Legislation System
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:19 pm
Legislation is the name of the game but we do not expect you to learn fluent legalese. PolUK operates on a Plain English Summary legislative model meaning that you must write down what your Bill does but you don’t have to research the 1877 Cheese and Pastrami Act to repeal previous laws - we will presume that the new Bill repeals the old stuff that conflicts with it unless it is so blindingly obvious or you are repealing something passed this round. For example while we won’t make you research ye olde legislatione we will require you to make mention of it if you are repealing the 1949 Parliament Act or Section 1 of the Race Relations Act. While a Plain English model does allow you to be a little bit vaguer than usual it does not give you licence to leave massive grey areas. If there are huge grey areas then the other parties will be allowed to exploit it and if it passes anyway the admins will interpret the legislation as we see fit. You have been warned.
What does this look like in practice? Let’s work through an example together:
In the aftermath of a Bill passing into law the admins will determine how Phase 2 goes. The admins will discuss the legislation taking into account the debate and how well the legislation is written (detail, loopholes, etc.) and a score will be set. The score will be communicated back to the players in the form of a traffic light system with green being good, red being bad, and yellow being in the middle. There will be a thread where these traffic lights are fed back available here: viewtopic.php?f=118&p=4214#p4214 and particularly egregious failures or stunning successes will find their way into the media for full articles. Every piece of legislation big enough to merit the public hearing about it will at least receive a mention through a headline.
What does this look like in practice? Let’s work through an example together:
The Senate Act 1974The legislation is then packed through the Parliamentary process. If it is lucky enough to get put into law then we move on to Phase 2 of legislating, the aftermath.
1. There shall be a referendum no later than December 31st 1975 on the question of whether or not the United Kingdom should replace the House of Lords with an elected Senate
2. In the event of a “yes” vote the House of Lords shall dissolve at the time of the next General Election after the vote
3. Senate elections shall be held every five years on the 1st Thursday of May
4. The Senate shall be comprised of 400 Members, elected by Closed Party List, with members being assigned to electoral region in accordance with population
a. No Region shall have fewer than 10 Senators
5. This Act extends to the entire United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
In the aftermath of a Bill passing into law the admins will determine how Phase 2 goes. The admins will discuss the legislation taking into account the debate and how well the legislation is written (detail, loopholes, etc.) and a score will be set. The score will be communicated back to the players in the form of a traffic light system with green being good, red being bad, and yellow being in the middle. There will be a thread where these traffic lights are fed back available here: viewtopic.php?f=118&p=4214#p4214 and particularly egregious failures or stunning successes will find their way into the media for full articles. Every piece of legislation big enough to merit the public hearing about it will at least receive a mention through a headline.