Xanthal
17-02-2007, 06:31
The Council of the Socialist Republic of Xanthal, a country notorious among lifelong citizens and visitors alike for its mess of complicated and often contradictory legislative and judicial laws, voted yesterday to approve a special committee of legislators, lawyers, judges, and diplomats to organize and consolodate more than fifty years worth of legal codes.
"Disputes over the meaning, precedence, and scope of Xanthalian laws have been the source of extensive and costly litigation for decades," said Dennis Hawthorne, a second-term Councilor from Freeland. "What we're authorizing isn't going to have a big impact on the substance of Xanthalian law, but it's going to whittle down the language of all these different laws and amendments on each given subject to a simpler form."
Okakura Baba, a public prosecuter selected for membership on the committee, gave his own thoughts on the benefits of the project. "This is not just a project to aid the comprehension of the laws by common citizens; the system of organization we create will be a boon to people in the legal profession. Statutory and case law are currently kept in seperate records and indexed in the order in which they were adopted. The new system will supplement this with organization in a single record of all law by subject, complete with cross-referencing and other supplementary material."
The special committee is expected to complete its indexing system within a few months. Recommendations for changes to existing laws will follow in a systematic process that could take several years. All changes to the law will have to be approved by the Council before they are implemented.
Pressure has been building on the Council for years to enact a new system of legal indexing to help courts and laymen alike identify complete and current law as it pertains to an issue at hand as the complexity and scope of Xanthalian law continues to expand. Groups representing the tourist industry, citizens, and lawyers joined with a work-swamped High Court to bring about the 451-4 vote in a legislature that has been burdened with showboat legislation in a harsh political climate that has many members scrambling to appease their constituents. 100 Councilors abstained, primarily from the Thanic vicinages.
"Disputes over the meaning, precedence, and scope of Xanthalian laws have been the source of extensive and costly litigation for decades," said Dennis Hawthorne, a second-term Councilor from Freeland. "What we're authorizing isn't going to have a big impact on the substance of Xanthalian law, but it's going to whittle down the language of all these different laws and amendments on each given subject to a simpler form."
Okakura Baba, a public prosecuter selected for membership on the committee, gave his own thoughts on the benefits of the project. "This is not just a project to aid the comprehension of the laws by common citizens; the system of organization we create will be a boon to people in the legal profession. Statutory and case law are currently kept in seperate records and indexed in the order in which they were adopted. The new system will supplement this with organization in a single record of all law by subject, complete with cross-referencing and other supplementary material."
The special committee is expected to complete its indexing system within a few months. Recommendations for changes to existing laws will follow in a systematic process that could take several years. All changes to the law will have to be approved by the Council before they are implemented.
Pressure has been building on the Council for years to enact a new system of legal indexing to help courts and laymen alike identify complete and current law as it pertains to an issue at hand as the complexity and scope of Xanthalian law continues to expand. Groups representing the tourist industry, citizens, and lawyers joined with a work-swamped High Court to bring about the 451-4 vote in a legislature that has been burdened with showboat legislation in a harsh political climate that has many members scrambling to appease their constituents. 100 Councilors abstained, primarily from the Thanic vicinages.