Bills

Whereas during the last General Elections the OrgLaw was amended, allowing provinces to conduct their own senatorial elections, and

Whereas usually during General Elections, which include senatorial elections, ballots are sent to all voters, so they know about the election, and which enables them to vote in case they don’t vote on witt, and

Whereas provinces may want to send their own ballots during these elections, so provincial citizens know about the senatorial elections, and

Whereas this is not always possible, since provinces do not have access to the email address of their citizens, now

Therefore, Section 5, clause 1 of 40RZ9 — The Freedom of Information and Privacy (Gov.) Act, which currently reads: “The Database shall only be accessible by leaders of parties which have been fully registered with the Chancery.” will be amended to read: "The Database shall only be accessible by leaders of parties which have been fully registered with the Chancery and provincial officers, provided the conditions in section 6 of this act are met.",

Furthermore a new section will be added to 40RZ9 — The Freedom of Information and Privacy (Gov.) Act after Section 5, which will read: 
"Section 6: Information available to provincial officers.

Provincial officers may have access to part of the electoral database established by section 5 of this act, provided the following conditions are met:
1) The provincial officer is (partly) responsible for the conduct of provincial elections and needs the information in the database for the conduct of these elections.
2) Provincial law of the province for which the officer serves must actively allow the officer to have access to the information.
3) The provincial officer must send a request to the SoS for access to the information. The SoS may refuse the request if the conditions in this section are not met.
4) The provincial officer will only get access to the information about the citizens of the province for which he is conducting the elections.
5) The provincial officer may not share the information with anyone not entitled to the information.
6) The provincial officer may use the information only for the conduct of provincial elections.”

WHEREAS this bill was written by M.T. Patritz da Biondeu, and
WHEREAS M.T. Patritz da Biondeu sadly renounced his citizenship, and
WHEREAS he can therefore no longer propose this act to the ziu, and
WHEREAS this is a shame, because the bill is this a good idea, and
WHEREAS I want to stress again that I didn't write this bill and all credit should go to M.T.
Patritz da Biondeu, and
WHEREAS money and accurate records of financial transactions are very important to any
organization, government, or nation
WHEREAS all citizens of the nation should be able to see the current status of our Treasury as if
it were being held in a glass box,
THEREFORE we, the Ziu, hereby declare:
1) The Burgermeister of Inland Revenue must between the 1st and 7th day of every calendar
month make public, a report of all financial and if applicable, non financial holdings and
assets entrusted into his/her possession by the State and her citizens. The report must
contain all applicable original statements, be they either scanned, in .pdf form and/or
screenshots if it is a online statement(s).
2) The BoIR may alter, remove and/or otherwise edit any information contained in any
report and/or statement(s) in section (1) which he/she feels that such inclusion would
threaten the security and safety of such funds and assets. Should the BoIR alter, remove
and/or otherwise edit any information contained in any report and/or statement(s) in
section (1), s/he must privately furnish a original and unaltered copy of same to the King
and the Prime Minister on the same date.
3) The Burgermeister of Inland Revenue must keep these reports on file for seven years
along with supporting financial institution statements/documents. In addition, within one
week of publishing said report, the Burgermesiter must upload such reports to a publicly
accessible webpage/website, which shall be solely used for the purpose of archiving said
reports, along with supporting financial institution statements/documents and he/she shall
be responsible for maintaining said webpage, along with ensuring his/her successor has
full access to this website/webpage.
4) Any member of the Ziu may formally request from the Burgermeister of Inland Revenue
any specific statement(s) from the last seven years. The Burgermeister of Inland Revenue 
shall respond to such request in a timely fashion but no later than 30 days from the date
the request was made. No member may request a statement which dates prior to the
enactment of this act.
FURTHERMORE we also amend section 2.2 of 35RZ24 "The Royal Household Cleaning Act"
to read
2.2 the Burgermeister of Inland Revenue shall be appointed by the Seneschal and shall only be
removed by the King upon a binding 2/3 vote of the Ziu or by the Uppermost Cort due to gross
misconduct or failure to execute on sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 of "The Glass Treasury Act".

WHEREAS in order to operate in most parts of the world, businesses need to be registered AND
WHEREAS Talossa doesn't have any rules for such a process AND
WHEREAS At least one non-official corporation (A newspaper) was sold and transferred between citizens over the course of its history AND
WHEREAS At least one corporation owned in part by a Talossan has made significant revenue from Talossan citizens without ever having to register in Talossa or pay any income tax or registration fees

THEREFORE the Ziu resolves that:
Citizens of the Kingdom of Talossa shall be allowed to petition the Office of the Ministry of Finance to register a business they own, control, or are an authorized representative of (such as an affiliate)
Businesses registered this way only receive permission to offer products and services to citizens and prospectives of Talossa and still need to be registered in their country of origin for all services offered outside of Talossa (and, for that matter, usually inside of Talossa to). 
Two types of corporations are recognized: Internal, which only does business in Talossa to Talossan citizens, and External, which also exist outside of Talossa.
A registration record shall contain the following information:
- The name of the citizen registering the business
- The type of corporation (internal or external)
 The type of corporate income tax applied to the corporation, if applicable. If not, a note whether it is non-profit or for profit
- The name under which the corporation will do business in Talossa
- The name of the corporation outside Talossa, if applicable. This information will be only visible to citizens of the Kingdom of Talossa
- The registration number
- The list of other Talossan citizens who are part owner or director of the business, if applicable

Upon registration, the corporation shall receive a registration number composed as follows:
- 2 (or 3) digits corresponding to the number of the Cosa of the last published Clark
- The business type : E for External, I for Internal
- The tax code letter as defined in the corporate tax laws in place at the moment of registration. Until such a law is in place, 2 letters shall be used: N for Non-Profit organization, and F for For profit organizations
- The 4 digit citizen number of the person in charge of the business, padded by zero
- A dash
- A 3 digit number, padded with zero, which represent the order of business registrations for that citizen so that his or her first business shall have the number 001, and the second shall have the number 002.

This law is only meant to define the registration number of businesses and doesn't provide
specific rights or obligations outside of these provisions

WHEREAS all countries have a business registration service AND
WHEREAS Talossa doesn't have one AND
WHEREAS Not having one doesn't magically avoid the problem as some Talossa citizens are business owners and some of their clients are other Talossan citizens AND
THEREFORE the Ziu resolves that:
The Minister of Finance shall be allowed to create an official Talossa Business Registration Office which shall be allowed to:
- Issue business registrations to Talossa Citizens who request one, possibly under a Talossan name
- Publish a list of registered businesses in a central repository
Until the Talossa Business Registration Office is created, it's rights and responsibilities shall be handled by the office of the Minister of Finance

WHEREAS we have reached a point where proper administration warrants stability, continuity and a separation from partisan politics and

WHEREAS we need to better define the role of cabinet ministers and

WHEREAS this can be done through our civil service system but

WHEREAS we shouldn't appoint such people until they are needed so and

WHEREAS two bills were submitted in the last Clark and failed, possibly because they were in competition with each other

THEREFORE the Ziu enacts that 25RZ44 (The Commissioner of the Civil Service Act), 36RZ17

(The Cabinet Refinishing Act) and 35RZ24 (The Royal Household Cleaning Act) are amended as follows:

a) Section 3 of 36RZ17 shall be amended to read:

“Each Cabinet Officer shall be empowered to create within his Ministry other subdivisions not listed by this act, but any such reorganization shall require the approval of the Seneschal. Unless otherwise dictated by Talossan Coolness Factor considerations, the principal subdivisions of a Ministry other than the Prime Ministry shall be titled bureaus or sub-ministries, and the principal subdivisions within the Prime Ministry shall be titled agencies or administrations.”

b) Section 4 of 36RZ17 shall be abolished, with the numbering of the act preserved.

c) Section 5 of 36RZ17 shall be abolished, with the numbering of the act preserved.

d) The section related to the Civil Service within 35RZ24 is hereby amended to read:

“The Civil Service, headed by the Commissioner of the Civil Service. The function of the Civil Service is to appoint and dismiss Permanent Secretaries within the cabinet ministries as well as other non-political appointees as may be appropriate.”

e) Section 2 of 35RZ24 is amended to read:

“The Officers of the Royal Household shall have no fixed terms of office, and shall not be removed from office by the dissolution of the Cosa. The Officers of the Royal Household are appointed and removed by the King on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The three exceptions to this are that the Secretary of State shall be appointed by the Prime Minister acting alone and may be removed by law; the Chancellor of the Royal Talossan Bar shall be appointed and removed by the King on the recommendation of a resolution of the Senäts; and the Commissioner of the Civil Service, who shall be appointed by the King, for a two year renewable term, after being recommended by a legislative civil service committee and approved by a two thirds majority vote in the Cosa and a majority vote of the Senäts in favor of appointment. The Chancellor may be removed by the King on the recommendation of the Senäts.”

FURTHERMORE, we enact as follows:

a) The Commissioner can appoint permanent secretaries to any ministry based upon their qualifications, willingness to work and taking into consideration the applicant’s performance in prior positions. The commissioner shall remove from office any secretary for professional misconduct, inability to perform ones duties due to incapacitation or failure to perform their required duties.

b) Dismissed secretaries shall be entitled to an appeal of their removal. The dismissed party may contest their dismissal by bringing complaint before the Magistrate's Court. The court shall consider if any of the petitioners rights, afforded by Organic, statutory or civil law code, have been violated. The court shall have the authority to order reinstatement where appropriate or dismiss the complaint, thus sustaining the dismissal.

FURTHERMORE:

1) All Permanent Secretary positions shall exist within the civil service and shall be non-political appointments which shall be held until lawful dismissal, resignation or incapacitation. An individual may not hold the offices of Seneschal, Distáin, Justice of the Uppermost Cort, Monarch, an Officer of the Royal Household, or any cabinet portfolio while simultaneously holding an active appointment to a secretary office. In addition, any Secretaries within the Ministry of Justice may not serve as a judge in any inferior court.

2) Secretaries shall be styled “Honourable” during the course of their tenure.

3) Secretaries shall serve as the administrative chief of their respective ministries tasked with the day to day operation of the ministry’s work or for any other special role assigned to them while their position is created

4) Secretaries shall be empowered to appoint and dismiss non-political appointees within their ministry, including the Chiefs of Bureaus, with the approval of the Commissioner of the Civil Service.

5) Secretaries shall retain their offices through changes of government.

6) The precise duties, necessary qualifications and expected standards of each secretary shall be drafted by the cabinet minister and approved by a legislative civil service committee, consisting of five Members of the Cosa, appointed by the Túischac'h. The committee must not contain more than two members of a single party. If only two parties are represented in the Cosa, then the maximum number of members from a single party is raised to three. Once approved, these descriptions shall be considered to be part of civil service administrative code. Other portions of the code, including expanded procedures for appointment, dismissal and appeals, shall be approved in a similar manner.

7) Civil service administrative code can be amended by the Commissioner of Civil Service with the approval of majority vote of the civil service committee.

8) No portion of the civil service code may run contrary to the Organic or Statutory Law.

Nor may any portion of the code restrict an individual or groups rights granted under the law.

WHEREAS the noble words of the Organic Law proclaim that: “Liberty consists of any action which is not detrimental to others, and no right herein enumerated, or elsewhere recognised by 
the Cosâ, shall extend to anyone engaged in activities which injure, endanger, risk or compromise the physical health, privacy, or tranquility of other persons through the pretended exercise of said right.”; and
WHEREAS the Organic Law also stipulates that: “Talossa shall never tax nor purport to tax, unduly burden, outlaw or abridge for its citizens any right to acts of: peaceful assembly [...]”; and 
WHEREAS Talossa, in the past, has involved itself too greatly in the dealings of its citizens with private recreational organizations patterning themselves on nation-states; and 
WHEREAS we should strive for greater consistency in our dealing with such matters, and allow for the maximal liberty of our citizens; and
WHEREAS the convoluted nature of, and occasional rapid change of, international geopolitics suggests that the Government of Talossa should not be eternally constrained by statute concerning the types of governments with which it exchanges ambassadors and/or affords aid, friendship or protection: now
Be it therefore enacted by the Ziu as follows:-
1. Repeal of micronation acts
a) 37RZ2 The What's the Difference Act is repealed.
b) 25RZ50 The “Semi-Permeable Wall Act” is repealed.
2. Creation of a blacklist
a) The Government shall maintain a list (hereinafter referred to as “the blacklist”) of proscribed (hereinafter referred to as “blacklisted”) organizations, any changes to which must be publicly announced. The Government shall enumerate in the list organizations or societies which threaten the safety or tranquility of Talossa by any of the following actions
i. promoting or threatening treason against Talossa
ii. promoting or threatening violence against Talossans or the institutions of Talossa
iii. engaging in speech which demonstrably incites violence or hate crimes
The Government shall make the aforementioned list available to the citizens of Talossa, shall provide a reason for the blacklisting of each organisation.
b) It is a criminal act to belong to an organization on the blacklist, and constitutes a class A misdemeanor for a first offense, and a class I felony for a subsequent offense.
c) The Government shall issue a warning and afford a citizen seven days to disaffiliate himself or herself from a blacklisted organization prior to initiating criminal proceedings.
d) A prospective citizen belonging to an organization on the blacklist must demonstrate disaffiliation from the organization to the MInistry of Immigration before a Grant of Citizenship may be issued.
e) The Ziu shall confirm or reject any addition to or removal from the blacklist.
f) Talossan courts may remove organizations from the blacklist as part of a ruling.
3. Definition of a micronation and disclosure
a) A “micronation” is hereby legally defined to be any society of persons (whether claiming territorial sovereignty or not) that:
- claims a governmental organization and citizenry and
- is not a member of the United Nations and
- is not a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization and
- is not the Kingdom of Talossa or a subdivision thereof, or officially recognised by the Kingdom of Talossa.
b) All members of the Ziu, the Cabinet, the Uppermost Court, the Magistrate's Court, the Chancery or the Royal Treasury and the Chancellor of the Royal Talossan Bar must report the following information to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with all due celerity:
- All micronations of which he or she is a member.
- All offices he or she holds in these micronations.

WHEREAS John le Carre was probably right when he said that once you start leading the "inside-out world of espionage, you never shed it". and
WHEREAS unlike our larger state counterparts we should never need to employ such illicit tactics, and
WHEREAS it makes me uncomfortable that government spies could be among us now, unbeknownst to the general public, unaccountable to the people, and sanctioned by one individual, and
WHEREAS Talossa is a country that should be built on trust and friendship, and
WHEREAS these particular tactics of espionage hark back to the days of King Robert I, and
WHEREAS it has never been known for us to implement such tactics in modern Talossa before, and we have still managed to effectively catch fraudsters, now
THEREFORE, be it enacted by the Ziu that Clause 2 of 36RZ10 The Anti-Imposter and Liar Act, which reads Officials of the Kingdom of Talossa who create or use false identities as a means to investigate suspicious citizenship applications or other activities involving fraudulent or misleading identities or statements may, if prosecuted under this act, claim exemption from the provisions of this act by demonstrating that any subterfuge employed met all of the following criteria:
1) Was in response to a suspicious circumstance, as reasonably understood;
2) Was reasonably expected to be effective in uncovering fraud; and,
3) Was used only for a brief time and limited to discovering suspected fraud.
4) Can demonstrate that Prime Minister authorized the subterfuge and that the Minister of Defence and the Uppermost Cort were informed of the subterfuge.

is hereby repealed in full, and replaced with the following text:

Clause 2. Charges brought under this Act shall be heard in the Magistrate's Court, and require a majority verdict by the presiding Magistrates. The decision of the Magistrate's Court may be overturned by appeal to the Uppermost Court, and will require an unanimous decision by the presiding Justices.

FURTHERMORE, Clause 1 of 36RZ10 is to be amended to read as follows:

Clause 1. Except as provided in Clause 2, Whoever does any of the following is guilty of a crime subject to punishment by banishment, revocation of citizenship, any combination of civil disabilities and any other authorized punishments as described in 35RZ34:

FURTHERMORE, Clause 1.2 is to be amended to read as follows:

Uses another person's identity or uses an identity that creates the impression of another person to post or convey messages via email or on any public forum in the Kingdom of Talossa.

WHEREAS all Talossans should be equal before the law, and
WHEREAS equality before the law in undoubtedly a good thing, and
WHEREAS to that extent no waivers should be considered, and
WHEREAS it’s best if Talossans have the opportunity to get to know every prospective citizen that happens by, and
WHEREAS there’s probably a good reason for having a set amount of time to get to know new people, and
WHEREAS this should apply to Berbers too, and
WHEREAS it would be discriminatory to waiver the normal procedure of one prospective of North African Berber ancestry but not others, and
WHEREAS the effort of determining whether the ancestry is true or not probably isn’t worth it, and
WHEREAS it’s just easier for everyone if all prospectives’ immigration applications are treated the same, and
WHEREAS The Law Of Return Act didn’t really work anyway, now
THEREFORE be it enacted by the Ziu that 31RZ21 (The Law of Return Act) which reads:
PROVISION 1: During each elected Cosâ term, the Immigration Minister and Uppermost Cort shall be empowered to grant Talossan citizenship to ONE (1) person of demonstrable North African Berber ancestry who has explicitly applied for Talossan citizenship. Other normal provisions for citizenship shall be waived in this one case.

PROVISION 2: The exact means for verifying claims of said ancestry shall be worked out between the Cort and the Immigration Minister, with the Cort having final say in case of disputed cases.

PROVISION 3: In the event of multiple applications, the special grant of citizenship may only go to one person; any others will need to apply via the normal rules of naturalization.

PROVISION 4: The Culture Minister shall take appropriate steps to advertise in Berber forums upon the approval of this bill.
is hereby repealed.

FURTHERMORE, be it resolved by the Ziu that it would still be pretty cool if we managed to attract more citizens of North African Berber ancestry

Whereas Senators represent their province and not their party, and
Whereas Senators should be elected on their own merits, now
Therefore Article IV, Section 5 of the OrgLaw, which currently reads: "A political party may endorse a candidate for any vacant Senate seat. In the event that a voter specifies that party as his choice for that Senate seat and the election is conducted by the Chancery, his vote shall be counted for the candidate so endorsed." is hereby repealed.

Furthermore, In the event that a Senatorial election is conducted by the Chancery, votes cast specifically for the cosa elections shall not be counted for Senatorial elections, unless the 
provincial legislation of  the province represented by the Senator being elected specifically instructs otherwise, as determined by the Chancery.

WHEREAS the organic procedure for submitting bills to be clarked is not very clear, and

WHEREAS Article IX, Section 9 suggests that bills should be submitted to the SoS before the 21st day if the month, and

WHEREAS this is not the way we actually have done it in recent years, and

WHEREAS Article IX, Section 10 does not contain any information that isnt mentioned in other articles of the OrgLaw, and

WHEREAS the current Article IX, Section 6 suggests that proposals may not be submitted to the SoS before spending ten days in the hopper, even when they would have spend ten days in the hopper when the clark is published, and

WHEREAS Article IX, Section 3 states that bills need to be in the hopper ten days before publication in the clark, which seems to contradict section 6 as the publication date is not the date of submission, and

WHEREAS in previous years the chancery has accepted bills for publication when they hadnt spend ten days in the hopper yet, and

WHEREAS this means the chancery may have been acting inorganically in the past few years, and

WHEREAS this is not a very desirable situation, and

WHEREAS the law should reflect the actual procedures, now

THEREFORE Article IX, Section 6 of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

"After his legislative proposal has spent ten days in "The Hopper," the author may submit it.with or without modification or amendment.as a bill to the Secretary of State according to the procedures specified in Article IX: Secs. 8-12. The Secretary of State may, however, refuse to accept the bill if he finds that the bill is so substantially different from its original form as a legislative proposal that it constitutes a significantly different proposal. Upon such a finding, the bill is automatically returned to "The Hopper."

will be amended to read:

"Bills that will be eligible for publication when the next clark is published and have spent at least five days in the hopper may be submitted with or without modification or amendment as a bill to the Secretary of State by the author according to the procedures specified in this article. The Secretary of State may, however, refuse to accept the bill if he finds that the bill is so substantially different from its original form as a legislative proposal that it constitutes a significantly different proposal. Upon such a finding, the bill is automatically returned to "The Hopper." ";

FURTHERMORE Article IX, Section 9, which currently reads:

"Bills shall be submitted before the twenty-first day of the month, to the Secretary of State for consideration by the Ziu. Bills received after the twenty-first day of the month shall be published in the next Clark or postponed for one Clark, at the Secretary of State's discretion."

will be amended to read:

"Bills must be submitted to the Secretary of State more than 24 hours before the publication of the clark. Bills received less than 24 hours before publication of the clark shall be published in the next Clark or postponed for one Clark, at the Secretary of State's discretion.";

FURTHERMORE Article IX, Section 10, which currently reads:

"A bill may be proposed by submitting it to the Secretary of State. A bill thus submitted should be followed by the words "Uréu q'estadra så" (or "Proposed by") and the name of the author(s) and his/their party and home province. The Secretary of State may refuse to accept bills that are not clearly typed or word-processed."

will be repealed.

WHEREAS the Péngöpäts Antarctic Territory "forms an irrevocable part of the national patrimony and shall never be abandoned," and
WHEREAS countless millions of good Talossan penguins have been unfairly disenfranchised these past thirty-one years, and
WHEREAS it's an odd-numbered Cosa, and Péngöpäts provincification bills in odd-numbered Cosas are a Tradition, except for the forty-third Cosa (when we forgot) and the forty-fourth (when we remembered we forgot), and
WHEREAS we need to get back on the odd-numbered Cosa schedule, and 
WHEREAS because of our traditions, we've kept our balance for many, many years,
THEREFORE the Ziu hereby amends Article XVII, section 11 of the Organic Law to read as follows:
Section 11. Talossa's overseas colony, Pengöpäts Antarctic Territory, forms an irrevocable part of the national patrimony and shall never be abandoned. Its area comprises the province of Pengöpäts. This province is forever closed to immigration, but for counting purposes shall be
considered to have 10,000 citizens.
FURTHERMORE the Ziu hereby amends Article XVII, section 13 of the Organic Law to read as follows:
Section 13. No new province shall be constituted after the adoption of this Organic Law unless said proposed province shall contain a citizenry comprising at least 10 persons, or unless the year is an odd number divisible by sixty-one."