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Bill: Lex Bousaidia de Populi Tribunatu (RP Law)
Details
Submitted by[?]: Factio Republicana Socialistica
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: October 4470
Description[?]:
| Bousaidian Law on the People's Tribunate Senators, Given that our previous attempt to introduce a People's Tribunate to keep elites accountable through ferocious populism and popularly-judged political trials failed, we are proposing this again. Due to the oligarchic nature of electoral democracy, we shall reintroduce the death penalty, targeting the wealthy and powerful exclusively, to be wielded by a class-specific plebeian institution elected by lot with the exclusion of the wealthiest 10% of the population. Under this proposal we will establish a new "truce" between the wealthy and the people, inspired by the experiences of ancient democracies. In modern electoral democracies this truce is heavily weighted towards wealthy citizens and as a result corrupts democratic institutions and increases socio-economic inequality. Instead under our proposal the truce will serve as a compromise where the people will not excessively expropriate the rich as long as they do not use their vast wealth and public prominence to corrupt the Republic. Imprisonment and exile have been known since ancient times to be inefficient and self-defeating punishments to deal with the insolence of the elites, which is why the permanence of the death penalty is the only method of keeping them accountable and ensuring that the Republic remains uncorrupted. We thus again propose the establishment of a People's Tribunate formed of 5,001 randomly selected citizens, empowered to conduct political trials against the elites. With the passing of this bill the following proposals shall be implemented: I. The People's Tribunate (Populi Tribunatus) is established, formed of 5,001 Selucian citizens above the age of 21 selected by lot from the entire Selucian population, with the exclusion of the population with the highest 10% annual household income, current and former elected officials, current and former members of allotted bodies, and their close families, including spouses, siblings, parents, and cousins. Random selection shall be complemented by statistical analysis to ensure the Tribunate is representative of the Selucian population. II. All members of the People's Tribunate shall serve for a single non-renewable one-year term. If selected, serving on the People's Tribunate is mandatory. Employers may not fire citizens selected to serve on the People's Tribunate. Members shall be reasonably compensated for the duration of their service and shall be provided with meals, accommodation, and childcare. III. The People's Tribunate shall have the power to prosecute elected or allotted officials who behaved in a corrupt manner during their term in office and corrupt or treasonous practices by private citizens with the highest 10% annual household income. IV. Any citizen can bring an accusation to the People's Tribunate, but the accusations must be supported by evidence; if the latter proves unconvincing to the Tribunate the accuser will be deemed a calumniator and will suffer the same punishment as that which would have applied for the person they accused. V. Accusations can be brought to the People's Tribunate for political and economic crimes, including: a) Lying to initiate pointless wars; b) Perpetrating financial improprieties that cause economic crises which cost numerous citizens their jobs, homes, and savings; c) Consorting with foreign enemies to corrupt domestic institutions for personal or political gain; d) High treason, including participating in a war against the Republic, aiming to overthrow the government of the Republic, spying on the Armed Forces, secret services, or diplomats of the Republic in the service of a hostile and foreign power, and killing or attempting to kill the Head of State or Head of Government; e) Crimes against humanity, including war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, enslavement, extrajudicial punishments, state terrorism, racial discrimination, military use of children, unethical human experimentation, and deportation or forcible transfer of population. VI. The People's Tribunate shall be chaired by a Tribune, elected by lot from among its members and serving for a non-renewable one month term. The Tribune shall be responsible for the registration of suits and complaints and shall be empowered to subpoena the litigant parties and the witnesses after a preliminary investigation. VII. Each case shall be tried by a jury of 500 members selected by lot from all members of the People's Tribunate. The jury will decide by majority vote whether the defendant is guilty, and if the defendant is found guilty shall cast a second vote to decide upon the punishment. In case of a tie the Tribune shall cast the deciding vote. VIII. The penalties to be imposed by the People's Tribunate shall include capital punishment, exile, and the payment of a fine. IX. The verdicts of the People's Tribunate are final and binding, and can only be appealed to the Supreme Court on procedural grounds, except in case of acquittal. If the appeal is denied, the verdict is final. If the Supreme Court shall reverse the verdict, the case shall be tried de novo by a new jury established following the procedures set in Article VII. of this bill. The new verdict cannot be appealed on any grounds. X. Should the People's Tribunate impose the death penalty, the offender shall be executed by guillotine and shall be administered an anesthetic prior to execution. The media shall be given access to all executions and steps shall be taken to protect the identity and privacy of all executioners. Caecilia Bousaid Consul Populi OOC: This is a regular RP Law, as governed by Section 6.e. of the Game Rules (http://forum.particracy.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8088). This bill introduces a tribunal selected by lot with the power to try political crimes by the wealthy and to impose the death penalty for offenders.This bill requires a simple majority to pass and a simple majority to be amended or repealed. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Government policy with respect to the death penalty.
Old value:: The death penalty is illegal and is never to be applied.
Current: The death penalty is applied for capital crimes.
Proposed: The death penalty is not applied, except for terrorism, treason and crimes against mankind.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change Mandatory jury duty (if trial by jury is allowed).
Old value:: All adult citizens are required to serve on a jury when called or obtain a formal exemption.
Current: All adult citizens are required to serve on a jury when called.
Proposed: All adult citizens are required to serve on a jury when called.
Article 3
Proposal[?] to change The right to trial by jury (if there are courts)
Old value:: Local governments decide who has the right to trial by jury.
Current: No one is allowed a trial by jury.
Proposed: Only certain individuals accused of serious crimes have the right to trial by jury.
Article 4
Proposal[?] to change Public executions (if death penalty is legal).
Old value:: Executions are always carried out in private; only necessary personnel are allowed to be present, which might include spiritual advisers.
Current: Executions may be carried out in public and/or be broadcast on television.
Proposed: Executions are always carried out in public and/or broadcast on television.
Article 5
Proposal[?] to change Jury selection (if trial by jury is allowed).
Old value:: Jurors are chosen among lawyers only.
Current: Jurors are randomly selected from the population.
Proposed: Jurors are selected based on certain factors (race/gender/class).
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 18:40:28, October 15, 2018 CET | From | Clara Aurora - COSIRA | To | Debating the Lex Bousaidia de Populi Tribunatu (RP Law) |
| Message | Senators, Once again we call upon all parties, even those within the government, to refuse this proposal until the death penalty points are retired. Plinius Cauco Orator of In Marea-Civis Sinistram |
| Date | 19:12:24, October 15, 2018 CET | From | Optimates | To | Debating the Lex Bousaidia de Populi Tribunatu (RP Law) |
| Message | Senators, We object to the contents of this bill in principle: we do not accept that a rich man should face his unwarranted persecution, the theft of his property and indeed ultimately his execution simply by virtue of possessing significant material wealth - which is effectively what has been proposed. Senators - this is mob rule. There is no more appropriate way to describe it. The People's Tribunate would simply be a tyranny of a very small minority of empowered citizens - the citizens empowered to put men to death on a politically motivated basis. It is simply absurd. As a party without representation, we previously endorsed this motion on the basis that the death penalty would rightly make a return. Of course, this return for the death penalty is evidently on a limited basis only, and apparently to be exacted only on political enemies. This is unacceptable; we support the return of the death penalty - but not on a limited basis. The poor man who murders his family is equally deserving of the noose or the guillotine as the rich man who commits the same crime. Senators, that must surely be abundantly clear. We cannot in good faith support this bill. As our partners in coalition understand, this is a two way street and we will temper the actions of this government whenever and wherever we can. |
| Date | 20:08:24, October 15, 2018 CET | From | Factio Republicana Socialistica | To | Debating the Lex Bousaidia de Populi Tribunatu (RP Law) |
| Message | Senators, We find ochlophobia to be a particularly dangerous sentiment in most modern democracies, expressed by both the left and the right. It is not the Plebs that we should fear however. The greatest threat to popular government is not the people, it is the untouchable ruling elites whose selfish interests subvert the common good. This bill does not propose mob rule; it proposes a well-regulated, orderly, and lawful judicial process through which entrenched and invulnerable minorities that use the political process for their own selfish advantage be held accountable. We are not suggesting that murder committed by a rich man is worse than one committed by a pauper. In fact murder and other heinous "private" crimes will not receive the death penalty under this proposal. Instead, this bill reserves capital punishment for the very specific crime of threatening and undermining the Republic by those with the power and resources to do so, whether current and former political officials or private citizens that are able to purchase impunity with their wealth. Nobody shall be punished for being rich. It will only be the corrupt that shall be punished. For these reasons we believe that the Optimates have nothing to fear from this proposal; the result will not be the tyranny of a minority of citizens, but quite the opposite: it will empower ordinary citizens, selected through the democratic system of lottery, to hold the unaccountable accountable. In fact we urge our coalition partners to verify that this proposal, as written, will in fact render the members of the People's Tribunate themselves liable to be prosecuted and put to death for corruption under Article III. The reason why poor citizens who have never held political office are excluded from capital punishment under this proposal is quite simple: wealthy and powerful citizens can, and very often do, use their considerable resources to gain pardons, to escape imprisonment, to evade punishment, or to return prematurely from exile. Common citizens do not have these resources, so for them lighter punishments are sufficient. But for the wealthy and powerful it is only the finality of death that will cause them to pause before engaging in efforts to corrupt the Republic and allow it to serve the many and not the few. Caecilia Bousaid Consul Populi |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes | Total Seats: 281 | ||||
| no |
Total Seats: 469 | ||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
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