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judiciary.md

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The Judiciary

Executive Summary

The Judiciary is the only power able to decide case-by-case on individual rights and obligations. There is one Supreme Court and a number of lower courts. There will be not only State courts but also private ones, the jurisdiction of which one can adopt voluntarily (arbitration system). The Supreme Court is the final instance of all the courts.

The Jurisdiction

The Justice system of Liberland has jurisdiction over all disputes within the country of Liberland between Citizens, e-Residents, and other subjects where the subject matter concerns Liberland’s State jurisdiction (the land, ships, airplanes under the Liberland flag, etc.). It will also accept jurisdiction upon other disputes where Liberland should be the forum of choice for the parties, e.g., arbitration.

Warrants and Final Decisions (Verdicts)

The Judiciary can issue two types of legal acts: A Warrant, which addresses the rights and duties of the parties, or concerned third parties, to a dispute before the dispute is resolved. The Warrant exists to protect the victims of crimes, to allow an act in the criminal investigation requiring interaction with private property without the agreement of its owner to take place, to prevent a party from transferring their means beyond the reach of Liberland’s jurisdiction, etc. The Verdict represents the final decision; it replaces all Warrants in the given dispute and sets up new rights and obligations (or, in some cases, confirms existing ones) between the parties to a dispute.

Limits on Powers

A Judge can only decide for the parties of the given dispute and is not able to actively issue regulations binding on others. However, the Judge's decisions can possess the authority of established jurisprudence. Verdicts of the Supreme Court are binding upon all the lower courts and even upon other Powers of the State, i.e., the Legislative and the Executive. Constitutional control Any Judge appointed by the President (i.e., not private arbitrators) may declare any Law or any part of a Law to be unconstitutional, should they find grounds for such a judgment important for the resolution of a case. They may set aside this Law or the offending stipulation to give their Verdict. In addition, they must then redraft the Law in a way that repairs the error according to their judgment. Should the Verdict gain legal force (i.e., there is no longer the possibility for regular appeal), the redrafted Law will be sent to Congress. Should Congress not deliver its reparation proposal, the judge-drafted version will become the new valid version of the Law.

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is the supreme instance of appeals and the ultimate arbiter of jurisprudence: it has the freedom to attract any case to itself and decide whether it is from Private or state courts. The Supreme Court decides on political disputes regarding the validity of constitutional processes, e.g., elections and referendums, and other matters of political import, i.e., personal competence questions.

Constitutionality

The Supreme Court can take any legislative process (e.g., a Referendum, executive deliberations) and stop it for 30 days. In those 30 days, it can determine whether the act to be the result of this process conforms to the Constitution. If not, the process must restart, and the act must be rewritten according to the binding recommendations of the Court.

Written Process and Mediation

Before a Court Case is given to the Proceedings, the State Court Judge attempts to resolve it through transparent, written communication and a Mediation process. Only where those two stages fail will there be a Court session or sessions in which the parties' rights are respected. Although the process will run primarily online, the same due process safeguards we are used to in any modern state will apply.

Appeal

The Court system will be hierarchical and allow for the possibility to appeal, where the party can prove that there were errors in the process, such as that the facts were not examined with impartiality or diligence; that new facts surfaced that hadn’t been known at the time of the original process or procedural errors. There is always the possibility of an extraordinary appeal before the Supreme Court, but the decision in the appeal will be final and takes legal force.

Enforcement

As we strive to have as many cases as possible on-chain, the Verdict enforcement will be a Smart Contract taking away LLM from the losing party after the Verdict gains legal force. For cases where a part of the object is off-chain, the result will be a regular contract that one might present before the public or private collection agencies, just like in other States.

Checks and Balances

As the Branch which can strike down virtually any Regulation of the other Branches, the Judiciary is an important check in the balance of Power in Liberland. The Judiciary is the Power that is the closest to the people. To this Branch, a person might send a complaint, not just against another person but also against the State. The Judiciary is a safeguard against tyranny. The Power to resolve disputes is by design focused on the individual and the individual cases. As such, it deserves to be mentioned first amongst all the powers - the Judge is, in certain respects, our most important State official.