Fourth Amendment to the Supreme Directive
to the
In accordance with Article II, Section 2 of the Supreme Directive, entrenched as the fundamental law of the Empire of Adammia since the 30th of June 2013, the changes to the Supreme Directive outlined in this Amendment shall take effect upon the Supreme Directive if this Amendment gains the support of at least 50% of the voters in a fair public referendum open to all full citizens of the Empire of Adammia. If this Amendment takes effect, any violations of the Supreme Directive prior to this Amendment which would now be legal following this Amendment shall be considered to have been legal at the time.
1. Article II Section 1 shall be changed to the following: “I, Adam Belcher, the son of Kevin Belcher, who is the son of Kenneth Belcher, who is the son of Frederick Belcher, who was the son of John Belcher, who was the son of John Belcher, who was the son of William Belcher, who was the son of Richard Belcher who was the son of George Belcher of Pontefract, by my self-given right as Founder and Emperor of the Empire of Adammia, declare that the fundamental law of the Empire of Adammia shall consist of this Supreme Directive, alongside the first sentence of the Supreme Directive of April 2013 which established the state; the remainder of the Supreme Directive of April 2013 shall be considered null and void.”
2. In Article II Section 2, after the word “invoked”, the following shall be inserted: “in accordance with Article VI Section 4 of this Supreme Directive,”.
3. In Article IV Section 2 Subsection f), “Provinces and Territories within the Country of Adammia” shall be replaced with “Provinces, Colonies and Territories”.
4. Article IV Section 3 Subsection b) shall be changed to the following: “By default, laws created by Imperial Decrees and Acts of Council will hold effect over all the Provinces of the Empire, except for the subdivisions of Provinces that are Territories, and will not hold effect over Colonies or Territories. Deviations from this default extent of jurisdiction are permissible such that laws may be applied over any combination of individual territorial divisions, where explicitly specified by the particular Decree or Act.”
5. In Article V Section 2 Subsection a), after the phrase “contributed to the Empire in”, “a” shall be inserted.
6. In Article VI Section 3, “though this can be overruled by the current Monarch” shall be removed.
7. In Article VII Section 2, Subsection b) shall be appended to the end of Article VII Section 1, and the rest of Article VII Section 2 shall be deleted.
8. In Article VIII Section 4 Subsection d), “six months” shall be replaced with “one month”.
9. In Article VIII Section 5 Subsection d), “six months” shall be replaced with “one month”.
10. In Article VIII Section 7 Subsection a), “one meeting per month” shall be replaced with “two meetings per year”.
11. In Article VIII Section 8 Subsection e), “Prime Minister” shall be replaced with “Lord/Lady Chancellor”.
Explanatory notes
The minimum term lengths are to be reduced in order to facilitate early elections following the transfer of central government from the Yorkshire Provinces to the Birmingham Provinces. The reduction in the minimum number of Ruling Council meetings is to allow for the Council to recess during the summer holidays, when its members will not be in Birmingham. The change of the holder of the tie-breaking vote from the Prime Minister to the Chancellor is for separation of powers reasons, namely that it was considered inappropriate to grant additional legislative power to an executive official. All other changes address various sections which are inconsistent, ambiguous, redundant or otherwise mildly problematic that we have been advised to fix by our legal advisor Lord Sir Alex Helliker.
Referendum held 28th October 2017
Turnout: 21 of 37 eligible voters (56.8%)
FOR: 20 (95.2%)
AGAINST: 1 (4.8%)
and hence proclaimed.
Signed, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Adam I
ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE
Adamus Primus Imperator
29th October 2017 23:02