NationStates Jolt Archive


Hamptonshire: New Constitution, New Name, New Rules

Hamptonshire
13-05-2006, 08:51
From Capital Cities Times

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v114/hamptonshire/NS%20Pictures/cookesigning.jpg
First Deputy Speaker John Cooke, acting for the hospitalized
Speaker Marcy Dean, signs the Constitutional Act into law in front of
members of the Great Althing's Constitutional Draft Committee

Great Althing adopts a new Constitution and Act of Succession for the nation


By Jessica Kelly, Hamptonshire City, and Emily Meduga, Obsidia


After over four months of wrangling, the various factions of the Great Althing were able to come to agreement over the future of the nation earlier this week. The Constitutional Act (2006) drafted by the Constitutional Draft Committee passed the assembly with three thousand and forty-nine yay votes to nine hundred nay votes. The only member to abstain was Speaker Marcy Dean, still in hospital after a minor stroke last week. With the ratification of a new constitution, Federal elections are to take place in a month. Political parties are beginning to reform on the national stage after their dissolution by the Lord Protector after the termination of The Regency. It is assumed that in the coming weeks the leading parties will emerge and they will field candidates for the new offices under the Constitutional Act.

The new constitution represents, in the words of First Deputy Speaker Cooke, "a supreme effort of compromise, prudence and sensitivity to the mistakes of the past." One of the most controversial measures was the formalization of the newly termed Hamptonian Empire. The previously named "Hamptonian League" was the Grand Duchy's empire-in-all-but-name. Without codified statutes, the Protectorate Realms were often at the whim of appointed mid-level government ministers in Hamptonshire City and Obsidia. With the formalization of the Empire, a move opposed by some liberals and socialists, the Dominions (formerly Protectorates) will have formal representation within the imperial legislature, the Royal Senate.

Hamptonshire itself is to go through near-revolutionary change with the creation of Semi-Autonomous Regions and the elevation of the Sovereign from Grand Duke to joint Grand Archducal/Imperial status. Assuming the next monarch is a male, he would be styled His Imperial, Royal and Apostolic Majesty Grand Archduke [Name], Emperor of the Hamptonians. The elevation of the monarch from Royal Highness to this new highest status has long been desired by conservatives and moderates in the Hamptonian international establishment. During the reign of Reginald Leopold the Great it was a rather sore point for Foreign Ministry officials during interactions with foreign kings and emperors that the Hamptonian monarch was considered second-class. With a change of style to the monarchy so comes a change of name to the nation as a whole. The "Grand Duchy of Hamptonshire" shall be thrown to the history books on the Thirteenth of May to be replaced by the name the "Grand Archduchy of the United Realms of the Hamptonian Empire". As drafter Stephen Larsen told a classroom full of tenth graders in Yespani, "It may be a tongue-twister but the new name fully reflects all the realms and governments of the new government."

Political analysts have largely been supportive of the new constitution. The Cicero Institute released a statement praising the Constitutional Act for "insuring that citizens are able to form local governments according to their own needs and concerns." Groups across the "new" Hamptonian Empire have also generally supported the new law of the land. McClellenite President Basil Almohedano told a gathering of reporters that he was "delighted that the territories that make up the Empire will have formal representation in the Federal government. I think I speak for the vast majority of, what's the new term, um, Dominion citizens when I say 'Long live the United Realms of the Hamptonian Empire'."

The upcoming Federal elections will largely be a referendum on the actual popularity of the Constitutional Act though the activities of The Regency will almost certainly weigh heavily in the minds of most voters. In addition, not only will Hamptonian and Dominion citizens be able to vote directly for their Head of Government for the first time in history, they will choose the Senators that will assemble in two months' time to elect the first "Grand Archduke" and "Emperor" this nation has ever known.

The Constitutional Act and Act of Succession can be found at this link (http://www.freefilehosting.org/public/9666/CONSTITUTIONALACT.doc).
Hamptonshire
13-05-2006, 17:42
*bump*