Supreme Consensus of Talahara

Supreme Consensus of Talahara ⵜⵉⴼⴰⵇⴰⴽⵔⴰⴷ ⵏ'ⵜⴰⵍⴰⵀⴰⵔⴰ Tifaqakrad N'Talahara
Jurisdiction	Talahara
Created	May 9, 1841
Date effective	June 20, 1841
System	Directorial council republic
Branches	3
Chambers	Supreme Legislative Council Regional Legislative Councils (50) Communal Legislative Councils (1,250)
Executive	Executive Council
Judiciary	Supreme Judicial Council Regional Judicial Councils (50) Communal Judicial Councils (1,250)
First legislature	June 30, 1841
Amendments	5
Last amended	February 14, 2008
Commissioned by	Commune Council

The Supreme Consensus of Talahara (Takelat: ⵜⵉⴼⴰⵇⴰⴽⵔⴰⴷ ⵏ'ⵜⴰⵍⴰⵀⴰⵔⴰ; Tifaqakrad N'Talahara) is the constitution of the Communes of Talahara. Drafted over a period of three years between 1838 and 1841, the first two parts of the Supreme Consensus enshrined the rights and freedoms of all persons in Talahara, in addition to democratic and property rights. Part three of the Supreme Consensus was completed later in 1841 and codified the roles of the three branches of government and divisions of power between national, regional, and communal levels of government.

Both laws created by the Legislative Councils of Talahara and the executive functions of government must abide by the protections and limitations enshrined by the Supreme Consensus. Constitutional principles are also used alongside Talaharan customary legal principles to interpret laws.

The Supreme Consensus has been amended a total of five times. These amendments include the addition of the third part, electoral reform, and the addition of new rights and protections. Constitutional amendments require the passage of a provision by a two-thirds supermajority in the Supreme Legislative Council (34 of 50 members) and subsequent ratification by a two-thirds supermajority by the membership of the 1,250 Communal Legislative Councils in Talahara (8,334 of 12,500 members).

History of the Constitution

The drafting of the Supreme Consensus of Talahara represented the culmination of Talahara's legal history. The drafting committee drew inspiration from numerous sources, including traditional Talaharan laws and traditions, liberal legal principles, and socialist theory. The actual process of drafting the document was contentious, with major debates over the question of which influences were legitimate and functional for the new anarchist society and to what degree of importance each source ought to have.

Sources and values

The law of the Communes of Talahara developed from a long history of legal tradition which drew on numerous sources to develop a relatively complex code. In the early-modern era, the traditional legal system of Talahara was rapidly altered by liberal capitalist developments which, although rejected in theory by the central government, came to be adopted and pressed into usage by the growing merchant class. In turn, liberal capitalist legal theories instigated early socialist opposition, championed by theorists who rejected the liberal notion of individualistic equality in favour of social organization to develop a more equitable society. Talaharan socialists also drew inspiration from legal and social systems in Norumbia.

Pre-war law

Prior to the Talaharan Civil War, Talaharan law was derived from two main sources. The first source was the customary law of the Kel Aman and Kel Hadar clans. These customs informed and regulated social conduct and property relationships. The second source of law was the notion of natural law, which was promoted by the monarchs, including the Assembly of Chiefs. Talaharan interpretations of natural law described law and society as expressions of the natural order, distinct from the cultural importance of customary laws.

Talaharan scholars in discussion, c. 1755

Natural law encompassed royal edicts, laws that were effectively created or rescinded by a monarch. These proclamations were described as "discoveries" or "corrections", respectively. Modern sociologists have likened the distinctions between customary and natural law in Talahara as reflecting proto-symbolic interactionist and structural functionalist perspectives on the law. Ultimately, customary and natural laws were rejected as legitimate sources for the Supreme Consensus. However, customary and natural laws continue to inform non-legal traditions and social mores. Customary law also developed traditions that, while unwritten in the Supreme Consensus, have informed its interpretation in addition to concepts of fundamental justice.

The next major legal-political theory to reach Talahara was liberalism. Talaharan liberalism emerged alongside industrialization and the rise of the merchant class which embraced this ideology. Liberalism posited that all humans were equal and should have the right to conduct themselves freely insofar as they do not impugn the rights of others. In Talahara, two different strains of liberalism emerged: one that saw a liberal world as a discovery of natural law and one that saw a liberal world as a human creation independent of the natural world.

Liberal theory developed two major concepts in Talaharan law, despite being rejected by the monarchs of the Third Talaharan Kingdom in principle. The first major concept was fundamental equality and the rejection of the social ordering of the clans in favour of universal opportunities and equality before the law for all peoples. The second major concept was freedom of contract which in turn developed into a concept of security of the person. Freedom of contract was promoted by merchants as a justification for rejecting the limited tariffs enforced by government, for overturning usufruct relationships in favour of wage labour, and for the power to bind any person to contracted obligations regardless of the socio-political order.

Socialist theory

Six Awasin elders, c. 1820

The 18th century school of Talaharan socialism developed from the anti-naturalist liberal school and the experiences of commoners under the imposition of contractual relationships and wage labour. As the anti-naturalists posited that universal equality and, essentially, human rights were not natural but rather constructed for the amelioration of the human condition, a large division of these theorists found the conditions of liberalism iniquitous. Exploitation under contracts and existing wealth disparities ultimately failed to emancipate the vast lower classes from poverty and squalor.

The concerned anti-naturalist academics found common group with political organizers in the lower classes. Together, these two groups founded the constitutional mutualist school of economic and political thought. This anarchistic ideology rejected exploitation under capitalism and the freedom of contract in favour of mechanisms of social organization and usufruct. In addition to founding the main social, legal, and political traditions of the Communes of Talahara, the constitutional mutualist school posited the necessity of legal constructions to ameliorate the human condition, paving the way for a written constitution.

In the early 19th century, Talaharan mutualists, including Mass Ziri Akli began to draw on the political and legal structures of Norumbian nations for inspiration, particularly in the Osawanon region. Many of these nations and confederations were exemplars for industrialized usufruct exchange and government by social consent. Despite this, Talaharan visitors to Norumbia criticized aspects of Osawanon society, including the retention of semi-hereditary roles in governance and justice. Nevertheless, the Norumbian journeys of Talaharan mutualists directly influenced the system of participatory council democracy codified in the Supreme Consensus.

Drafting process

In 1838, the Liberal Republicans were defeated in the Talaharan Civil War. The Commune Council, a representative and nebulous body that had acted as a forum for the various anarchist factions during the war, convened to declare victory on June 20 which was thereafter recognized as the official independence date of the Communes of Talahara. The June 20 convention led to the commissioning of a new constitution that would enshrine the rights and functioning of an equitable, socialist society. In furtherance of this goal, a committee of scholarly and experienced politicians and ideologues was commissioned with the drafting process and given a period of four years to complete the process of consulting, drafting, and receiving assent for a new constitution.

The drafting committee did not start from scratch, however, as numerous ideas and drafts of an ideal constitution had circulated among anarchist groups even before the war. The majority of the committee's work between 1838 and 1840 was in consulting and negotiating with various groups within the Communes of Talahara. Consensus on the subject of rights and freedoms formed Part I of what became known as the Supreme Consensus, which was effectively completed to the satisfaction of the Communes in February 1840.

The drafting of the democratic processes and property reform proved more contentious. The question of the necessity of an executive branch was also a concern. The initial theory was that the nested councils could assent to their own charters, with any regional or national representation serving merely as a forum for cooperative efforts and discussions. In the course of their consultations, however, the drafting committee had concluded that a unified structure and an independent executive, albeit heavily restrained, would be desirable for the sake of foreign relations and national security. This executive would take the form of ten representatives who were popularly elected independent of the nested councils, but their role remained undefined. These elements were ultimately incorporated into Part II of the Supreme Consensus which was completed in mid-1841. The Commune Council assented to the completed two-part document and called for elections on the third anniversary of their independence.

Part III of the Supreme Consensus was initially not contemplated as a necessity by the Commune Council. Furthermore, industrialization and concerns regarding what developments the future might bring had pressured a significant portion of the population toward some semblance of a central authority. The question of an executive was considered by Part II of the Supreme Consensus but the actual role remained minimally understood within codified law. The drafting committee was effectively divided on the issue, with a large faction believing that the Executive Council needed only to be convened in states of emergency to act with power granted directly by the Supreme Legislative Council. The other main faction of the committee called for a permanent executive with specific mandates, functions, and checks.

The solution that both factions arrived at was to create the institution as a shell, allow for the first elections to proceed, and defer the solution to the newly elected councils to decide by process of amendment as described in Part II. The Supreme Legislative Council nominated a second drafting committee to draft Part III of the Supreme Consensus, effectively siding with the permanent executive faction with their mandate. Part III was completed by October 1841 and ratified by the Supreme Legislative Councils and the membership of the Communal Legislative Councils two months later.

Structure and content

Part I

Part I of the Supreme Consensus, commonly known as the Canon of Rights (Takelat: Qanun N'Ihuquqan; ⵇⴰⵏⵓⵏ ⵏ'ⵉⵀⵓⵇⵓⵇⴰⵏ), contains 55 sections on the rights and freedoms of Talaharans which are divided between five chapters. The first three chapters cover democratic, legal, and equality rights. These are typically referred to as "fundamental rights" and include rights to vote, the presumption of innocence before the law, the right to expression, and the prohibition of discrimination against minorities. The fourth chapter covers sections and subsections on bodily autonomy which were added by two constitutional amendments in the early 20th century that abolished capital punishment and guaranteed the right to abortion. Chapter five covers social and industrial rights as well as usufruct rights.

Part II

Part II of the Supreme Consensus, commonly referred to as the Canon of Processes (Takelat: Qanun N'Išaɣalan; ⵇⴰⵏⵓⵏ ⵏ'ⵉⵛⴰⵖⴰⵍⴰⵏ), contains 71 sections divided among six chapters. The first five chapters govern the functioning of elections for the legislative councils, the Executive Council, and the levels of judicial councils. Chapter six outlines the processes for the establishment of property in common and the equitable distribution of personal property.

Part III

Part III of the Supreme Consensus, commonly referred to as the Canon of Governance (Takelat: Qanun N'Imaxazan; ⵇⴰⵏⵓⵏ ⵏ'ⵉⵎⴰⵅⴰⵣⴰⵏ), contains 115 sections explaining the jurisdiction of each branch and level of government. Each branch is afforded its own chapter for a total of three chapters. Part III establishes the supremacy of the communal councils, voluntary upward devolution, the portfolios of the executive, and the specific jurisdictions of each level of the judicial councils.

See also

• Executive Council
• Supreme Legislative Council