Constitution of Ebrary

Constitution of Ebrary
Original title	Constitution Ebrarian de 1983
Jurisdiction	Christian Commonwealth of Ebrary
Created	6 Jun 1982
Presented	13 Jun 1982
Ratified	15 June 1983
Date effective	15 June 1983
Chambers	Senate Popular Assembly High Ecumenical Council
Executive	Sovereign Protector President led Cabinet
Judiciary	Supreme Court High Ecumenical Council
Federalism	Unitary
Electoral college	No
First legislature	8 Feb 1984
First executive	15 Jun 1983 (Sovereign Protector) 1 Feb 1984 (President)
First court	8 Feb 1984
Last amended	28 Jul 1999
Location	Ebrarian Museum
Author(s)	United Constitutional Council
Signatories	Adopted via referendum
Supersedes	Ebrarian Constitution of 1943

The Ebrarian Constitution of 1983 was adopted on 15 June 1983, replacing the Ebrarian Constitution of 1943. The current Constitution has been deemed a "fusion" of theocratic and democratic facets. The text of the Constitution declares the Christian religion, representative government, social welfare, and traditional morality as core values of the Ebrarian state. The Preamble and Article 1 of the Constitution declares the subordination of the Ebrarian government to God, while simultaneously mandating democratic elections for the Presidency and Popular Assembly. The right to vote is only extended to Christian male citizens, but Parliament may extend suffrage via regular statute. Democratic rights and processes are shared with the non-elected Sovereign Protector and High Ecumenical Council.

History

After the definitive success of the Ebrarian Revolution on 15 February 1982, Daniel Lucas (de facto leader of the revolution), organized the United Constitutional Council to draft and approve the document. Lucas headed the council himself, the majority of which was comprised of his ideological allies while a minority of labor union and other dissidents were allowed to take part. The council also contained official representatives from the Ebraricist Church and other major Amendant churches. It began meeting in earnest on 10 Mar 1982.

The text of the Constitution itself was primarily written by Lucas himself and noted Parishist minister Carolo Galano, and was finished in its current form on 6 Jun 1982. It was approved by 39 of 45 members of the United Constitutional Council on 13 Jun 1982. The Constitution was then ratified by plebiscite on 15 Jun 1983 with Daniel Lucas taking power as Sovereign Protector immediately upon ratification.

Provisions

Preamble

Under the guidance of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;

The People of the nation of Ebrary, duly represented by the United Constitutional Council, determine to order Ebraraian cultural, social, political, and economic institutions, based on Christian values and norms. We reaffirm the fundamental principles of the Divinely Inspired Amendant Reformation, wherein our forefathers defied a corrupt Monarch and established True Christian Religion in Ebrary. Like those reformers, we have too established the primacy of God over the corrupt kingship of man in our recent Christian Revolution. This Constitution is therefore established as the Supreme Law of the Land, preserving the freedom and faith of the Ebrarian people, subordinate to Almighty God.

Form of government

Article 1 states that the form of Government in Ebrary is that of a Christian republic, subordinate to God. The article justifies this by appealing to Divine Providence as the reason for the success of the Ebrarian Revolution. The Constitution then goes on to define a Christian republic based on Biblical principles, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and Ebrarian tradition and history.

Rights of the People

The Constitution outlines the rights of the people of Ebrary, including:

• The prohibition on establishing a single state church
• The right to freedom of religious belief (but not practice or assembly, which may be heavily restricted for non-Christians)
• The right of Christians to worship in any manner their conscience dictates
• The right of various Christian denominations to exist and openly evangelize
• The right to translate and distribute copies of the Christian Bible
• The right to strike and unionize
• The right to a basic education
• The right to fair elections

The Sovereign Protector

Under the Constitution, the Sovereign Protector is explicitly declared to be the head of state and symbol of the Ebrarian people, sharing significant executive power with an elected President. Daniel Lucas is named as the first Sovereign Protector in the text of the Constitution. The office is held for life or until resignation, excepting that an individual may be removed from office by a 4/5ths vote of the Supreme Court for serious crime or ineligibility. The protector exercises a veto power over laws passed in the Parliament, may refer any law to review by the Supreme Court prior to enactment into law, appoints certain seats in the Senate, may dissolve the Parliament, has the right to attend cabinet meetings, moderates and votes in meetings of the High Ecumenical Council, and can refer treaties to popular referendum.

This section also outlines the requirements to be the Sovereign Protector, which are that an individual must be a male, natural born citizen of Ebrary with at least one Ebrarian citizen parent, fluent in the Ebrarese language, of good moral character, regular attendee of church services, well-educated in the Christian Bible and a believer in Trinitarian Christianity, not an alcoholic or abuser of illicit drugs, and married with one living wife (barring divorced men from eligibility). Upon the death, resignation, or removal of a Sovereign Protector, the Senate and High Ecumenical Council will vote on a replacement in a joint session.

The High Ecumenical Council

The High Ecumenical Council is an 11-member council which exercises certain legislative and judicial functions separately from the Parliament and the Supreme Court. The President of the Council is the Sovereign Protector of Ebrary, while the other members are selected by various organized religious denominations in Ebrary. Members serve at the leisure of the religious denomination they represent, and can be recalled by them at any time. Newly-appointed members may also be rejected by a 2/3rds vote of the existing members, but there is no mechanism for unseating a member which has already been seated other than recall by their denomination. The council has direct legislative and judicial control, with no court supervision, over the law directly concerning marriage, divorce, burials, inheritance, sexual relations, and the sabbath, and acts as the court of final appeal on such subjects. Otherwise, the council is empowered to make edicts with the force of law concerning any other matter, but these edicts may be later rejected by the Parliament or struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

The President

The President of Ebrary is elected to a five year term with a two term limit (per 28 July 1999 amendment), with elections to be held in October and the president to be inaugurated on 1 February after (unless that day is a Sunday, where the President will be inaugurated on 2 February). The President of Ebrary is declared to be the head of government. Qualifications for the office of the president are that an individual must be a male, natural born citizen of Ebrary, fluent in the Ebrarese language, of good moral character, a believer in Trinitarian Christianity, and be at least 40 years of age. Those who hold claim (or have not openly renounced any publicly known inheritance of a claim) to any Ebrarian title of nobility or royalty are barred from the presidency as well.

The president is elected by an instant-runoff voting method to a five-year term. The power of the president includes the execution and enforcement of national law, and the responsibility to appoint national executive, diplomatic, regulatory, and judicial officers, and some seats in the Senate. The president is also commander-in-chief of the Ebrarian armed forces. While a veto is reserved solely to the Sovereign Protector, the president may introduce bills directly to the Popular Assembly for consideration, review, and voting, and call a special meeting of Parliament in the event of a national emergency.

The Cabinet

The Cabinet of Ebrary is outlined as the heads of the executive branch's national ministerial departments, appointed by the president, with approval of the Senate. All members of the cabinet serve at the leisure of the president, and may concurrently hold membership in the Parliament but this is not required. The president may designate heads of other agencies and non-Senate-confirmed office-holders in the executive branch as Cabinet-level members of the Cabinet. The Sovereign Protector also holds the right to attend Cabinet meetings, although he is not considered a de jure member of the Cabinet.

Parliament

The national legislature of Ebrary is the bicameral Parliament, made up of the Senate and the Popular Assembly. The Parliament makes national law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove the President and sitting members of the cabinet and the judiciary. The Parliament may, by a 4/5ths vote of the Popular Assembly and a 3/5ths vote of the Senate, override a veto by the Sovereign Protector. The Constitution grants members parliamentary immunity. The Constitution defines eligibility for holding membership in Parliament as being a male Ebrarian citizen, a professed Trinitarian Christian, and of good moral character.

The Senate is the upper house, with 40 appointed members who serve life terms. Senate appointments are allocated to different institutions in the government and Ebrarian society. The High Ecumenical Council, Sovereign Protector and President, all appoint varying numbers of Senators, and two seats are hereditary seats. The Senate regulates its own membership and may vote by a 2/3rds majority to unseat one of its own members at any time, but the Sovereign Protector may reinstate a Senator whom he believes was wrongfully unseated. The Senate is presided over by the Consul, who is selected from amongst its membership by a simple majority of Senators. The Consul holds the ability to break a tie vote if the occasion occurs.

The Popular Assembly comprises 125 members directly elected by the people of Ebrary using mixed-member proportional representation, where each voter places a vote for his single-seat constituency and one for a political party. Members of the Popular Assembly serve 3 year terms, being elected in October and sworn in on 8 Feb (or 9 Feb if 8 Feb is a Sunday). 71 members of the Popular Assembly represent constituencies, while the remaining 54 are apportioned to make the results more proportional. The number of seats in the Popular Assembly are fixed, with no compensation for overhang seats. It is presided over by the Speaker of the Popular Assembly. Seats are apportioned to the various provinces and two independent cities proportionally.

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court defined as the highest authority concerning the interpretation of the Ebrarian Constitution, and is made up of 9 members who serve until they reach the age of 75. Justices of the Supreme Court are selected by the President of Ebrary and approved by a simple-majority in the Senate. On matters not concerning those which the High Ecumenical Council has supremacy, the court may strike down parliamentary laws or council edicts and interpret their meaning in light of the meaning of the Constitution and Christian teaching. Members of the Supreme Court must be male natural born citizens of Ebrary, Trinitarian Christians of "good moral character", well educated in the principles of the Christian Bible, and legally authorized practitioners of law.

Administrative divisions

The Constitution originally defined Ebrary as having eleven provinces of equal status, necessitating a Constitutional amendment to change the number of provinces. This occurred on 25 June 1989 when the Constitution was amended to divide Ebrary into 11 provinces and 2 autonomous cities. This section of the Constitution grants the Ebrarian national government full authority to devolve power to these provinces, determining their nature and status via edict, regulation, or legislation. Therefore, Ebrary is a unitary and not a federal state.

Amendments

The Constitution of Ebrary has been amended the following times:

• 25 June 1989: Created the autonomous cities of Egschwil and Ceres as new first-level administrative divisions co-equal in status to Ebrary's eleven provinces.
• 28 July 1999: Enacting a two term limit for the Presidency, but exempting the holder of the office when the amendment was enacted. The president at the time was Christophoro Morgano, who eventually served five terms as president until 2019. Current President Carlos Renaldo and all his successors will be bound by this amendment.