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| ARTICLE III: LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 1.) All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in the Imperial Estates-General, which shall have three estates: The First Estate, the Second Estate and the Third Estate. Section 1: The First and Second Estates 1.) The First and Second Estates shall meet together and comprise one upper chamber of the Estates-General. 2.) The First Estate shall be composed of the nobility of the Empire. Each noble that is a member of the 1st Estate shall have one vote. 3.) The Second Estate shall be composed of the clergy of the Empire. Each member of the clergy that is a member of the 2nd Estate shall have one vote. 4.) The Emperor shall have a vote in the First Estate. 5.) The Upper Chamber shall draw up its rules of procedure and shall appoint a presiding officer called the Chief Speaker. The Upper Chamber shall appoint its own officers. 6.) The Upper Chamber shall have the sole power to try impeachments. When sitting for that purpose they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the Prime Minister is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-third of the members present. 7.) Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the Empire: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law. 8.) To become a member of the Upper Chamber, a member of the Empire’s nobility or clergy should announce a public claim to a seat in the chamber during a session. Section 2: The Third Estate 1.) The Third Estate shall be the lower chamber of the Estates-General. 2.) The Third Estate shall be comprised of all Alexandrian citizens that are not nobility or clergy of the Empire. Each member of the Third Estate shall have one vote. 3.) Members of the Third Estate shall be known as Deputies. 4.) The Third Estate shall draw up its own rules of procedures and shall appoint its Speaker and its own officials. 5.) To become a member of the Lower Chamber, one must register with the Speaker of the Third Estate during its session. 6.) The Third Estate shall have the sole power of impeachment. Section 3: Organization of the Estates-General 1.) The Estates-General shall meet for nine months every year, and in every October 15th the session will close and have a recess of one week until it reconvenes again, unless by law they appoint a different day. 2.) Each Chamber shall be the judge of the qualifications of its own members, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each Chamber may provide. 3.) Each Chamber shall keep a journal of its proceedings and the yeas and nays of the members of each Chamber to be kept by the Speaker of each Chamber and published at the end of every session. 4.) Each member of the Estates-General shall receive compensation for their services, to be paid out by the Imperial Treasury. The compensation shall be ascertained by law. No law, varying the compensation for services of Members of the Estates-General, shall take effect until the next session. 5.) Each Chamber may determine its rules of proceedings, punish members for disorderly conduct, and with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 6.) All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the Third Estate; but the First and Second Estates may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 7.) Every bill which shall have passed the Estates-General, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the Emperor of Alexandria; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to the Chamber in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal and proceed to consider it. If after such reconsideration two-thirds of that Chamber shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent together with the objections, to the other Chamber, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds, it shall become a law. If any bill shall not be returned by the Emperor within 31 days (excluding Saturdays and Sundays) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Estates-General by their adjournment prevents its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 8.) Every order, resolution or vote to which the concurrence of the Estates-General may be necessary (except adjournment) shall be presented to the Emperor; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Chambers, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 9.) The sittings of the Estates-General shall be held in public. 10.) The sittings shall be private if the members of the Estates-General so decide by a majority vote. 11.) Decisions in the Estates-General shall be taken by majority. 12.) The members shall not be bound to a mandate or instructions when casting their votes. Section 4: Powers granted to the Imperial Estates-General The Estates-General shall have the power to: 1.) To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the Empire; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the Empire. 2.) To borrow money on the credit of the Empire; 3.) To regulate the monetary system of the Empire; 4.) To establish Imperial elementary, secondary, and post-secondary school systems and standards of education uniform throughout the Empire; 5.) To establish a system of aide for the underprivileged of the Empire; 6.) To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the Empire; 7.) To constitute tribunals inferior to the Imperial Supreme Court; 8.) To define and punish piracies committed in cyberspace and out of it, and offenses against the nations; 9.) To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 10.) To provide and maintain an Internet Imperial Navy; 11.) To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Empire, reserving to the Departments respectively, the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by the Imperial Estates-General; 12.) To exercise total legislative authority over all places in the Empire in which the same shall be for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings; and — 13.) To make all the laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Imperial Constitution in the government of the Empire, or in any department or officer thereof. Section 5: Powers forbidden to the Imperial Estates-General 1.) The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may requite it. 2.) No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 3.) No capitation tax shall be laid. 4.) No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any Department. 5.) No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the parts of one Department over those of another: nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one Department, be obliged to enter, clear or pay duties in another. 6.) No money shall be drawn from the treasury; but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. 7.) No person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall without the consent of the Estates-General or the Prime Minister, accept any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatsoever, from any alien king, prince, or republic. |
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| CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS Constitutional Amendment 001 Purpose: Establishing a uni-cameral Estates-General Whereas the idea of having two chambers of the Estates-General would work only if Alexandria had a big amount of participants, Whereas at the present time this is not the situation, Be it decided by the Estates-General of the Empire of Alexandria ; 1. That Article III, Section 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Alexandrian Constitution shall be amended as follows:
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