Charter Amendment Proposal: Judicial Reform
Plugson
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"Le leggi son, ma chi pon mano ad esse?
Nullo, però che ’l pastor che procede,
rugumar può, ma non ha l’unghie fesse;
per che la gente, che sua guida vede
pur a quel ben fedire ond’ ella è ghiotta,
di quel si pasce, e più oltre non chiede."
Purgatorio, Canto XVI
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I don't have a copy of the actual Charter that states the role of the Supreme Court of eCanada. It is not posted in-game ~ not even on the eRepublik Wikipedia.
How do I as a player know that it even exists?
Rather, the eRepublik Wikipedia does have the old and out-of-date Constitution of Canada listed in-game ~ one that does not even follow current procedures of the courts and even has the the old forum listed as its source:
Constitution of Canada as directed from eRepublik Wiki'sCanada page.
Citizen Proposal to Amend the Charter on the rights and responsibilities of the judiciary:
(because every citizen has access to the same button for Charter reform that any elected Congressman has in-game)
It's there under all the black ink. Get it?
The only thing worse that granting power to the courts to surpervise your forum and IRC rights is to lose control over those powers. Are you still calling the shots on what your rights are? Will your words be misconstrued and used against you? (should you invest yourself in the forums or IRC, that is)
If this proposal is not clear enough for you, then please consult Max Maher's, the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, article:
The (eCanadian) Bill
Time to pare down the number of branches in eCanada's government. The poor health of the Judicial Branch is threatening the health of gameplay at the the core of eCanada:
--Pardons that lead to loss of players and production bonuses
--Lawsuits based on insults that are better handled as disputes between players
--Overlapping and contradictory powers between forum admins and Justices
--Appropriation of Supreme Court powers by Congress
--Lack of talent and interest in filling Supreme Court vacancies
--No in-game presentation of Supreme Court affairs, except the problems it causes
eCanada, your forum tools are broken ~ the hammer has become your master:
"A worker may be the hammer's master, but the hammer still prevails. A tool knows exactly how it is meant to be handled, while the user of the tool can only have an approximate idea."
~~Milan Kundera
Comments
When Congress is voting an amendment and as result members of Congress become members (or Chief) of Justice, I think there is a conflict of interests and too much power concentrated on some hands. Not speaking about how stupid can be this.
Indeed, the Forum society is broken. When a Supreme Court justice suggests a conviction even before a trial begins, and communicates with the defendant both publicly and privately, there are indeed signs of brokenness. To abolish it, I'm not convinced is the best solution, but it may be better than the other ones we have.
It's time for the Court to finally be put down.
That's coming from a former Chief Justice.
My only concern is, that with most if not all judicial responsibility for solving disputes, placed in the hands of the forum admin team, Congress will inevitably try and meddle with the team.
Goran Thrax
Also a former Court Justice.
I agree with Wilhelm.
It amuses me, that in the comments of the original article by Max Maher, several people kept worrying about a conflict of interest among the forum admin team... Seeing as it's made up of players with a demonstrated track record of impartiality...
Yet the current Supreme Court has a member, who is also elected to Congress, and inexplicably has the Congressional Speaker Mask! Oh, and Congress is now debating giving Supreme Court Justices full access to Congress because "We're supposed to trust them anyways."
I get a lot of grief for talking about how things were, but you know things ran quite smoothly when we had a separation of powers, oh and we didn't treat everyone as a potential thief. Perhaps pruning yet another poisonously commingled "branch" from our government will allow the rest to flourish.
Goran Thrax
(Former Chief Justice)
I served on two separate occasions with the Supreme Court for several months each time. I did my best to make it work, invested my time and thought, and really wanted to see this unique creation of eCanada flourish. It was a complicated project that required various types of support and player-base. These changed as the game evolved. The aims of eRepublik 3 years ago are vastly different than now ~ creating a virtual eSociety seemed to be the admins/Creators intent, yet they pulled back contracts and even the eRep Forum, where such things as the Supreme Court could have been validated.
We were let down by the game developers that said they would honour our Constitutions. We created something they put their word behind and then they changed the game. Why are we still playing by those old rules when they no longer exist? Time to move on.
I have speaker mask because I'm deputy speaker.
Also, the courts only effect the forums, they have no say regarding IRC.
Also, any communication Noggin had with Sara took place BEFORE the trial when Noggin was looking for answers. Those questions were met with sarcasm and more accusations instead of straight answers. If you look at the list of events in the trial you can clearly see this.
Also, the debate to give all Justices access was incredibly short lived for the reasons provided in the thread in ODC where anyone with a forum account can read it.
If you don't like the way the Court is being handled feel free to step up and try and get one of the two empty seats, it's been a couple weeks since I was confirmed and the last two people weren't able to get confirmed by Congress, but I'm sure the people complaining in this thread but not willing to actually do anything to try and fix the problem will have a better shot.
"it's been a couple weeks since I was confirmed and the last two people weren't able to get confirmed by Congress, but I'm sure the people complaining in this thread but not willing to actually do anything to try and fix the problem will have a better shot."
Thanks for correcting the IRC part. I'm not current on the details of something I left behind long ago.
Also thanks for verifying my statement: "Lack of talent and interest in filling Supreme Court vacancies"
This is my proposal to remove the Supreme Court of eCanada, Muglack. This is the solution I am bringing to you. Please consider that as my honest attempt to fix the problem.
The fact that Muglack and Rolo were both considered by Congress to be Justice (and one of them actually got appointed), just prove how much the Supreme Court doesn't hold the same function or authority that it once has been.
The Supreme Court right now is no more than a political tool that could make things go even more worse if Congress put it in the wrong hands. It's more likely that the Court will create more problems than fix some, as it should, in the future. The current "insult case" is a good example.
So what Muglack? Don't you like peoples which freely expressing their opinions? If Noggin is so "sensitive" better to give up from her function. Sorry, my opinion is same as Sara's. Noggin don't knows how to be objective, maybe the only reason for accepting her function is to see her name with different colour the others on forum (same opinion about you). lol.
^ this was a sarcasm.
Either fix the court system so it's based on fairness and the rule of law, or abolish it.
"It's more likely that the Court will create more problems than fix some, as it should, in the future. The current "insult case" is a good example"
You act like this is the first time a case like this has ever been tried. There's actually been two already. One of which resulted in the ban of the sitting President from the forums.
"This is my proposal to remove the Supreme Court of eCanada, Muglack. This is the solution I am bringing to you. Please consider that as my honest attempt to fix the problem."
The problem Plugson is that there will still be forums, and on those forums there will still be petty bullsh!t antics. So we created a mechanism to police them. Everyone knows the Courts are powerless. They can change nothing in game, they can't even effect IRC anymore. They do one thing, and one thing only. They effect your forum access. If you don't bother with the forums there is absolutely nothing they can do to you. These are points easily made and defended because they're absolutely true.
However, they're also an excuse. As you said, this isn't the game of years before. The game we play today is almost unrecognizable compared to the one we started playing, and in most ways, not for the better. People look for a reason to keep logging in, and the courts are one of them. If you don't need it like you don't need the forums, congratulations, but by the same token shame on you to advocate the removal of something in which you yourself no longer have any interest in participating.
Goran Thrax was Chief Justice, so was Max Maher, Plugson was Chief for a bit, and Reardon for a long time. Salty was Chief but is now dead, as are Vincent and LepsDissim. I think I am the only other living former Chief. I agree with all the others. That is not new. It was a wonderful experiment that was useful and effective for a different time.
No love for freakenstein.
Also, in the 3+ years I've played not a single day has gone by in which it was either useful or effective. So if there was in fact a "different time" it pre-dates even me.
"You act like this is the first time a case like this has ever been tried. There's actually been two already. One of which resulted in the ban of the sitting President from the forums."
Go look at my very last posting on the forums. It directly references insult cases. That is one of the reasons I left the forums. I decided it was not worth investing my time in something that appeared broken. Players do have the right to leave it behind to focus in-game, as we agree. Yet, I have lately seen damages in-game (loss of players+productivity bonuses) caused by the broken forum tool. My interest is to make a request here that aims to remove that sort of damage. I feel no shame in telling people that something they are involved in is not doing them any service and is actually having a negative impact on their in-game competitiveness.
I, too, don't understand why someone who is not even on the forums is here using an eRep platform to address the Charter. Isn't it similar to a person on the forum using that platform to address changes/actions in eRepublik the real game?
This is something everyone should agree on.
"Isn't it similar to a person on the forum using that platform to address changes/actions in eRepublik the real game?"
I'd say that for the most part it absolutely is. With the exception of Congress discussions that directly effect the decisions that congress makes in game, nothing on the forums should have anything to do with the day to day clicking in the game itself.
In fact, if the maximum recipients were to be raised above 30 I'd argue that even Congress's business could be moved from the forums to in game communication, and then the the courts and the forums could be completely severed from the game.
In other news, 500 character posts on article comments is stupid.
The metagame sucks even worse than the real game.
Btw, I should state that this 'proposal' is not really designed to succeed, unless 3 things happen:
A) A masked congresman or some other forum denizen makes a proper motion to propose the Charter amendment stated in Max Maher's article: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/the-ecanadian-bill-1985107/1/20
😎People begin to disengage from the forum and refuse to cooperate with a system that is flawed, due to the poor operation of one branch of the forum government(ie. Judicial). With enough people ignoring what the courts, congress, and executive do on the forums, then it ceases to matter as it loses power.
C)A better amendment/solution is proposed that improves the Supreme Court.It's been 3.5 years of me waiting for this to happen successfully, so that seems unlikely to happen, especially now
a) Max Maher's motion already failed. I don't know if it's the same one he had in his article, but he did have one about a month ago that failed to get traction.
b) Sadly, that isn't likely. Congress alone will drive people to the forums until a major change takes place that replaces it. People are creatures of habit, add to that that forums are sadly the best option and this habit won't change.
c) I've put more time into reform than anyone. I'd welcome it more than most.
I had make some minors change in the final version. The CP had the power to ban a Congressman from Congress for two months by simple majority. The CP could also veto a decision of the admin team.
The amendment didn't pass. Beside Muglack and Crisfire, they wasn't a lot of opposition in Congress, so it's really hard to explain why it's failed. Maybe Congress didn't want to handle those power? Maybe others didn't liked that there wasn't any forum ban, only Congress ban? Who knows.
The forum and courts will still prevail, of course.As a non-user, I don't have to bother with figuring out its proper usage or even an appoximate idea of its use. Luckily, Option B remains open to anyone who choses it, making the Charter a non-issue for those that have no need to engage with it.
I'm fine with the SC continuing on as it is, though think it's a bit silly that debates over forum access in an imperfect legal system have caused a civil war.Broken tool=broken results from tool use
An extra spammy ~hyuu~ for you
I don't entirely understand how the collective opinion of pretty much every Chief Justice in eCanadian history that this system is irreparably broken doesn't carry more weight. Especially when our arguments are fairly concise.
It was a grand experiment that takes a community to believe in it, and a game that allows such a thing to exist with some meaning. The community at large doesn't believe in it enough to want to be part of it and the admins have long since abandoned society building.
So.... we're Communists now?
>whydoyouhavecourts.jpg