Constitutional Revision Act

I am proposing we revise the current Constitution (link here) by rearranging it in this manner (link to new arrangement here)

(All article/section references will refer to the old location)

Problems with current Constitution that are solved by this reorganization

  1. The power to introduce legislation is given to three different parties, in three separate places. (GM, UC, and LC). The two-week viewing period is in two of those places (GM and UC), and the option to waive that period in the case of the event is in only one (UC). The repetition has caused unnecessary errors.
  2. The position description of the Grandmaster is in two places, A1S1 and A1S2.
  3. Two relatively unrelated powers (foreign diplomacy and legislation) of the Grandmaster are placed in the same section (A1S2), while other powers have their own section (A1S3 and A1S4)
  4. A2S1 describes the membership of the UC, how to vote on legislation, and how legislation is handled after passing the UC. That is too many topics for a single section.
  5. A3 has no sections and yet covers 3-4 different topics.
  6. The amendment is placed after a long list of signatures, and is sometimes overlooked when scrolling through the digital document.

Minor edits made in this revision that did not change the Constitution.

Please note that the goal of this revision is to not change the Constitution in any significant way. These are a number of problems I believe that the Constitution still has. There are gaps in logic, unexplained organization and process, and many opportunities for improvement. However, each of these would need some measure of official discussion to decide the best solution. They will need to be added or edited in a separate proposal.

This proposed revision changes only things that were incorrect in some way, redundancies, grammar mistakes, or typos. There are no changes to policy in this revision. The largest changes are 1, 2, 3, and 9.

  1. Removed Ghost’s ordainment at the beginning of this draft.
  2. Removed the signatures at the bottom.
  3. Generally rearranged sections to address one topic per section. Those topics are now written on each section to help aid future revisions in how to organize additions or updates.
  4. Corrected all references to “Councils” to be capitalized, instead of a mixture of Upper and Lower cAsE.
  5. A1S2p4, A2S1p2-3, A2S2p1, and A3S1p2 are all slightly different descriptions of how legislation must pass through the three bodies of government. A2S2p1 was chosen as the most accurate of the descriptions and used in the new legislation article.
  6. A1S4p2 “he raises” changed to “raised”
  7. A2S1p1 Crossed out “Necromancer” removed.
  8. A2S1p1 Spelling of “Arcanaeum” corrected. (It is bloody difficult to spell)
  9. A3S1p1 Two exceptions to each battalion being represented: Arcanaeum and Arbiters.
    1. The Arcanaeum is no longer considered a battalion, so this is incorrect.
    2. The Arbiter restriction is listed under the Arbiters and should probably not be duplicated elsewhere. In other words, it is listed in Amend1S3, and therefore doesn’t need to be mentioned in A3S1p1. The exceptions are removed from this place.
    3. In addition, the Arbiters are not currently active.
  10. A3S1p1 The word “therein” is added to the end to complete the sentence.
  11. A4S1p3 “Section 2 on the exception” Changed “on” to “with”
  12. A5S3p1 Changed the word “countermand” to match “rejection” used below it.
  13. Amend1S1p1 Added “the” before “Councils”
  14. Amend1S1p4 Removed the redundant “individual or”
  15. A4S3p2 Changed “cast aside” to be “recused”
  16. Amend1S2p1 Changed “most officially April Knight sponsored communication platforms” to “most official April Knight communication platforms”
  17. Amend1S1p4 Changed “access restriction” to “restricting access”
  18. A5S1p1 Changed “Both Councils have the power to grant emergency powers to the Grandmaster, suspending their authority.” to “Both Councils have the power to grant emergency powers to the Grandmaster. This suspends the authority of both Councils.” This makes it more clear that it is the authority of the councils and not the GM that is being suspended.

A visual guide to the rearrangement can be found here

Current arrangement

## Preamble - Purpose of April Knights
## Article 1 - Grandmaster
###	S1 position, term length, eligibility
###	S2 position (again), powers (foreign diplomacy, legislation)
###	S3 powers (changing Upper Council)
###	S4 powers (raise battalions, nominate commanders)
## Article 2 - Upper Council
###	S1 membership, legislation voting, post UC legislation voting
###	S2 power (legislation), two week viewing period, waive option during event
## Article 3 - Lower Council
###	Each battalion has representation
###	Power of legislation
###	UC swaparoo
###	UC swaparoo 2: electric boogaloo
## Article 4 Impeachment
###	S1 Grandmaster
###	S2 High-ranking officer
###	S3 Trial of regular Knight
## Article 5 - Emergency powers
## Article 6 - Amendments
## Amendment 1 - Arbiters

New arrangement

## Preamble - Purpose
## Article 1 - The Grandmaster
### Section 1 - The position
### Section 2 - Becoming Grandmaster
### Section 3 - Powers of foreign policy
## Article 2 - The Upper Council
### Section 1 - Membership
## Article 3 - The Lower Council
### Section 1 - Membership
## Article 4 - Legislation
### Section 1 - Powers to introduce
### Section 2 - Viewing
### Section 3 - Voting
## Article 5 - Battalions
### Section 1 - Creation
### Section 2 - Leadership
## Article 6 - Emergency powers
### Section 1 - Enactment
### Section 2 - Power
### Section 3 - Rejection
### Section 4 - Revocation
## Article 7 - Trials
### Section 1 - Grandmaster Impeachment
### Section 2 - High Officer Impeachment
### Section 3 - Knight Tribunal
## Article 8 - Amendments
### Section 1 - Enactment
## Amendment 1 - Arbiters
### Section 1 - Selection
### Section 2 - Purpose
### Section 3 - Restrictions