Bill: Draft P.B.04-### | Parliament Act

[CoolCat]

A
BILL
TO
Create general regulations for the parliamentary buisness

Part I
General​

1 – About this Act
(1) This Act
(a) may be cited as ‘Parliament Act’ or ‘PA’.
(b) may be numbered as P.B.04-###.
(c) shall be enacted upon the start of the day after this bill has been assented to (UTC).
(d) has been authored by Deputy Prime Minister Rubilubi55.
(e) has been co-sponsored by <Position> <Co-Sponsor>.

2 – Speaker of Parliament
(1) Upon first assembling, a new Parliament elects a Speaker of Parliament to serve as the presiding officer of the parliamentary chamber. To be elected, a candidate has to unify an absolute majority onto them. It is the Clerks duty to preside over the Parliament until a Speaker of Parliament has been elected.
(2) The faction holding the most Members in Parliament holds the right to nominate a Speaker of Parliament. They must do so within 48 hours of assemblement.
(3) After successful nomination, a voting period will be held until an absolute majority in favour of the candidate has been found, but no longer than 48 hours.
(4) The Clerk must, immediately after an absolute majority has been found for a candidate, seek the Monarch to appoint the newly elected Speaker of Parliament. The Clerks' acting capacity ends.
(5) Should the election of the Speaker of Parliament fail because no nomination has been submitted within 48 hours or the nominee did not receive an absolute majority, any member of Parliament may now nominate a Speaker of Parliament and the voting process will be held accordingly.
(6) Should there be a tie regarding the Members of Parliament multiple parties are holding, every subject party may nominate a candidate within 48 hours or prematerially deny their right for nomination. When more than one candidate has been nominated, the Members of Parliament may cast their vote for one candidate, as a nay or as an abstention. Paragraph 3 applies respectively.
(7) In absence of a Speaker of Parliament throughout the term the process will be held accordingly.

3 – Standing Orders
Parliament gives itself standing orders by simple majority. These standing orders solely define how the Parliament conducts its business. They underlay any law, unless otherwise specified by the law.

4 – Public Business
(1) Parliament conducts its business publicly. This means that any member of the public has, without previous request, viewable access to all of Parliament's business.
(2) The Speaker of Parliament may, with request from the Parliament by motion, classify the within the motion specified parliamentary business in the manner made possible by Acts of Parliament. He is obliged to do so if the respective motion reaches a supermajority support and does not explicitly express the optionality of the matter.
(a) Bills, Amendments, Motions, or votes on such may never be classified.

5 – Parliament Building
(1) The Parliament Building, located in-game at “Parliament”, is the official building representing parliament.
(2) Arrests, detentions and investigations during in-game sessions within the Parliament building may only be made at the discretion of the presiding officer, or, if they are inaccessible, when imminent danger is present.

6 – Acts of Parliament
(1) Acts of Parliament are legislation set forth by the Parliament. They carry the force of law and are only subject to the Constitution.
(2) Any Member of Parliament may submit bills to the Parliament. Parliament may pass bills with a simple majority unless the bill or the Constitution requires a greater share of votes. Passed bills become effective Acts of Parliament upon public signature from the Monarch.
(3) Powers granted to the Parliament by the Constitution can only be exercised through Acts of Parliament, unless otherwise specified within an Act of Parliament.

7 – Resolutions
(1) Resolutions are documents presenting issues and possible solutions to them. They do not hold any effect outside as prescribed by Acts of Parliament.
(2) Any Member of Parliament may table a resolution. Parliament may pass it with a simple majority.

8 – Amendments
(1) Any Member of Parliament may propose amendments to tabled bills or resolutions that have not yet completed 24 hours of voting period through motion. To pass, an amendment requires the same share of votes as the bill in question requires to pass.
(a) The standing orders may allow the proposer of the bill to amend their bill without prior parliamentary approval, where Parliament has not yet entered a parliament-exclusive debate period.
(2) No bill may, without parliamentary approval, be amended after it has been tabled. § 8(1)(a) stays untouched.

9 – Motions
(1) Motions call Parliament to take procedural action or to exercise power given to it by an Act of Parliament. Unless otherwise specified, they may be introduced by any Member of Parliament and passed by a simple majority.
(a) Motions that call Parliament to take procedural actions include, but are not limited to, Motions to Amend, Motions to End Debate, Motions to Extend Debate.
(b) Motions may not exercise powers where and when missing the legal basis by an Act of Parliament.

10 – Voting
(1) Voting periods shall last no less than 48 hours, or, if put under urgent consideration by a motion, 24 hours. The passage of a vote may be recognized prior to its conclusion, when the non-casted votes would not be able to overturn the passage of the vote.
(2) No vote that requires more than half of the votes in favor to pass may pass without at least half of the Members of Parliament being present.
(3) Any member of Parliament must be able to vote, regardless of any suspension.

Part II
Members of Parliament​

11 – Factions
(1) Multiple Members of Parliament may form a faction by informing the Speaker of Parliament of the faction's name, its members and the faction's leader. Changes to those information shall be communicated with the Speaker of Parliament.
(2) A Member of Parliament may only be part of one faction at a time. They are only bound by their morals and not required to vote in a faction line. They may leave the faction at any time.
(3) Members of Parliament who attained seats through a united party list shall be assumed to be part of a party faction. The party leader, as provided within the party list, shall unless otherwise specified, act as the factions leader.

12 – Vacancy
(1) Where a seat becomes vacant that has formerly been attained by a member of a faction, the faction leader of the respective faction may, within 72 hours of the seat becoming vacant, nominate an individual to attain the vacant seat. Following nomination and parliamentary approval through simple majority, the individual attains the seat and becomes a part of the faction.
(a) Parliamentary approval for a correctly issued nomination may be assumed, unless if denounced by a Member of Parliament within 72 hours after the nomination.

13 – Playtime Requirements
(1) Members of Parliament shall be required to maintain 6 hours of in-game playtime logged within the last 30 days.
(2) The Speaker of Parliament may at any time perform playtime checks on all current Members of Parliament.
(a) The Speaker of Parliament is obligated to perform playtime checks on all current Members of Parliament when directed to by a motion.
(3) If a Member of Parliament does not meet minimum in-game playtime requirements, the following steps are taken:
(a) The Speaker of Parliament shall issue an official warning to the Member of Parliament.
(b) The offending Member of Parliament shall be given one week to either meet the minimum required in-game playtime or issue a formal appeal to the Speaker of Parliament that an extension of an additional week be given to meet said requirement. If the offending Member of Parliament is under a leave of absence at the time the warning is issued, up to a two week extension may be granted at the discretion of the Speaker.
(c) If the Member of Parliament is unable to meet the in-game playtime requirement by the deadline given, the Speaker of Parliament shall trigger the standard impeachment procedures.

Part III
Office of the Speaker​

14 – Office of the Speaker
(1) The Office of the Speaker handles the administrative duties of Parliament. The Speaker of Parliament heads it and employees to the respective positions.
(2) The Office of the Speaker consists of a Clerk, a Parliamentarian as well as deputies to those positions.

15 – Duties of the Office of the Speaker
(1) The Office of the Speaker, among other things, has the duty to
(a) incorporate amendments into bills or Acts of Parliament,
(b) keep a public record of votes that happened in the Parliament and their results,
(c) keep a public journal of happenings within the Parliament, and
(d) inform the public as required by Acts of Parliament.
(2) The standing orders handle the details.

16 – Payment
(1) The employees of the Office of the Speaker, in exception of the persons serving as the Speaker of Parliament or the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, receive a commission-based payment originating from the legislative funds.
(2) The Speaker of Parliament shall set forth and publish binding provisions regarding the payment where and when other provisions through Acts of Parliament are absent. The employees at the Office of the Speaker shall be heard in advance of changes to such provisions.

17 – Formatting
(1) The Office of the Speaker may, without Parliament's approval, make changes to bills or Acts of Parliament to fit an appropriate formatting style or to ensure proper reference when the numbering of an Act of Parliament has changed. Such changes may not interfere with the wording of the text.
(2) Parliament may revert such changes through a motion.

Part IV
Parliamentary Business​

18 – Hearings
(1) Any Member of Parliament may move to subpoena one or multiple individuals to a hearing. If supported by one sixth of Members of Parliament, the Speaker of Parliament shall summon the individuals in question and inform them of the subpoena and possible punishments that may be placed upon them if they fail to appear before Parliament.
(2) The hearing is open to every Member of Parliament. The Speaker of Parliament presides over it.
(3) Unless otherwise specified within the motion, the hearing is to be held asynchronously on a publicly viewable channel or thread within a discord server.
(4) Unless otherwise specified within the motion, hearings have no time limit, and shall continue pending a successful Motion to Conclude.
(a) If such a motion is made or supported by the Member filing the Motion to Convene Hearing, it shall require a majority of votes to pass. Otherwise, it shall require a supermajority of votes.

19 – Investigations
(1) Parliament may conduct investigations into government-related matters through motion.
(2) As part of these investigations, Parliament may, through motion, issue subpoenas to gain access to information that are of possible interest to the matter of the investigation. If supported by one fourth of Members of Parliament, the Speaker of Parliament shall inform the respective authorities of the subpoena and possible punishments that may be placed upon them if they fail to publish the requested information.

20 – Censures
(1) Parliament may, through motion, censure any individual. Censures are purely symbolic and hold no real effect.

21 – Statements
(1) Parliament may, through motion, issue statements to the public.

22 – Call for Legislation
(1) Parliament may, within a resolution, call for the government to present legislation aiming to fix the named issue. The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister or the Ministers of the portfolios the issues lay within must then, within fourteen days of the resolutions passage, table a bill aiming to fix the named issues or publish a statement why they deny to do so.
(2) The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister or the Ministers of the portfolios the issues lay within may only deny the request if the competences of the government are not required to present a bill proper to fix named issues.

23 – Committees
(1) Parliament may establish committees revolving around general or special matters through motion. Committees are purely advisory. The Speaker of Parliament shall preside over the committee.
(2) The number of members a faction can send to a committee is calculated by dividing the number of seats held by members of the faction by two. The result is rounded up to the nearest whole number.
(3) Parliament may, through motion, invite additional advisory members to the committee.
(4) A committee may be dissolved by motion.

24 – Government Proposal
(1) Parliament may appoint a Prime Minister by absolute majority. If passed, the Speaker of Parliament shall immediately seek the Monarch to appoint the new Prime Minister and relieve the old one.
(2) Prime Minister nominations issued by the Monarch at the start of a parliamentary term or in absence of a Prime Minister automatically trigger a voting period and do only require a majority of votes for it to pass.

25 – Impeachment
(1) Parliament may, through motion achieving a supermajority of votes in favor, impeach a High Chancellor, Chancellor, Magistrate, Speaker of Parliament, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Minister, or Member of Parliament for disobeyment of their duties or other major misconduct. The individual in question must be given the possibility to speak before Parliament prior voting starts.
(2) An impeachment may be appealed before the Magistrates’ Court. The Magistrates' Court shall grant the appeal should the petitioner be able to sufficiently prove that they have not disobeyed their duties or shown any major misconduct.+

26 – Appointing Monarch
(1) When and where the Monarch is, as stated within the Constitution, incapable of appointing a successor, Parliament may, through motion reaching a supermajority of votes in favor, appoint another capable individual to serve as the Monarch.
(2) If passed, the Speaker of Parliament shall immediately after expiration of the Monarch’s term seek the Monarch, or, where incapable, staff to appoint the new Monarch.

27 – Vacating the Monarch
(1) Parliament may, through motion reaching a supermajority of votes and at least a majority of members in favor, initiate a referendum to vacate the Monarch.
(2) If passed, the Speaker of Parliament shall immediately seek the Ministry of Internal Affairs to conduct the respective referendum.

28 – Misconduct
(1) Abusing or trying to abuse hearings, investigations, censures, or impeachments solely for political gain displays major misconduct.