The Constitution of the Empire of Lothlorrien

Preamble:

Whereas we, the people of Lothlorrien, understand that the needs of a micronational community differ from those of a macronational community, and

Whereas it is understood that most citizens of Lothlorrien will maintain citizenship in their current macronational country of citizenship, which provides its own laws, regulations, rights, and priviledges, and

Whereas the citizens of Lothlorrien hail from many different lands and territories and have limited means at their disposal, making physical contact difficult if not impossible,

We, the people of Lothlorrien, to provide a sense of community, to promote the general mental welfare, to promote communication between different cultures on Earth, and to provide an alternative nation for those who wish to be silly, do hereby establish this Constitution of the Empire of Lothlorrien.

Article I: Legislative Branch

Section I: Direct Democracy

Clause I: Lothlorrien shall be ruled by its citizens by a process of Direct Democracy.

Clause II: The forum for discussion and rulings shall be electronic mail (e-mail) or internet forums, to be established at a future date.

Clause III: The group of citizens reading the forums or email shall be refered to as "the assembled citizens".

Clause IV: All citizens have the right to bring any issues before the assembled citizens or to comment on any issues currently under discussion.

Clause V: Though comments are acceptable, profanity, abuse, and other forms of hate literature are forbidden in the general discussion and will be deleted on sight.

Section II: Committees

Clause I: The citizens have the right to establish committees for dealing with particular issues or actions.

Clause II: Committees will be composed of as many citizens are deemed appropriate for the task at hand.

Clause III: Elegibility for sitting on a committee shall be as follows: citizenship in Lothlorrien for a period of no less then two (2) weeks, and a general knowledge of the issue under discussion.

Clause IV: Any citizen has the right to request a progess report from any committee, however, this may not be done more then once per day.

Clause V: A committee shall bring final recommendations before the assembled citizens, whereupon they shall vote upon the recommendations.

Clause VI: After voting upon recommendations, the citizens shall decide whether to disband the committee or allow it to continue to function, depending on the needs of the assembled citizens.

Section III: Procedure for the Passage of a New Bill of Law

Clause I: Once a bill has been brought before the assembled citizens, a period of one (1) week shall elapse whereupon discussion may ensue.

Clause II: If, at the end of one week, the citizens wish for more time for discussion, this may be allowed, for up to three (3) more weeks

Clause III: After the time for discussion, a final bill shall be brought before the assembled citizens, written by the original proposer, and taking into account comments given by other members of the assembled citizens

Clause IV: Once the final bill has been presented, citizens will have a period of one (1) week to vote upon it, either "yea", "nay", "abstain".

Clause V: Voting shall be done via email to the assembled citizens, and all votes shall be visible publicly, with one vote per citizen.

Clause VI: After the voting period has ended, the votes shall be counted. A quorum of fifty percent (50%) of the citizens voting is needed for a bill to pass. A bill shall pass if there are more "yeas" then "nays".

Section IV: Procedure for Repealing a Bill of Law

Clause I: Should a bill be deemed inappropriate or no longer relevant, a vote may be taken to repeal it, following the same voting procedure as the passage of a bill.

Clause II: Votes shall be as follows: "yea" to repeal the bill, "nay" to maintain the bill as it is, and "abstain"

Section V: Scope of Legislative Power

The assembled citizens have the right to pass any bill they feel is necessary or significant. Because the citizens themselves will be the ones to vote, they may decide for themselves what bills they may pass for themselves.

Section VI: Limit of Legislative Power

The assembled citizens may not pass any bills that result in discrimination, hate, or purposeful infliction of injury, either physical, mental, or emotional.

Article II: Executive Branch

Section I: the Empress

Clause I: Executive power shall reside in an emperor or empress. [note: Beyond this point, "Empress" shall be defined to include "or Emperor"]

Clause II: The Empress shall maintain her rule until death or abdication.

Section II: Scope of Executive Power

Clause I: The Empress has the right to veto any bill passed by assembled citizens if she feels it will endager any citizen or the citizens as a whole.

Clause II: The Empress is needed to pass a "yea" vote in the declaration of war.

Clause III: In all other cases, the Empress' vote counts as only one vote, as per all citizens.

Clause IV: The Empress has the right to appoint ambassadors to other micronations, should the assembled citizens not undertake this themselves.

Section III: Limit of Executive Power

Clause I: The Empress may not pass any law without the consent of the assembled citizens, unless they have given their express consent to this purpose.

Clause II: The Empress may be overthrown with three-quarters of the assembled citizens voting against her in a no-confidence vote.

Article III: Judicial Branch

Section I: The Court of the People

Clause I: The first court shall be the Court of the People, which shall consist of all the assembled citizens.

Clause II: Both sides of any dispute shall have two (2) weeks to make their case to the assembled citizens, during which time all citizens have the right to ask questions of either side.

Clause III: After the discussion period has elapsed, a one (1) week voting period shall ensue, where all citizens may vote for one parties or the other, or abstain.

Section II: The Supreme Court

Clause I: The court of appeals shall be the Supreme Court.

Clause II: A citizen who is upset with the ruling of the Court of the People will be able to bring their case to the Supreme Court, provided they have new evidence in their favor or there is evidence of corruption among the Court of the People.

Clause III: The Supreme Court shall be composed of five (4) citizens, selected at random and the Empress.

Clause IV: All discussion in the Supreme Court shall be public for all citizens.

Clause V: All decisions made by the Supreme Court are final.

Section III: On the Interpretation of Laws

Clause I: When deciding whether or not to condemn someone, citizens should take into account the spirit behind the law as well as the actual words of the law (the spirit of the law as well as the letter of the law).

Clause II: If there is a case where the constitution or laws of Lothlorrien will result in discrimination, hate, or injury, the citizens have the right to ignore the constitution or laws for that case.

Section IV: Powers of the Courts

Clause I: The courts shall have the right to inflict punishment including: to excommunicate (either for a set period of time or indefinitely), to ban someone from the assembled citizens' forum (either for a set period of time or indefinately), to enfore some form of recompensation

Clause II: The courts do not have the power to inflict injury, to exact monetary fines, to sentence anyone to a correctional institution, to condemn anyone to death, or to enfore any penalty based on discrimination against race, gender, age, sexual orientation, or place or birth.

Article IV: Rights and Freedoms

Section I: Rights of Citizens

Citizens are entitled to all rights as outlined in the United Nations Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Section II: The Religion of the Realm and Freedom of Religion

Clause I: The official religion of Lothlorrien shall be the Temple of the Smiley Happy Face

Clause II: No citizen is required to participate in any religion, even the official state religion, against his or her will. All citizens have the right to freedom of religion.

Section III: Elegibility for Citizenship

Clause I: To be eligible for citizenship, a person must be sentient and capable of speech, either written or oral, or be the child of a current citizen. This clause is to prevent animals or inanimate objects from becoming citizens, since they are incapable of voting in the assembled citizens' forum.

Clause II: To become a citizen, a person must send an email to the Empress communicating their desire to be a citizen.

Section IV: Withdrawl of Citizenship

Any citizen may withdraw their citizenship at any time for any reason, with the exception of the Empress, who must first pass on that title to another citizen.

Article V: Amendments and Procedure for amending the constitution

Should the assemled citizens vote for an amendment of the constitution, then the consitution shall be so amended, and the changes shall be made on the Lothlorrien web page.

to Lothlorrien.

to The Procrastinator's Aid.