SO 2017-31 Heraldic Ensigns Act 2017

Heraldic Ensigns Act 2017

An Act to establish and regulate heraldic ensigns for public bodies.

WHEREAS Our Region does not bear or use any heraldic ensigns as of this present moment;

WHEREAS We desire that Our Region does bear and use heraldic ensigns from this present moment;

BE IT ENACTED by Us, with the advice and consent of Parliament, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Chapter I: General provisions
Article 1
The Parliamentary Union of Nations shall adopt heraldic ensigns.

Article 2
Under “heraldic ensigns” shall be read: seals, escutcheons, armorial bearings, heraldic badges, and other such similar heraldic devices.

Article 3
The King-of-Arms in Ordinary shall create and maintain a Roll of Arms, on which all public heraldic ensigns shall be listed.

Article 4
No-one shall be allowed to use any heraldic ensigns listed in the aforementioned Roll of Arms, unless he holds or possesses an office or a position, or when he exercises the duties, privileges, et cetera of such an office or a position, to which is assigned a heraldic ensign.

Chapter II: Greater heraldic ensigns for the Region
Article 5
The Parliamentary Union of Nations shall adopt heraldic ensigns for herself, consisting of at least an escutcheon and supporters, to be determined as set out by this Act of Parliament.

Article 6
From the day this Act of Parliament becomes Law, each Member of Our Region shall have the privilege to forward proposals for the heraldic ensigns as set out in Article 5 of this Act. Such proposals shall be forwarded to the King-of-Arms in Ordinary.

Article 7
After a period of three weeks, the term to send such proposals aforementioned shall be closed. The King-of-Arms in Ordinary shall list all proposals in one ballot and a vote will be taken.

Article 8
The proposal with the most votes shall be adopted, unless that proposal has received less than one in two votes casted. In such case the proposal(s) with the least vote(s) shall be excluded and another round of voting shall be held until one proposal has received the required minimum aforementioned.

Article 9
From the moment of its affirmation, the proposed heraldic ensign shall be adopted as the Greater Arms of Our Region. From that moment onwards, all Bills of Parliament, Amendments and Acts of Parliament, notifications in the International Gazette and other regional documents of Law shall carry, at the front, the Greater Arms of Our Region.

Chapter II: Lesser heraldic ensigns for the Region
Article 10
From the moment of its affirmation, the escutcheon of the proposed heraldic ensign shall be adopted as the Lesser Arms of Our Region. From that moment onwards, all Parliamentary Papers, not being set out in Article 9 of this Act, shall carry, at the front, the Lesser Arms of Our Region.

Chapter III: Display of the Region’s heraldic ensigns
Article 11
No Member of Our Region shall be permitted to display Our regional Arms, either the Greater or the Lesser variant, as his flag or avatar on NationStates.net or Our Forum.

Article 12
Violation of the rule as described in Article 11 of this Act shall be punishable as a misdemeanour.

Chapter IV: Special ensigns for offices and positions
Article 13
The King-of-Arms in Ordinary, or any of his Heralds, may assign especial heraldic ensigns to a particular office or position. These ensigns may not be exactly the same as those of Our Region.

Article 14
If an ensign, as specified in Article 13 of this Act, has been granted, the holder of that office or position shall bear and use it on all documents written in his capacity of the holder of that office or position.

Chapter V: Other provisions
Article 15
The King-of-Arms in Ordinary shall have the exclusive power and privilege to make especial regulations with regards to heraldic ensigns. Though, the King-of-Arms in Ordinary shall abide by the rules and regulations set by Parliament on such matters.

Article 16
This Act may be cited as “[The] Heraldic Ensigns Act 2017”.

Monday 1 May 2017
The Rt. Hon. Nassau-Windsor MP LSM

Overall, the Rt. Hon author has again put forth a great proposal. I found it to be a bid tricky to read, with a few technical ambiguities, and so I propose a few changes to rectify my concerns:

Article 2: How about " 'heraldic ensigns' is defined as [...]"
Articles 6, 7, 13, and 15: "in Ordinary" needs to be defined.
Article 8: "has received less than one in two votes casted" is a tricky word choice. "has not received more than half of the votes cast" would be more appropriate. Also, the past tense form of "cast" is simply "cast".
Article 10: Just to clarify, this is basically Article 9 but it applies retroactively to previous Parliamentary documents?
Article 12: Follow this template to ensure the most specificity: " '[name of crime]', or [description of crime], is hereby defined as a Criminal Offense under SO#2017-14 ("On Judicial Rights and Procedures"), Article V, and is classified as a Misdemeanor." If you choose, you could add "and punishable by [...]".
Article 13: I would suggest appending the following for clarity: "but may borrow elements from the existing heraldic ensigns of the Region"

I second all the points of my honorable colleague Libertarian Democracy.

So that my honorable friend the author may rediscover our interest in his bill, I do cosponsor the bill, while still affirming my support for the most of the changes proposed by the Hon. Libertarian Democracy. However, I by no means am expressing full support for the bill, as I have doubts as to the efficiency of putting this ensign on every single version a bill/law: they're not actually books with covers and title pages. And I just think that as this is our forum anyways, we don't need to put our stamp on every single official thing we do here. Basically, I oppose the second sentences of Articles 9 and 10, except where they concern the International Gazette.

I co-sponsor this bill so the changes may be enacted.