Decree #0001: On Passing Laws

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

Law

(1) All future decrees must include a reasoning as to their validity and purpose.

(2) Each decree must have its own topic in the Legislature board on the Dark Arcadian nation for as long as the Dark Arcadian nation remains primarily organised via the internet.

(3) Such a topic may not have its only copy in the Legislature board indefinitely locked - it must remain open for discussion by the Dark Arcadian population as a whole.

(4) Citizens may not be hindered at expressing their concerns and thoughts about a law, as long as they retain the civility granted to them, and remain constructive in their debate at all times - failure to remain civil and constructive permits the authorities to delete future post in the Legislature board by the Individual, providing these occur after a formal, public warning was made - thus note that posts already made may not be removed in whole or in parts, though they may be expanded to include commentary by the authorities if they deem it necessary.

(5) All edits to a decree must be clearly marked: the editor is obliged to respond to the decree topic, thereby drawing attention to it and the change. Furthermore, he is required to make note of the nature of the change, the reason of the change, and any expansions or reductions made.

(6) Claims by individuals that have no legislative authority that a decree has been changed are punishable by explusion from Dark Arcadia.

Notes

A reasoning as by (1) should be an essay of appropriate length discussing the reasoning behind the law. The weight and importance of this section increases as abstraction of the law itself increases. The reasoning is not a legislative document, but should be free of legalese, and focus instead on making abstract concepts or ideals tangible by example, analogy and/or colloquial description.

Reasoning can be expanded upon as the law itself is expanded upon, and this should always be encouraged.

Reasoning

Any passed law should offer clarity. To ensure this is always the case, all future Archons must adhere to the structural guidelines mentioned above (unless they change this decree itself). It is important that changes are transparent - in this case, that they appear in the list of new posts - as otherwise, Citizens can't really be expected to adhere to the law.

Perhaps most interesting is the "Reasoning" section, which offers opportunity to summarise the law in particularly verbose cases (such as this one), and of course explains more abstract ones. Specifically, if a law was passed saying, "Slavery is henceforth legal", you would want to know why - and that is the purpose the Reasoning section has.

People can be kicked out for claiming a decree has changed if this is not the case as it is needlessly disrupting to no purpose or gain but perhaps humour value, and anyone who is intentionally disrupting the fragile structures set down for the nation of Dark Arcadia is not fit to be a Dark Arcadian Citizen.

People may be hindered at unconstructive criticism and uncivil remarks - but they may not be judged for it (we all have bad days), nor may they be punished beyond what is specifically mentioned (of course, this holds true only until a decree expands on this topic, but this is and should remain discouraged).

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

I've condensed the decree and taken out needlessly precise bits (such as formatting). I've come to the conclusion that as it was, it was an unnecessary restriction.