The Constitution of Sophia

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Preamble:
On the third day of April, two-thousand and twenty-one, the founder of Auctor decided to arbitrarily remove all of the region's 53 residents. In its aftermath, Tinhampton - the WA Delegate and President of Auctor - founded the region of Sophia in order to restore the hope that was brought to the nations of Auctor. On the same day, the nations of Sophia enacted this Constitution in the interests of redeveloping a region that grants as much freedom to its residents as possible to the extent that such does not disturb regional security.

Title 1: Rights of Residents

1. All residents of Sophia have the right to grow and develop their wisdom, practically and in theory. No authority shall exist over the interpretation of this Article.

2. The member states of Sophia are sovereign and shall not have their internal workings interfered with by the regional government.

3. No restrictions on freedom of speech or assembly shall be imposed in Sophia; except to prevent the propagation of pro-fascist, pro-communist, otherwise derogatory or spammy content, those deemed by the President of Sophia to be necessary in a democratic region, and those which have been imposed on nations by NationStates itself.

4. No resident shall be subjected to a punishment that does not involve their removal from any territory that may be controlled by Sophia, or the removal of constitutionally objectionable content posted by them, without due process of law.

Title 2: The Council

1. All World Assembly nations in Sophia shall automatically be granted membership of the Council, except if it is lost as provided in Title 2, Article 2.

2. All members of the Council shall be considered citizens, but any member may lose their citizenship if they no longer have a WA nation in Sophia. Any citizen who is reasonably believed by the President to pose a major or imminent threat to regional security shall lose their citizenship and not have it restored, unless they are otherwise eligible and also present to her a sincere letter of apology; the President shall keep a register of all nations whose citizenship has been retracted for this reason.

3. Only the Council may establish laws and regulations that do not directly impact regional security. Any member of the Council may propose a law, and each proposed law (including Constitutional amendments) shall be discussed for three days at a time and then voted upon for four days; but the Council shall not consider multiple proposals at the same time. All laws that are not Constitutional amendments or replacements shall be enacted into law with the support of a simple majority of voting citizens.

4. All meetings and votes of the Council, except votes to amend or replace the Constitution, are to occur on the Discord server which has the ID number of 725050408250245220 and is located at https://discord.gg/TMDcPZ9Ga7; however, all of its decisions shall be made public.

Title 3: Regional Departments, Offices, and Elections

1. The founder of Sophia, The Self-Administrative City of Tinhampton, is its Philosopher-Queen for life, and the President may grant her authorities outside of the election process.

2. There shall be three departments of the Government of Sophia: the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Entertainment, and of the World Assembly.

3. The Prime Minister shall co-ordinate each department, maintain order in the region and preside over its Council.

4. The Foreign Minister shall lead the Department of Foreign Affairs. They shall be responsible for negotiating interregional treaties and maintaining good relations with friendly regions (which may include the construction of embassies).

5. The Entertainment Minister shall lead the Department of Entertainment. They shall organise, co-ordinate, and (if possible) participate in regional roleplay, games, and similar activities.

6. The President shall lead the Department of the World Assembly, and the Presidency shall be held by Sophia's current WA Delegate except as Title 3, Article 7 provides. They shall freely approve and vote on WA proposals as they believe best serves the interest of Sophia, must sign interregional treaties involving Sophia before they come into effect, shall ensure that the law of Sophia is adhered to, must lead all efforts to preserve regional security (which may include promulgating urgent executive regulations on regional security), and shall discharge its duties of any Ministry which is vacant. Otherwise, they shall not be constrained in what they can do as President.

7. The President may appoint and remove a single Vice-President, who must be a citizen, of their choosing. The Vice-President is responsible for maintaining the second-most endorsements in Sophia. If the President can no longer serve as Delegate at any time for any reason, the Delegacy shall be taken over by the Vice-President, or (if there is no Vice-President) whoever happens to have the second-most endorsements in Sophia.

8. All three Ministers shall be simultaneously elected during the first four days of February, May, August and November every year. Declarations of candidacy for each Ministry shall occur in the week preceding each four-day election period, but each incumbent must declare their intention to stand for re-election. Only a citizen may elect, declare candidacy for, or be elected into any of the three Ministries.

9. If only one declaration of candidacy is made for any given Ministry, whoever made that declaration shall automatically become that Minister without an election. If no declaration of candidacy for any Ministry is made by the end of an election period, the President shall discharge its duties until a citizen declares their intention to become that Minister; notwithstanding this clause, however, no citizen shall simultaneously hold multiple Ministries.

10. Any Minister may publicly announce to the Council their intention to take a legal leave of absence of up to ten consecutive days. If the President believes that a Minister cannot carry out their duties for longer than this, she shall call new elections for their Ministry with one week's notice.

11. Any Minister, excluding the President, may be subject to a recall petition; if signed by five citizens or 10% of all citizens within a week, whichever is larger, the Council shall discuss and consider such a petition as if it were a Constitutional amendment. If an elected official is recalled, new elections to replace the recalled official shall be called with one week's notice.

12. The President may only be recalled if the citizens choose to cease endorsing them as Sophia's World Assembly Delegate.

13. The President and Prime Minister alone may eject and ban nations from Sophia, although they may delegate this responsibility to other Ministers. They must not eject or ban any nation which has not committed a crime defined in law as being punishable by ejection or banning, and is otherwise not believed to pose a threat to the regional government.

Title 4: Final Provisions

1. This Constitution shall be enacted immediately upon its promulgation by the Philosopher-Queen. No law or treaty may contradict it.

2. This Constitution shall not be substantially amended except with the consent of two-thirds of voting citizens; once discussion on any Constitutional amendment concludes, it must be brought to a four-day poll in the region of Sophia. Amendments that are minor or stylistic may be made at the President's pleasure.

3. This Constitution shall not be repealed without a replacement document; any such replacement must pass with the consent of three-quarters of voting citizens in a similar fashion.

4. Sophia shall not organise a military force nor lend its official support to such a force, whether the alignment of that force be Raider, Defender, Independent, or something else entirely. Notwithstanding Article 2 of this Title, this Article shall not be amended or repealed except with the consent of three-quarters of voting citizens in the ordinary fashion.

5. No person may eject a substantial portion or all of Sophia's inhabitants without giving one week's notice and a good reason for doing so to all inhabitants and prospective new arrivals.

6. Sophia shall be a Frontier region at all times. No President may retract Sophia's Frontier status for any reason whatsoever.

7. Whenever the President is active and willing to continue in office, any attempt to seize the position of WA Delegate from them shall be considered a major threat to regional security.