroth need not seek Imperial permission before attempting to develop Imperial Lands.
b. The Kaiser or Landsraad may choose to evict any colonizers of inactive subdivisions if they demonstrate a willful disregard for the local populace or culture. Such a person's work will be deemed "non-canon" and can be explained away by future colonizers in any way they wish. That person may be banned from any further development work in that area, or, depending on the scale of the offense, in any inactive subdivision.
c. Inactive subdivisions are under the general administration of the Kaiser, to be delegated as zie sees fit, unless and until they are declared dormant or active.

Be it resolved that Lawbook X.G shall be amended to read:

Section G: Taxation

Subsection 1: Authority to Levy Taxes

a. The Kaiser, Minister of Trade and Landsraad all have the authority to levy taxes upon citizens or subdivisions of the land.
b. Subdivisional governments may levy taxes upon those within their subdivision.
c. Those holding a land in fief may levy taxes upon any who reside within their lands.

Be it resolved that Landsraad Procedures B shall be amended to read:

B. Votes
1. Each Ruling Noble that represents an active subdivision shall receive one vote.
2. If a dormant subdivision retains active residents, the Landsraad may choose to allow it a Ruling Noble with one vote.

[Erik Mortis]

Looks good in general.

[Malliki Tosha]

Does this mean that we reduce the membership of the Landsraad again? That's not a step forward.

[Kaiser B'caw I]

I debated about that bit with myself. Part of the thought behind its present form was: if the intent is to have more power devolved to the subdivisions, the issue of Landsraad representation would become less important; most of the things people would care to vote on would be closer to home, as it were. The other part was that, since the representation was last expanded, the number of people taking advantage of it has seemed... not entirely impressive? Though considering the other issues we've been having, lack of interest in the Landsraad specifically is probably the wrong way to interpret it...

[Erik Mortis]

Personally I would like to be rid of counties all together, so we'd need a new means to grant voting if we did seek to keep it expanded.

[Erik Mortis]

Let's just be rid of Lawbook II.A.2 all together.

[Elliot Markham]

I think this all looks good too.

Section G: Taxation

Subsection 1: Authority to Levy Taxes

a. The Kaiser, Minister of Trade and Landsraad all have the authority to levy taxes upon citizens or subdivisions of the land.
b. Subdivisional governments may levy taxes upon those within their subdivision.
c. Those holding a land in fief may levy taxes upon any who reside within their lands.

I support this. If subdivisional autonomy is increased, economic development will become more regionalized and individual subdivisions will need to be able to tax in order to stimulate economic growth through government economic development projects and paying salaries.

[Andreas the Wise]

Looks alright to me, though the wording for the dormant subdivision section is a little hard to follow.

Under this terminology, Kildare would be a subdivision, and could subdivide itself into counties and baronies and whatsover other divisions it chose to grant and call themselves?

[Kaiser B'caw I]

Personally I would like to be rid of counties all together, so we'd need a new means to grant voting if we did seek to keep it expanded.

True. The Charter, I believe, says that the Landsraad membership is determined by nobility, so either you'd have to give all voting members titles, regardless of what happened to the counties, or this would be another point where the Charter will need amending. The latter would probably be easier in the long run, frankly. So whatever eligibility method was used could either be put directly in the Charter, or - and I think I prefer this one - the Charter could be edited to say that the Landsraad determines its own membership, and then write the eligibility requirements into the Landsraad Procedures.

As for who should be eligible... for an expanded membership, it'd probably be simplest to do something along the lines of "anyone past their minority period", though the Landsraad should likely retain the ability to remove voting privileges in case someone starts behaving badly.

Let's just be rid of Lawbook II.A.2 all together.

No line of succession? So if a Kaiser picks no heir, it should be just whoever can pick up the most support for their claim?

I support this. If subdivisional autonomy is increased, economic development will become more regionalized and individual subdivisions will need to be able to tax in order to stimulate economic growth through government economic development projects and paying salaries.

Actually, that one's not a particular increase in autonomy; I believe the only changes there were to replace the word "House" with "subdivision".

Looks alright to me, though the wording for the dormant subdivision section is a little hard to follow.

Yes, I know. The idea is a bit complicated, but it's meant to alleviate fears that a subdivision could get arbitrarily broken up or redefined; it'd be sort of a legal refuge for a subdivision that was suffering from activity problems. Being dormant would give it a grace period to get it back up on its feet, and that state could last for as long as the Landsraad thought was necessary; but if it looked fruitless, the Landsraad could then say, "okay, this has gone on long enough".

But I wasn't sure of a better way to word it, because the kind of subdivision that would be considered dormant could be in any set of states between fully active and completely inactive.

Under this terminology, Kildare would be a subdivision, and could subdivide itself into counties and baronies and whatsover other divisions it chose to grant and call themselves?

That was my intent in writing it, yes. Kildare could call itself a Dutchy and present itself to the Imperial Government as such, and for internal purposes .

Incidentally, Andreas, on the subject of land: I'm apparently not able to directly reply in the thread in the Seanad about Kildare's demands/suggestions, but I don't think there's a particular problem with Asantelian and all Apollonian counties going back to Kildare. With Yardistan, though, I'd still like you folks to hash that out with Greg. Defining the initial state of the subdivision boundaries is going to become important at some point, because I plan to re-do the House control map to depict them, as in VII.D.1.b in the bill:

b. Each subdivision shall be defined by the boundaries that are established for it and are subsequently recorded for it by the Directorate of Cartography.

...and the map will become, as it were, Official for the purposes of saying where one subdivision ends and another begins.

[Malliki Tosha]

So whatever eligibility method was used could either be put directly in the Charter, or - and I think I prefer this one - the Charter could be edited to say that the Landsraad determines its own membership, and then write the eligibility requirements into the Landsraad Procedures.

THANK YOU.

[Erik Mortis]

That would make sense.

And we could find a better means to pick Kaisers when there is no heir, like hand it to the Landsraad outright to choose.

[Andreas the Wise]

Your niftiniess,

I don't know how the admin does stuff for Kaisership (ie whether there is a Kaiser group or they went with adding each account separately with permissions) - you should be the one non-Kildarian allowed to address the Seanad. But anyway, yeah, we'd definitely talk Yardistan stuff with Greg.

For the dormant stuff, I was referring specifically to

*a.ii. A dormant subdivision shall be one that does that has been determined not to meet the requirements of an active subdivision, but which may immediately be recognized as active upon meeting said requirements.

I am guessing it's a typo and not with deep significance?

[Kaiser B'caw I]

(I finally figured out how to copypaste on this device... it's so much easier to quote now...)

And we could find a better means to pick Kaisers when there is no heir, like hand it to the Landsraad outright to choose.

Fair enough.

As for the Charter thing... I should probably look at that next, then, before doing too much more revising of the bill...

I am guessing it's a typo and not with deep significance?

*Reads the highlighted words* Oh. Er, yeah. "that does" was supposed to have been deleted. Sorry 'bout that.