An important part of founding a new government is setting in stone what that government is allowed to do and more importantly what it is not allowed to do. This bill will show the powers that the government has and will impose limitations on what it cannot do.

1. The right to suggest laws

The government will have the right to suggest new laws but it will not have the right to enforce them without the consent of the people.

Each new law will be put to public vote, the intent of the law must be written in an easily understandable language (i.e. Everyone should be able to understand what the laws intention is without requiring a law degree).

Voting will be optional, however if a voter turn out of less than 20% of the population occurs the law will be dismissed. In order for a law to be passed it must receive a ‘yes’ vote from at least 51% of the voters.

If a law passes:

Once a law has passed it will become enforceable after a six month amnesty, during this amnesty the law must be publicised (through any and all advertising mediums available) to ensure maximum exposure. The new law will remain in place for a period of 10 years.

Once 10 years has passed, the law will be put back to public vote. However this time the vote will be to scrap the law. A voter turn out of less than 20% of the population or a ‘no’ vote of 51% or more will result in the law remaining in place for another 10 years.

If a law is unpopular, people can trigger a referendum to vote a law out even before the 10 year expiry date has passed. This vote will work in the same way as the one above.

If a law fails to pass:

The government has the right to repeat the vote on a yearly basis, if a vote fails due to low turnout then the government has the right to immediately re-issue the petition.

Permanent laws

Some laws are fixed laws which will not expire and cannot be voted out, these laws are the obvious ones like the laws against murder, GBH, rape, burglary etc…

2. The right to limited surveillance

Privacy is hugely important but it is naive to believe a government can get by without having information about it’s populace, therefor the government will have the following surveillance rights:

Rights:

1. CCTV is permitted in any public space
2. Information made publicly available online can be monitored
3. Public records (including place or work, educational details etc…) may be accessed.

Of course people have rights too so the government will also have the following limitations imposed:

Limitations:

1. No surveillance of any kind may take place inside a persons home. (Note: This doesn’t include surveillance carried out knowingly by household residents, their family or friends)
2. No information posted online which has not been designated as public may be monitored.
3. Medical records can never be accessed without consent of the subject.

Caveats:

During an election, Nominated candidates temporarily lose some of their privacy rights, however in-home surveillance will still not be permitted and any information gathered during the election process must be returned to the subject and all copies destroyed once the election has concluded or the candidate is no longer in the running. The information cannot be shared with anyone without being completely anonymised first and even then it can only be shared in order to help the election process.

During a criminal investigation, rights to privacy online may be temporarily removed if the authorities can provide probable cause. This right will only be removed in cases where violent crimes are taking place.

3. The right to pardon

Sometimes courts can make a conviction which is not in the best interests of the convicted party or even the society, if it is deemed necessary, the government will have the right to overturn a conviction at any time.

4. The right to trade

Unfortunately, until the majority of the world adopts Aretecracy (or at least moves away from Capitalism) governments will have to be able to trade within that Capitalist world, therefore the government will retain the right to make trades on the open markets in order to maintain a balance of power in the world and keep the country moving.

They will also have to write to run import/export operations for profit.

Note: Any profits made by trading will be owed entirely by the government and may only be spent on things to keep the country running, nobody may use any of the money themselves and regardless of their status within the government, nobody has the right to make money as an individual.

5. The right to declare war

All nations within the AU must rescind their right to declare war. Aretecracy will never tolerate the instigation of violence, regardless of the circumstance.

6. The right to self defence

Even though AU nations do not have the right to declare war, they have the right to participate in an existing war or skirmish which is proven likely to cause physical harm to it’s citizens or defend themselves against an attack from an opposing force.