Republic Code

=Republic Code= The Republic Code exists as a central source for all in-depth law of the Republic. Being added to regularly, this document serves as both a working draft and a finished edition of the Code. In general, this details four separate codes, The Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Military Code and the Administrative Code. Each has its own independent focus and serves as (essentially) independent articles for the definition, administration, modification of law. Each section is described more generally below:

Penal Code
This is perhaps the most stringent on specifics of all the codes, as it directly relates with what is and isn't a crime in the eyes of the republic. Whilst this section has been detailed as briefly as possible, it has several types of offenses, of which to the lay person may seem strange or not well defined. Here, it is hoped some of the confusion is sorted out.

There are two types of offenses, summary and indictable offenses. In general, indictable offenses are more severe than summary ones, generally because summary offenses are usually caused in the process of committing other, more serious crimes; although, not always.

There are three categories of offenses, those being Inchoate offenses, crimes against the state, and crimes against the public order. Other than Inchoate offenses, the other two categories are not specific as to the degree of punishment, rather like broad descriptors of the kind of crimes contained within. In the case of Crimes Against the State, this includes:


 * Espionage;
 * (+Serious) Violation of the Administrative Code;
 * Abuse of Authority;
 * Treason;

and others.

In the case of Crimes Against the Public Order, this includes:


 * Piracy;
 * Intellectual Property Theft;
 * Violating Privacy

and others.

In the case of Inchoate Crimes, they are anticipating or preparatory to a further criminal act, and thus reflect the more summary nature of the crimes in this category. To be brief, an example is the Conspiracy offense. In a criminal proceeding, whilst these may be declared as equals to other crimes, when it comes to sentencing, if the crime to which the Inchoate crime has been found "not guilty" or equivalent, then the inchoate crime has no effect on the ruling.

The Civil Code
In the present form of the Code, the Civil Code covers clauses relating to businesses within the republic. In short, this Code defines an Incorporated Business from an Operating Business as the case where a business is operating within the sovereignty of the Republic and has more than 25% of its workforce as being Republic citizens.

The Administrative Code
The administrative code covers many topics including Time Standardization, National Holidays that should be celebrated by the Republic, and defines several key organisations within the Republic's extensive Governmental structure.

Judiciary
The Judiciary is separated into two sections, the Ministry of Justice, and the Judiciary itself. This section of the Code specifically deals with the latter, however, making specific note of the most important features of the Judiciary, which include its ability to preside over Court sessions, and holds several key positions and organisations within the Justice system of the Republic. These include:


 * The President of the Supreme Court;
 * Defining the role of a "Law Officer";
 * The Supreme Court itself;
 * The High Court;
 * The National District Court;
 * The Military Court [new v2.1]; and
 * The Intelligence Bench (of the High Court) [new v2.1]

Possibly among others, given the rate at which the Code is amended.

Ministry of Justice
The Ministry of Justice is the former of the aforementioned part of the Judiciary. Instead of presiding over the courts, the Ministry of Justice acts as both the prosecution trying to prove a case to the court, as well as provide a legal representative for those who don't have one, the Chief Republic Defender, or any in their Department of Legal Defence.

They are, for all intents and purposes the main staff who make up a Law Officer in the eye of the law. Officially, this is where the demarcation between a "Judicial" and "Executive" officer blurs somewhat, as in certain respects, the members of the Ministry of Justice have limited executive authority for the purpose of accurately and effectively carrying out their mission of prosecution or defence of a party in a court room. Other clauses in law may also convey the right to "take temporary command" of a group of military ships for the purpose of "Law enforcement"; although this is uncommon and is regulated heavily.

This section covers topics like:


 * The Ministry's official establishment;
 * The Law Enforcement side of the ministry, with the ability to executively handle law enforcement in both civilian and military scopes;
 * Oversight over the Ministry's cases is conferred onto the Minister of Justice, whom by this section control the allocation of people and resources to cases or outright dismiss them;
 * The establishment of the Department of Legal Defence, by which aims to defend presumed criminals from the law in the court room;
 * The establishment and orders relating to a Department of Corrections, which aims to remedy criminals by providing places for them to carry out their sentences;
 * And finally articles to provide for the detainment of criminals and citizens (in specific cases only) as required by other clauses in this section. [v2.1]

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In short, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs covers all interactions both inside and outside the Republic regarding people and information, allowed (by law) to act diplomatically with representatives of other nations and factions and handling immigration while collecting Data. The Code provides for this in several key ways, to:


 * Establish the powers of the Ministry, in the sense that they are constitutionally allowed to "iron" out the details of an agreement with another entity (although not allowed to finalize it, only the Senate can do that);
 * the establishment of several subsidiary departments to handle various goals of the Ministry [v2]:
 * the Office of Diplomatic and Business Affairs (DABA) which act as the ambassadors for Republic to other entities;
 * the Department of Central Intelligence Networks (CIN), which acts as a central repository for our internal and external knowledge (through Espionage or other means); and
 * the Immigration Department (ID) who's primary purpose is the screening of citizen applicants for malicious intent or reason.
 * the establishment of a "Secretary of Immigration" with pervasive authority to control how Immigration Officers handle Immigration requests and other managerial functions.
 * the establishment of the role "Immigration Officers", to handle and process the Immigration requests, under the supervision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of Immigration.
 * the procedures involved with immigration; and
 * the articles required to define the Central Intelligence Networks.

Foreign Relations
The Administrative Code also covers detail regarding the way the Republic is to classify outside entities, like other factions. This section defines this in a series of "Hostility Levels", which are first and third party operators on the standard response to new and existing factions within applicable territories of the Republic. These levels are defined as follows:


 * Friendly Relations
 * Neutral Relations
 * Moderate Relations
 * High Tension
 * Very High Tension

These define the actions that the Republic will let a faction take within their space. Usually, this includes level of access, ranging from full access (inclusive of military ships) at Friendly, to no access at all times (at Very High Tensions), among other effects.

This section also defines the legislation around this classification system and actions permissible by relevant authorities and the executive as a whole as towards the specified Faction or faction group.

Republic Navy
The Republic Navy is an interesting clause in the Administrative Code, as officially, its main functions are dictated by the Military Code. However, this section seeks to illuminate its establishment within the Republic as being under the guise of "Law Enforcement" under the direct command of the Minister of Justice. Although, it should be assumed that outside of this specific function, the Minister for Defence should also have the authority to broadly control the Republic Navy. The usage of its armaments is strictly controlled by the Military Code, although, so even if for Law Enforcement, the activation and firing of weapons would need to be justified by this Code.

The Senate
The Administrative code also amends the Constitution's definition of the Senate to include several features; namely an augmented voting process between the houses. On top of this, it also defines:


 * the role of a Clerk Secretary of the Houses, with the permission to act like the Speaker of the Senate if they are unavailable or so do wish;
 * the establishment of the National Budget & Spending Commission (NBSC); which, like it is named for, will monitor and report on the national budget of the Republic;
 * the establishment of the Constitutional Republishing Committee, tasked with the editing and maintenance of the constitution if it is ever required after a referendum.
 * the establishment of the House of State Investigatory Committee, whose functions are broad, but effectively cover the Judicial and Executive branches, allowing the House of State to investigate both criminal and civil cases, using any method they require within restrictions.

Ministry of Commerce
The Ministry of Commerce has several main functions, those being that the Ministry of Commerce shall:


 * be designated as the primary office about industry, trade, and infrastructure;
 * be tasked with enforcing regulations about industry and trade;
 * mandate the building of infrastructure needed by the Republic; and
 * take on the responsibility of crafting bills to regulate trade and industry within the Republic to keep it fair and stable.

To support thee core goals, the following is established legislatively:


 * a Department of Business (DoB) with the specific goal of registering, managing, and upholding businesses to both standards of conduct and their legitimacy. This department also holds the Office of Registration (OoR), which handles official business registration with the Republic and issue Decrees of Incorporation.
 * a Department of Infrastructure (DoI) with the specific goal of developing the infrastructure of the Republic to provide for the welfare of Republic citizens, the in-game progression of the Republic and to support military operations. Through this department, citizens or higher officials of the Republic may put forth proposals to develop new structures or systems, of which at their completion will be owned by Republic. This department also handles a job system to provide for the security of workers working on the open projects being developed via this system.
 * a Department of Revenue (DoR) with the abilities and mandate to collect revenue and handle taxation within the Republic. This Department falls under the purview of the Secretary for State Spending, and is at the discretion of the Minister of Justice as to its establishment and operation, despite its ownership coming under the Ministry of Commerce.

Treatment of Information
An unfortunately, but fully necessary addition to the Administrative Code, is the Treatment of Information Act. This section to the code defines the levels of classification for certain kinds of information. In general, these levels are as follows, and are regulated by various clauses within this Article:


 * Confidential:
 * if said information is released, this kind of information will cause personal detriment to an individual’s reasonable expectation of personal privacy.
 * Secret:
 * if said information is released, this kind of information will cause undue burden onto government agencies.
 * Restricted:
 * if said information is released, this kind of information will cause diplomatic disasters or loss of standing with foreign powers and/or cause a state of war with foreign powers, or that such information will cause profound chaos.

Taxes and the Budget
This section is simply to describe that citizens may make voluntary contributions to the Republic Budget.

Public Projects
This article defines two public projects to be undertaken by the Republic at the discretion of the Grand Premier, or Premier.

The first is the Citadel project, which is a colossal station or capital ship dedicated to the government and its various branches.

The second is the Andromeda project, which is the construction of a massive military capital ship to act as the Command and Control vessel in Republic's fleets. This is to be named by the Grand Premier at its completion.

Concordia Alliance
These clauses are dedicated to the preservation of Republic's alliance, Concordia. Effectively defining its establishment and commitment to the democratic process.

Central Intelligence Network [v2]
This Title establishes the organisation known as the Central Intelligence Network. This network is a purely information gathering one, with limited executive authority. It establishes:


 * A Chief Intelligence Officer whom:
 * Sits in on the Armed Forces Board of Commands, with no voting power;
 * control what information CIN agents get access to and how;
 * coordinates the resources of the CIN in its information gathering efforts; and
 * establish any control structures needed to maintain agents of CIN within the Republic structure.
 * That CIN is an informational organisation, whom monitors communications and information in general both inside and out; and
 * all information received by CIN is automatically classified as RESTRICTED under the Treatment of Information Title.

Executive Advisory Formalisation [v2.1]
This Title establishes the role of the Executive Advisor (collectively called the Republic Executive Council) as an advisory board to the Grand Premier, with collective (via REC) authority to enact any and all actions that the Grand Premier is capable of doing. This act effectively establishes:


 * An Executive Advisor as experts in their fields, serving at the pleasure of the Grand Premier;
 * An Executive Advisor as Military commanders at the Grand Premier's discretion;
 * An Executive Advisor as common leaders in their own fields of expertise, granted the right of common authority; and
 * The Republic Executive Council; to collectively act as the Grand Premier, either at their discretion or when they are not available, with full executive authority.

Military Code
The Military Code is the code that not only affects the Armed Forces of the Republic, but also any person who is not a citizen of the Republic. This Code is also designed to be subsidiary to the Administrative Code, in that all regulations (aka. Articles) must comply with both other Republic Law and the Administrative Code. In cases where this conflicts, the Code specifies that the Administrative Code and/or other law takes precedence. The Military Code outlines:


 * that any offense that can be applied to a Citizen also applies to any and all military personnel, although modifications to said offenses can be made at the discretion of the Courts;
 * the establishment of an "Alpha Fleet" - designed to be the mainline forces of the Republic and a Militia of reserve civilian ships and vessels;

Title 4


 * the actions to be taken against non-civilian persons who commit crimes. (It is understood that not all people agree to the roleplay the Republic is involved in, so actions are at the discretion of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and/or the Grand Premier. DO NOTE: The Republic Navy is authorised to destroy vessels committing acts of violence against any and all Republic vessels;
 * that the Republic Navy is authorized to request an inspection of any non-hostile (friendly / neutral/ moderate) relationed vessel;

Title 5 - Ministry of Defence [v2.1]


 * the establishment of the Ministry of Defence;
 * the establishment of a Minister of Defence, to represent the Military in the Civilian Government as a member of the Executive;
 * the establishment / amendment of the Grade and Rate system of ranking officers and enlisted personnel within the Armed Forces;
 * the official establishment of the Armed Forces Board of Commands;
 * the establishment of the Department of Internal Spending, to manage the funds and resources of the Armed Forces as a whole;
 * the establishment of the Department of Employment, which manages all of the Armed Force's personnel records;
 * the establishment of the Office of Applied Training, which manages all certification courses to be undertaken by AF personnel;

Title 6 - Military Information [v2.1]


 * the establishment of a Clearance system, marked "CLEAR-1" through "CLEAR-5", representing the level of access an officer has with regards to information from Military Intelligence or other Military sources.
 * the establishment of a Naval Special Warfare Office, to be headed by a Director, called the Director of the Naval Special Warfare Office;
 * the establishment of a group of officers call Liaison Sergeants, whom act as representatives of the Republic in sharing information with outside foreign powers, at the discretion of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Grand Premier;

Title 7 - Penalties [v2.1]


 * the establishment of the Office of Administrative Penalties, who's duty is to record and file Administrative Penalties with the Military Court in accordance with the Universal Military Code of Justice (a separate document).
 * the establishment of the role of Quartermaster, who is the head of the aforementioned office.
 * the establishment of a process know as Court Martial, by which a Judge-Commodore acts as the prosecuting officer to prove malpractice on the defence. The defendant is assigned a Commander-Advocate to assist in their defence.

The Code ends with Title 7, Article 3, which whilst it does not fit into the previous section about penalties exactly, it states that the Grand Premier is authorised to generate the document known as the Universal Military Code of Justice, which shall be published in any form the Grand Premier sees fit.

Current Bill of the Code
This is the current edition of the Code as it stands. For the time being, previous versions of the bill are unavailable for checking for other changes, additions etc. However, this wiki page serves as a comprehensive summary of the Code in its current form as of the 12th of October, 2021.