Rules, everyone submits 10 amendments in order of importance, we put those in a datasheet, and we create the chapo constitution.
(if anyone is interested in a modern constitutional convention then please visit /c/hapostan)
Rules, everyone submits 10 amendments in order of importance, we put those in a datasheet, and we create the chapo constitution.
(if anyone is interested in a modern constitutional convention then please visit /c/hapostan)
Every citizen has the right to decent housing. "Decent housing" shall be defined as housing that is safe, sanitary, and maintained regularly.
Every citizen has the right to adequate healthcare. "Adequate healthcare" shall be defined as the provision of goods or services reasonably calculated to prevent, cure, or lessen suffering of an individual's illnesses and injuries.
Every citizen has the right to adequate food and water. "Adequate food" shall be defined as food of a quantity and quality reasonably calculated to meet an individual's basic nutritional and health needs. "Adequate water" shall be defined as water of a sufficient quantity and quality to meet an individual's basic nutritional, health, cleaning, and cooking needs.
Every citizen of sound mind has the right to own firearms and use them for self-defense, hunting, and sport. "Citizen of sound mind" shall be defined as individuals who do not possess an illness or injury that prevents such individual from using a firearm in a way that causes unreasonable danger to others.
Slavery in any context is to be utterly forbidden. The term "slavery" is to be given the broadest reasonable definition.
No crime or other legal violation is permitted to carry a penalty of death or torture. "Torture" shall be construed to include both physical and mental torture.
Every constituent political unit of the nation has the right to secede from the nation. Constituent political units shall develop their own procedures by which to demonstrate intention to secede. Constituent political units are forbidden from preventing another constituent political unit from seceding.
The nation shall have no military. Constituent political units are responsible for their own military affairs. Constituent political units may form shared military organizations or defensive pacts with one another. In no event will a constituent political unit be compelled to join or remain in such organization or pact. Constituent political units are forbidden from directing military force or the threat of military force at one another.
The nation shall have no legislature. Constituent political units are given full independence to develop their own system of laws. However, in no event may any law or practice of a constituent political unit contradict the requirements of this constitution.
The nation shall have a system of courts constituting of one court per constituent political unit, one appeals court per twenty-five constituent political units, and one appeals court of final authority. The responsibilities of these courts shall be limited to determining whether the action of any entity has violated the requirements of this constitution. Court officials may order any punishment for a violation reasonably calculated to provide restitution to harmed parties and discourage similar violations. Constituent political units must obey an order to punish an entity or be expelled from the nation. In no event shall any punishment involve death or torture. "Torture" shall be construed to include both physical and mental torture.
Ideally there should also be provisions dealing with how to add additional constituent political units, raise funds for the nation's operations, and define universal terms like "constituent political unit" or "reasonable," but that would require going outside the ten-rule limit.
So the nation is effectively a bunch of courts (which, who decides who serves on these courts?) deciding on laws from otherwise independent nation-states. I know the challenge is only 10 amendments, but how does this scenario not devolve into the largest independent nation state simply conquering all of it's neighbors and rewriting the constitution as it sees fit?
Totally forgot to include judicial selection criteria. I had in mind something representative; judges would be elected rather than appointed, and be limited to single terms.
Rule 8 does forbid military action against member units, and I intentionally left out any way to modify the constitution, but rules have never stopped people from doing what they want. I think any kind of political system is going to present the risk of change through conquest, though. The risk of one individual unit dominating the nation doesn't seem that different from the risk of a neighboring nation coming in and taking over. The best you can do is try to make units get along and agree to a bare minimum of just treatment for their citizens.
I'll push back - external invasions are entirely different from internal ones. The way this proposal is set up, each individual nation can form their own military (while in the federation) and then secede whenever. The thing stopping, say, Texas from seceding from today's America is partly because they don't have a military (and couldn't nearly put one together to rival the US military). With each state as its own de facto nation, the central government becomes basically meaningless - why listen to an authority that doesn't have any avenue of executing its own laws?