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THE ORGANIC LAW

Whereas for a nation to be ruled by law rather than the ephemeral whim of her leaders, and for the fullness of liberty to be preserved, it is necessary for the laws to be readily and widely known amongst the citizenry;

And whereas in recent years the Kingdom of Hanover has much suffered for lack of reasoned and organized law, it is now proper and needful that her laws, and most especially the laws of her constitution, be codified into a comprehensible document;

Be it therefore enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:―

Part I. Preliminary

1. The Kingdom of Hanover is a sovereign micronation, ruled by constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary government.
2. The heraldry, symbols, anthems, and subdivisions of the Kingdom shall be such as the Parliament determines.
3. The enactments set out in the First Schedule to this Organic Law are hereby repealed.
4. Any modifications to this Organic Law shall be made incrementally and with care, and only by Act of Parliament. No Act modifying this Organic Law shall be passed without the consent of three-fourths of the Members of Parliament.

Part II. The King

5. The sovereignty of the Kingdom shall continue to be freely vested in the King, as the Head of State and the embodiment of the nation’s majesty and permanence.
6. The King shall reign for the duration of his natural life, or until such a time as he may freely and publicly abdicate the Throne. If, in the judgment of the Privy Council, the King has failed to execute his duties as Head of State for a duration of no less than three months, he shall be deemed to have abdicated the Throne.
7. Upon the death or abdication of the King, the Privy Council shall meet secretly to elect his successor. During the interregnum, the Parliament and other government institutions shall continue to function, and the Privy Council shall execute the duties of the Head of State inasmuch as may be necessary.
8. As the ultimate source of worldly justice in the Kingdom, the King shall enjoy immunity from prosecution for any offence under the laws of Hanover. His ministers shall be responsible for all government actions.
9. The King’s natural and adopted family members shall constitute the Royal Family of Hanover, and shall enjoy the highest honour and respect of all Hanoverian citizens. No member of the Royal Family may serve as a Member of Parliament.
10. The King shall nominate no less than three people to be his Privy Council. Immediately upon swearing the oath appointed for them, those nominated shall become Privy Counsellors. No person shall be a Privy Counsellor by virtue of his rank or office.
11. Except as otherwise allowed by this Organic Law, the Privy Council shall meet only to give advice on matters which require secrecy in order to protect the Kingdom and its citizens. Disclosing matters discussed in the Privy Council without the King’s consent shall be a treasonous offence.

Part III. The Royal Prerogative

12. Subject to the provisions of this Organic Law, the King shall exercise the supreme magistracy and administration of the Kingdom of Hanover, acting through and with the advice of his ministers.
13. Within their areas of competency, all royal ministers shall have the authority to issue legal documents in the King’s name, exercising his powers under the Royal Prerogative. Issuing documents against the King’s express will shall be a treasonous offence, and a document so issued shall be without legal force.
14. The King shall represent Hanover abroad, send and receive Ambassadors and other diplomatic officers, and enter into treaties with foreign powers. No treaty shall hold force over Hanoverian citizens unless it has been ratified by the Parliament.
15. The King shall protect and administer all digital property of the Kingdom, including the national website and forum; he shall also be responsible for holding such funds as the Kingdom may possess in macronational currency.
16. The King may grant pardons and commutation of sentences for any offence under the laws of Hanover. No pardon may be granted to a minister convicted of maladministration of office, except by consent of Parliament.
17. As the fount of honour in the Kingdom, the King may raise individuals to the Peerage, confer orders of chivalry, and dispense all other offices, honours, and distinctions of the Kingdom. Likewise, the King may confer the privileges of citizenship by naturalizing foreign-born persons.
18. In his role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of Hanover, the King shall appoint the Lord Archbishop of Bergen, and by his advice, such other Bishops as may be required for the better administration of the Church.

Part IV. The Parliament

19. The supreme legislative authority of the Kingdom shall continue to be vested in the Hanoverian Parliament, which shall consist of the King sitting together with the Members of Parliament in a single chamber.
20. At least twice in each year, the King shall summon a session of the Parliament. The King shall have the right to dissolve Parliament, or prorogue it for a period not exceeding two months.
21. Although the King shall be free to speak in the debates of Parliament, he shall continue to express his will regarding legislation by the traditional ceremony of Royal Assent. No Act of Parliament shall enter into force unless it has received the Royal Assent.
22. The King, or a Speaker appointed by him, shall preside at meetings of the Parliament, in accordance with the rules of procedure approved thereby. However, the presence or permission of the King shall not be required to discuss any issue.
23. Any Hanoverian citizen may serve as a Member of Parliament, provided that they have sworn or affirmed the oath or affirmation set out in the Second Schedule to this Organic Law.
24. Members of Parliament shall be obliged to vote in all divisions of the House. If a Member does not vote in three consecutive divisions without giving due notice, he shall be considered to have resigned his seat.
25. The King shall appoint his ministers in the presence of the assembled Parliament, having sought and solicited the nominations of the Members of Parliament. Subject to the King’s dismissal, ministers shall serve until the opening of the subsequent session of Parliament.
26. If the Parliament has passed a motion of non-confidence in any minister, the King shall summarily dismiss him; the other ministers of His Majesty’s Government shall not be obliged to resign in the event of such dismissal.

Part V. The Judiciary

27. The judicial authority of the Kingdom shall continue to be vested in the King, and shall be administered in his name by the Court of King’s Bench, and such other Courts as the King may establish.
28. The Lord Chief Justice shall preside over trials in the Court of King’s Bench; together with such other Justices as the King may appoint, he shall determine all questions of law and fact, and shall render the final verdict.
29. If a trial should arise when the Court of King’s Bench has no permanent officers, the Privy Counsellors shall serve as Temporary Justices, under the leadership of a Temporary Chief Justice appointed by the King.
30. Cases may be brought before the Court of King’s Bench by any Hanoverian citizen. Procedures for the Court shall be determined by Act of Parliament.

Schedule I. Repeals

The Naturalization Act 2006
The Constitution Act 2006
The Government Act 2006
The Royal Household Act 2006
The Parliament Act 2007

Schedule II. Oath and Affirmation

I, A.B., do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Alexander, His heirs and successors according to law. So help me God.

I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Alexander, His heirs and successors according to law.

(Note: The name of the King or Queen of Hanover for the time being is to be substituted from time to time.)

My Lords and Gentlemen,

What you see above has been the work of much time and effort. I believe that it accurately codifies the current laws and customs of our Hanoverian Constitution, while also filling in the gaping holes, and making some changes where I considered them necessary. It is not a perfect document, I am sure. But it gives us a place to start.

What does this document change? Firstly, the currently-reduced role of the Privy Council is made permanent. Under this Organic Law, the Council functions only to advise the King on national security, to elect his successor, and to fill in when necessary in the Court of King's Bench. These latter roles are not an essential part of the PC's duties, but have devolved upon it for lack of a better option.

It also ends usage of the Writ of Summons. This diversion from tradition was painful for me, but the current system cannot stand, as it would theoretically allow the Prime Minister to arbitrarily control the membership of Parliament. Thus, the Organic Law provides that any citizen who takes the oath and votes regularly will be a MP.

Finally, it implements an idea that was proposed at the beginning of my Ministry: public nomination and appointment of ministers, replacing the sole right of the Prime Minister to make such nominations. The privilege of nomination has been limited to Parliament, to further reinforce its role as the proper centre of national affairs. I envision Parliament taking over most of the role previously consigned to the Cabinet and Privy Council.

One thing you will notice is the lack of a bill of rights. This is intentional. The matter of citizens' rights is a controversial one indeed, and I did not wish for any issue there to derail the rest of the document. After enacting a new constitution, however, our next step should certainly be a separate bill of rights, which should be entrenched as much or more than this document.

As I said before, My Lords and Gentlemen, this document is not perfect. I cannot imagine that it will be passed without significant modification. I do ask, however, that we work within the confines of this draft, for the sake of practicality; last time we discussed a constitution, there ended up being three wholly different ones written, and nothing came of it. Let us remove the imperfections of this document, rather than each of us writing our own.

Monsignor McQueeny,

First, well done! This draft is exactly in the spirit of what is needed. I believe you have captured the essence of Hanoverian traditions well.

Now the task that befalls the rest of us to take this excellent draft and iron out the rest of the wrinkles.

I have considered at length the best way to proceed, alternating between a whole document approach and a multiple threaded approach. Finally I realized the best thing was a two pronged discussion. On the one hand we should think of the document as a whole and seek to understand how its pieces function together against a backdrop of tradition and practicality. On the other hand we need to inspect the minutia of the language because, ultimately, that is where the gears of the judicial process will produce justice, or shred it. This means we should have two simultaneous and related discussions.

I believe this presentation should not be contrained by the rules of Parliament as those were designed for less weighty topics. Therefore I put before this parliament a motion to suspend the rules of parliament for the remainder of the deliberations on the constitution until reinstated by myself or by motion of the members.

The parliament shall now divide upon the issue of suspending the rules with content to suspend and not content to retain.

Alexander R.

Content.

Content

Content.

My Lords and Gentlemen, the Contents are three, the Not Contents nil. The Contents have it. On Question, it was so resolved.