Constitution of the National Republic of Thermodolia

The Constitution of the National Republic of Thermodolia
Jurisdiction	Thermodolia
Created	9 April, 1897
Presented	10 April, 1897
Ratified	8 July, 1897
Date effective	12 October, 1898
System	Federal Semi-Presidential Democratic Republic
Branches	4
Chambers	Bicameral
Executive	President as Head of State and Chief Executive Prime Minister as Head of Government
Judiciary	Constitutional Court, National Court, Appellates, Districts, Circuits
Federalism	Federation
Electoral college	No
Entrenchments	3
First legislature	12 October, 1898
First executive	12 October, 1898
First court	13 October, 1898
Amendments	15
Last amended	12 August, 2021
Location	Federal Archives Library
Commissioned by	National Senate
Author(s)	Constitutional Convention of 1894
Signatories	95 out of the 130 Delegates
Media type	Paper
Supersedes	The Interim Constitution of Thermodolia

The Constitution of the National Republic of Thermodolia or the Constitution of Thermodolia for short. Is the currently governing constitution of Thermodolia coming into force on 12 October, 1898 after being ratified in a referendum on 12 July, 1897 where it obtained 72% of the vote well passing the 65% needed for ratification.

Amending the Constitution

Standard Requirements

Article 7 of the Constitution is the article from which all rules for amending the constitution originally come from, however since the adoption of the 14th amendment the rules have changed slightly.

Under the orginal rules a proposed amendment needed the support of 65% of the National Assembly, 66% of the Federal Senate, and approval of the executive before being presented to the people for ratification.

However if the executive refused to support the amendment then 75% in boththe Federal Senate and National Assembly would have to support the amendment in order to overcome the effective veto of the executive.

After the proposed amendment had won the support of the Federal Parliament and executive it went to the people of Thermodolia for ratification. Ratification would only be achived if 65% of the people voted for the amendment in a federal referendum.

After the 14th Amendment was ratified and adopted into the constitution in August 2021 the rules where slightly changed. Instead of the three different thresholds the proposed amendments would need to pass the 14th amendment simplified these to just 60%.

So as it currently stands an amendment needs to gain the support of 60% of the National Assembly, 60% of the Federal Senate, the executive, and 60% of the people. The 75% requirement to overturn the effective veto of the executive still remains unchanged.

In addition the 14th amendment added the provision that all referendums would only be valid if there was a turnout of 51% or more. Otherwise the amendment will not be ratified, even if the 60% threshold was reached.

Proposing Amendments

Under Article 7, and unchanged by the 14th anendment, amendments shall be able to be proposed by the President, Prime Minister, or any member of the Federal Parliament. Unlike other constitutions members of the general public and the judiciary are barred from proposing any amendments to the constitution.

In addition to the above no amendment shall be proposed to amend Articles 8 and 23, and Section 3 of Article 7. These sections and articles are the only permanent parts of the Constitution

Alternative Amendment Process

In addition to the regular amending process there is an additional amending process thst has been established. However just like the regular amending process this alternative process has also been affected by the 14th amendment.

Under the orginal rules of Section 4 of Article 7 a majority of provinces where able to come together in the form of a constitutional convention to propose amendments to the constitution. The amendments proposed by this constitutional convention would then have to be ratified by the people with 65% approving of the amendment.

After the 14th Amendment the rules where changed so that only 60% support of the people was required for ratification and that the referendum also required a turnout of 51% or more to be considered valid and thus be added to the constitution. No changes where made to the provinces ability to come together in the form of a constitutional convention to propose amendments.

As of 2021 no amendments have been asded to the constitution in this way, only two proposed amendments where created using this method but both of them failed to pass the then required threshold of 65%

Ratified Amendments

Since the constitution came into force on 12 October, 1898 it has been amended a total of 15 times. These amendments cover a wide range of topics from elections to term limts to constitutional reform. The most recent amendments being the 14th and 15th amendments ratified on 12 August, 2021.