The Forums of Glennain

My Lords and Gentlemen,

I beg to introduce this bill

Quote:

THE NATIONAL HONOR SANCTITY ACT 2009

An Act to promote and protect the dignity of Hanover Royalty, titles of nobility and other honors and awards

WHEREAS it has been a historic embarrassment that the kingdoms own Royalty, honors, awards and other recognitions have been diluted, devalued and otherwise lessened by the ostentatious over use of foreign titles, honors and awards;

WHEREAS these national forums are under the control of His Majesty including but not limited to regulation of the forum ID, the elements of a profile, avatars and the signatures;

BE IT 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, That it shall be illegal for any citizen to present or display any foreign awards, honors, titles of nobility or royalty in the national forums either as part of the forum ID, signature, avatar or any other device, means or method.

IT SHALL REMAIN LEGAL for His Majesty's subjects to proclaim, acquire, and hold any such titles and honors as they may wish or may be able to receive, but such titles and honors shall not be recognized in the Kingdom of Hanover except as His Majesty himself may grant per his good pleasure as the fount of honor. No part of this act shall be in force outside the national forums to any degree.

UPON ROYAL ASSENT there shall be established The Office of the Royal Honor Guard, being answerable to the head of His Majesty's government; having a single officer styled Chief of the Honor Guard who shall be appointed by the head of His Majesty's government and serving at the pleasure of the same;

THE CHIEF OF THE HONOR GUARD shall have the sole authority to cite those who are in violation of this act;

THERE SHALL BE A GRACE PERIOD OF SEVEN CALENDAR DAYS for those who may be violation of this act to correct and bring into compliance any and all parts which are in violation.

UPON EXPIRATION OF THE GRACE PERIOD those found in violation of this act shall be guilty of a crime against the crown having punishment as per this schedule:

FIRST OFFENSE Shall be punishable by no more than a notice of violation posted in the Royal Gazette; This notice shall grant seven calendar days to come into compliance before additional actions may be taken.

SECOND OFFENSE Shall be punishable by suspension of all government offices and Parliament privileges and rights; Such suspension shall be by notice in the Royal Gazette, and by letter of citation to the Speaker of Parliament by posting notice in The Speaker's Chair. This notice shall grant seven calendar days to come into compliance before additional actions may be taken.

THIRD AND SUBSEQUENT OFFENSES Shall be punishable by permanent suspension of all government offices and Parliament privileges and rights and reduction in forum access to allow read only access to all parts of the forums except the Ellicott Square, Office of the Justiciar, and should the offender be a Privy Councilor the Privy Council. Such punishment shall be by notice in the Royal Gazette, and by letter of citation to the Speaker of Parliament by posting notice in The Speaker's Chair, and by such communication as may be required to effect the reduction in forum access. This punishment shall have no expiration.

OFFENSES SHALL NOT BE SEVERABLE Any violation shall represent an offense and correction of one violation shall not be taken as remedy of the entire offense.

NOTICES OF OFFENSE Shall name the person in violation, the date of the charge, and the items specifically which are in violation.

VALIDATION OF COMPLIANCE Shall be the responsibility of the Chief of the Honor Guard, who may receive requests from the accused, requests from others, or notice of his own observations and he shall certify that the offense shall have been corrected. Upon certification of compliance the Chief of the Honor Guard may suspend any remaining portion of the punishment by notice of compliance and restoration of rights and privileges posted in the Royal Gazette and, if needed, posted in The Speaker's Chair and by such communication as may be needed to restore full forum access.

OFFENSES SHALL BE CUMULATIVE such that compliance and remedy of an offense shall not automatically mean subsequent violations of a different form shall be taken as a first offense, but, at the sole discretion of the Chief of the Honor Guard, such offenses shall either be taken as a new offense, or as a continuation of a prior offense, for purposes of determination of punishment.

THE ACCUSED Shall have the right to appeal any punishment within five calendar days of the notice being published in the Royal Gazette. The appeal must be delivered by posting in the forum titled "Office of the Justiciar" wherein the accused shall state plainly in the subject of his post his desire for an appeal, and in the message of the post his reasons for why the actions of The Office of the Royal Honor Guard are improper. This post shall be entered as evidence during the appeals process and shall be considered to have been given while under oath.

A BOARD OF APPEALS Shall be assembled by the head of His Majesty's Government as needed, consisting of three members, one of which shall be a peer of the realm, and none of which shall be the head of His Majesty's government or the Chief of the Honor Guard or the accused. The board shall be responsible for reviewing all the evidence in the case for which they are assembled to review and shall pass final and binding verdict of guilty or innocent no less than twenty one calendar days from the time the appeal is presented to the head of His Majesty's government. During such appeal The Office of the Royal Honor Guard shall take no additional actions against the accused, and all suspended privileges and rights shall be restored. Upon final verdict the board of appeals shall be dissolved. The head of his Majesty's Government shall appoint the head of the appeals board who shall be responsible for conducting the investigation and pronouncing the verdict.

Should his Majesty's government fail to assemble the required board or should the board fail to reach a verdict, then the accused shall be assumed to be absolved of all wrong doing in this case.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY Shall not be allowed. Should an accused be found innocent then no further violations may be charged for the same form as those for which the accused has been absolved.

FURTHER APPEAL Shall only be possible by petition to the Crown.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

In all honesty I must say I'm a bit confused as to why we need this Bill, no offense to the Noble Lord, the Duke of Gottingen who obviously put so much time and thought into this Bill.

However, we already have the Royal Proclamation on Forum Names, and this was expanded by this Order in Council. These even stipulate that all foreign persons shall only use the form of "Gentleman."

Therefore, I believe that all our bases are covered and we do not need this Bill. The problem we've had in the past is that no one has done anything about it. We have all the necessary legislation, it is just a case of enforcement. However, if this Parliament expresses it's confidence in me to be appointed Justiciar I will make sure we correct these oversights.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

I echo the comments of the Most Reverend Prelate, the Archbishop.

I would also humbly encourage the Speaker to redact this Bill into a more usual form. Shorter, numbered sections grouped under headings makes legislation much easier to read and cite.

My Lords an d Gentlemen,

This bill is more comprehensive than the legislation identified by his Grace the Archbishop. Where that bill stops at mere forum names, this one extends to avatars and signatures.

In addition, this bill lays out the punishments for violation, something the other legislation fails to do which could lead to all sorts of capricious enforcement.

Also, this bill lays out the appeals process for dealing with enforcement disputes, something else that is woefully lacking in general from Hanoverian law.

Finally, this bill protects the subjects explicitly where the identified legislation leaves it to the good nature of the authorities to not abuse them.

God save the King

My Lords and Gentlemen,

Wouldn't it be better to strengthen and improve Hanover's general judicial system -- such as it is -- than to create a special judicial system for this one offence?

My Lords and Gentlemen,

Our history has shown us that an active, stable and effective judicial system is, thus far, a pipe dream here in Hanover. In the macro world there are many purpose specific review boards, appeals committees and oversight groups, and it behooves us to make use of that model.

It is my suspicion that this sort of judiciary system that springs into creation when needed and vanishes just as quickly will become the norm for Hanover and so we might as well test it here.

God save the King

My Lords and Gentlemen,

The constitution does, in fact, provide for the ordinary judiciary to spring into existence when needed and vanish afterwards: Section 29. Perhaps we want to broaden the pool of temporary judges beyond the Privy Council, I don't know.

I think a better way of dealing with this would be to appoint a Special Prosecutor for issues of this kind, and use the ordinary judiciary to deal with it. In the real world special tribunals are generally established because the matters they concern -- traffic violations, immigration, etc. -- are over-burdening the courts. That is obviously not the case here.

My Lords & Gentlemen:

While I concur with the Duke of Gottingen's concerns, wholeheartedly--I find it absolutely obnoxious when subjects use every foreign title they can muster and the names of their imaginary palaces, to boot, in their signatures--I'm not sure about this bill as written. I also find the title 'Honour Guard', used in this sense, gimicky.

King George V issued a proclamation, during his reign, abolishing the use of foreign titles by his subjects. Perhaps we might study that document and see if it might not be a useful guide for our purposes.

As for a judiciary, given the size of our community, wouldn't the King-in-Parliament or the King-in-Council essentially end up being the courts of first instance in every case?

My Lords and Gentlemen,

Current law is, indeed, that the King-in-Council (through the means of temporary judges) is the court of first instance for matters criminal and civil of all kinds.

My Lords & Gentlemen:

I wonder if this issue wouldn't be best resolved by simply posting a clearly visible set of rules, based upon current legislation, with respect to signatures and avatars (and other forum etiquette) at the top of the Ellicott Square forum for all to see.

I suspect that if visitors and subjects could more easily refer to the laws governing such things, and were thus better aware of them, little more would be necessary. I don't think the people of this community would be inclined to wantonly disobey them. And if, through failure to notice the posted rules, they were to act in violation of them, still, the matter would probably be easily resolved by somebody politely pointing out the offence.

Once upon a time I suggested that the quaint English office of 'King's Guide Over the Sands' be created and staffed by one subject willing to guide new people through the forums or to gently correct breeches in etiquette. I doubt that weighty legislation is called for in this case.