Polska Republika Self-Governance Project Launched in Second Life; Constitution Posted
November 13th, 2008 by Benjamin Duranske
The Polska Republika has launched as the newest self-governance project in Second Life. Here’s the Polska Republika website, and, since it’s entirely in Polish, here’s a traditionally suspect Google translation.
The Polska Republika has posted a Constitution (here’s the translation). This is fairly clearly not an attempt to recreate modern Poland — among other discontinuities, there is a Queen, whose face is carved on the front of her palace.
Among the 60 provisions in the Constitution you will find sections on citizenship (freely available to Second Life users who join the Polska Republika Second Life group), elections (universal suffrage, direct, secret ballot), and the official language (Polish).
You’ll also find a section on the administration of justice in the Republika.
Section 39 – The court decides on the agenda of the Polish Republic.
Section 40 – The court shall issue a ruling on behalf of the Republic of Poland.
Section 41 – Queen appoints a judge to the Republic of Poland from among the candidates presented by the Government or at least 20 people, who have decided to confirm the validity of their signatures. In the absence of candidates, Judge [is appointed by] Queen.
Section 42 – The judge is appointed for an indefinite period.
Section 43 – The judge in the exercise of his office is independent and not subject to the Republic of Poland to other authorities.
Section 44 – The judge is not allowed to operate not to reconcile with the principles of autonomy and independence.
Section 45 – Queen of the judge dismissed the Republic of Poland. [Pretty sure Google's translator ate this one, but I can't guess what was meant.]
Section 46 – The details of the judiciary is governed by decree.
As noted, there are a few sections where I can’t really tell what’s going on because of translation issues, but perhaps someone who reads Polish will correct the Google translation in the comments.
You can visit Polska Republika in Second Life here (SLURL).
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5 Responses to “Polska Republika Self-Governance Project Launched in Second Life; Constitution Posted”
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I could translate it like that
Section 39 – The court decides on keep the order of the Polish Republic.
Section 40 – The court shall pronounce a sentence in the name of Republic of Poland.
Section 41 – Queen appoints a judge to the Republic of Poland from among the candidates presented by the Government or at least 20 people, who have decided to confirm the validity of their signatures. In the absence of candidates, Judge [is appointed by] Queen.
Section 42 – The judge is appointed for an indefinite period
Section 43 – The judge in the hold the office is independent and is not a subject to other authorities of the Republic of Poland.
Section 44 – The judge is not allowed to operate his life against principles of autonomy and independence.
Section 45 – Judge shall be dismissed by the Queen of the Republic of Poland.
Section 46 – The details of the judiciary is regulated by decree.
BuI stillhave roem with 41
Hmm, it seems as if they have somewhat inconsistent ideas about judicial independence…
Incidentally, other relevant sections are:
Section 55
Changes in the Constitution can only make the Queen after public consultation.
Section 56
The sources of universally binding law in the Republic of Poland, next to the relevant provisions of Polish law, are established by the Linden Lab “Terms of Service” and “Big Six” as well as the Constitution decrees, laws, rulings and other legal acts issued by the authorities of the Republic of Poland.
Section 57
The only person empowered to make binding interpretations of the Constitution is the Queen.
And the cryptic:
Section 60
With the entry into force of the Constitution, the Constitution loses a small force of law.
It looks as if they are after a constitutional monarchy, and there are certain similarities in the approach between this group and the historical position of the judiciary in the UK.
What is lacking is an equivalent of the House of Lords – a group of legal advisors to the Queen who hear individual cases requiring determination of the interpretation of the constitution and advise her on the outcome.
It might also be remarked that, in theory at least, every judicial decision requires interpretation of the constitution in some sense or other (since it is the constitution that gives judges the power to do anything in the first place), so Section 57 might present certain difficulties, as might the vagueness of Section 55, which does not establish any clear procedure for changing the constitution, which is likely to cause real problems if there is ever a dispute about the extent of the Queen’s power (if the Queen can interpret the constitution, she can decide what counts as adequate consultation for changing it, and then change the section requiring consultation for changing the constitution, and any other section).
It will be most interesting to see how this works in practice: I am not entirely confident, however, that such a system would withstand the test of any serious constitutional dispute of the sort that plagues certain other self governance projects.
“Section 60
With the entry into force of the Constitution, the Constitution loses a small force of law.”
is definitely bad translatation, it could be better if you read this in such way:
Section 60
With establishing of the Constitution, The Small Constitiution is out of legal power.
So Called the Small Constitution was established on temporary base to allow the Temporary Goverment to work on Constitution. A huge discussion and other proposals for constitution of Polish Republic in SL were publicated on secodlife.pl forum.
Anulka
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