Constitution of
The Northern Forest Archipelago
The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs more defenders.
We, the creatures and plants and rocks and rivers of the wilderness, in order to pursue the goals spelled out in this constitution; do establish the Northern Forest Archipelago on this, the twenty-first day of September, in the year 1998. Let it be known both far and near that the Northern Forest Archipelago, an independent and sovereign state, will be a state guided by respect for all.
The Earth and all things upon and within it, living or otherwise, deserve respect and protection from those who would do them harm. In the end, everything that the Northern Forest Archipelago will be and do should flow from that simple premise.
Article 1 Citizens
(1) Citizens of the Northern Forest Archipelago are all things living and non-living that reside within the borders of the lands claimed by the Northern Forest Archipelago.
(2) The official language in the Northern Forest Archipelago is the English, although every effort should be made to recognize and include all other forms of communication.
Article 2 Form
(1) This Northern Forest Archipelago is a Constitutional Monarchy. All entities of the Northern Forest Archipelago must yield to these principles.
(2) This Constitution is the supreme law of the land; it is directly binding on all Northern Forest Archipelago authority. The general rules of public international law constitute an integral, inviolable part of the national law.
Article 3 Identifiers
(1) The Northern Forest Archipelago has the National Colors of Blue and White and Green, the Northern Forest Archipelago Flag is shown above the National Anthem is, "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” by Marvin Gaye.
(2) The Northern Forest Archipelago Motto is "Wilderness is not a luxury, but a necessity of the human spirit." - Ed Abbey
(3) The capital of the Northern Forest Archipelago is the settlement of Backwoods.
Article 4 General Constitutional Objectives
(1) The Northern Forest Archipelago promotes justice and universal protection of the rights of all living and non-living things within it's borders.
(2) The Northern Forest Archipelago promotes peace and harmony among all living and non-living things worldwide.
(3) The Northern Forest Archipelago takes adequate measures to preserve its integrity in the event of war or insurrection.
(4) The Northern Forest Archipelago will not undertake to defend it's citizenry or land through physical violence against other living things, but will seek other methods for self-defense.
(5) The Northern Forest Archipelago shall be governed by this constitution and by a King. The constitution shall be amended as needed be by the National Parliament through a 2/3 vote, and the king shall serve until his/her death or abdication.
Article 5 National Powers
(1) Northern Forest Archipelago powers belong to the King for the following subject matters:
a) state defense,
b) foreign relations,
c) economic regulations,
d) infrastructure and traffic,
e) taxation,
f) solidarity systems,
g) private, criminal, and procedural law,
h) educational and other standards,
i) and all other subject matters which by their very nature or as a corollary to the subjects listed have to be centralized on the national level.
(2) The Northern Forest Archipelago may give up sovereign powers to international or supranational bodies, including systems of mutual collective security and trade organizations, as long as it retains an adequate representation in those bodies and those bodies guarantee sufficient legal protection for the Citizens of the Northern Forest Archipelago.
Article 6 Head of State
(1) The King is the head of state. He has the right of pardon, to conduct foreign affairs, and to all other representative functions of the Northern Forest Archipelago.
(2) The King shall not be held accountable for actions performed in the exercise of his office except in the case of high treason, and may be indicted only by the National Parliament; in this case, he shall be tried only by the Supreme Court.
Article 7 National Government, King
(1) The executive power of the Northern Forest Archipelago is vested in the national Government. It includes diplomatic affairs.
(2) The King is the head of the National Government. The King freely chooses the National Ministers.
(3) The King is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.
Article 8 Impeachment
A successful impeachment of the King by the National Parliament results in the King declaring his successor.
Article 9 Regional Equalization of Finances
The Northern Forest Archipelago provides for an overall equalization of finances, giving due consideration to the regions' respective debts, burdens, economic power, and infrastructural responsibilities.
Article 10 National Parliament
(1) The legislative power is vested in the National Parliament.
(2) The National Parliament consists of 1 member for every 5 citizens. Members of the National Parliament are residents publicly elected by the People. Each region elects among its residents in proportion to its share of citizens eligible to vote (but each region will have not less than 1 parliamentary seat). Their office ends after a six-year term (unless re-elected), or when they lose their electoral rights.
(3) Everyone eligible to vote has recourse to the Supreme Court for scrutiny of the elections.
(4) The national parliament draws up its own rules of procedures and elects a parliamentary president and parliamentary vice presidents.
(5) Decisions of the National Parliament require a majority of the votes cast (simple majority) unless this Constitution provides otherwise.
Nature is indifferent to our love, but never unfaithful.
Article 11 Rights of Members of Parliament
(1) Members of Parliament are only bound by their conscience.
(2) Members of Parliament may not be subjected to court proceedings or disciplinary action for a vote cast or a statement made by them in the National Parliament or in any of its committees (Indemnity).
(3) Members of Parliament may not be called to account or be arrested except by permission of the National Parliament (Immunity).
(4) Members of Parliament are entitled to adequate remuneration ensuring their independence. The remuneration may not be altered for the present term.
Article 12 Lawmaking Process
(1) Bills can be introduced only by the Members of Parliament or by the King. Bills can specify the additional requirement of a public referendum after they have been voted upon by parliament.
(2) Laws altering this Constitution require two thirds of the votes cast by the Members of Parliament (absolute majority). All laws are void if they are unconstitutional.
(3) Laws have to specify their effective date. They are countersigned without scrutiny by the Parliamentary President and promulgated in the Official National Publication.
Article 13 Budget
(1) The yearly budget paperwork is introduced by the King.
(2) The budget must be passed by 2/3 of the parliament, or be reworked by the king for later resubmission.
Article 14 Treaties
(1) The King, or his appointed representative, signs treaties with other states.
(2) The legislative power of the National Parliament includes the power to ratify treaties with other states.
(3) Treaties not ratified by parliament within six months have to be revoked by the King, or his appointed representative.
Article 15 National Ordinances
(1) Laws may empower National Ministers to adopt National Ordinances regarding a specified subject matter.
(2) National Ordinances do not require ratification by Parliament.
Article 16 State of Emergency
(1) In cases of grave and immediate threat to the existence of the Northern Forest Archipelago, the King may take necessary measures of defense.
(2) All emergency measures must be confirmed or revoked by the Parliament at the earliest time possible. The King is bound by the Parliament's decisions.
Article 17 Independent Courts
(1) The local adjudicative power of the Northern Forest Archipelago is vested in independent courts managed by judges.
(2) Judges are elected by the parliament. They are independent. Their office ends at time of retirement or when they lose their electoral rights.
Article 18 The Supreme Court
(1) The Supreme Court is empowered to preserve and protect this constitution and the Northern Forest Archipelago from legal issues beyond the scope of the independent courts.
(2) The Supreme Court justices are appointed by the King, and must be approved by simple majority vote by the parliament.
(3) The Supreme Court decides issues involving this Constitution. In particular, the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over:
a) disputes between state entities concerning their respective rights and duties under this Constitution;
b) challenges of a national or regional entity, a Court in the course of its determination, or a third of the Members of Parliament against the constitutionality of a law;
c) claims of individuals regarding violations of their constitutional rights;
d) popular complaints about the violation of fundamental rights;
e) challenges of an act of a state power by the Ombudsman;
f) cases on appeal from National Courts as the Supreme Court deems necessary to review;
g) all other cases assigned to its jurisdiction by law.
(2) Decisions of the Supreme Court are directly binding for all entities of the Northern Forest Archipelago.
(3) The office of Supreme Court Justices are independent. Their office ends at time of retirement or when they lose their electoral rights.<
Article 19 The Courts
(1) The Supreme Court will rule on cases determined by the parliament to have constitutional implications.
(2) The Supreme Court can choose to rule on cases determined internally to have constitutional implications.
(3) The lower courts may refer any case to the Supreme Court for their ruling.
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Article 20 Human Rights
(1) The Northern Forest Archipelago acknowledges liberty and equality of all living and non-living entities within it's borders.
(2) The Northern Forest Archipelago acknowledges that everyone is free to do or not to do whatever he or she chooses; but stipulates that everyone is responsible for acts freely chosen.
(3) The Northern Forest Archipelago acknowledges that everyone should have freedom of speech and belief and assembly as well as freedom from fear and want.
Remaining silent about the destruction of nature is an endorsement of that destruction.
Article 21 Applicability
(1) Fundamental rights apply to natural persons, domestic and foreign, who are assigned these rights. They apply to legal persons, domestic and foreign, where, and to the extent that, the nature of the rights permits.
(2) Fundamental rights are inviolable and inalienable. They include the freedom not to make use of them (negative freedom). Their exercise may, in single instances, be waived by free and responsible declaration of the right-holder, but such declaration is never binding for future instances.
Article 22 Personal Integrity
(1) Everyone has the right to life and bodily integrity.
(2) Everyone has the right to remain free (personal freedom).
(3) All citizens are free to reside anywhere in, move throughout, enter, and leave the territory of the Northern Forest Archipelago.
(4) Capital and corporal punishment are prohibited.
(5) Torture is prohibited.
Article 23 Property Integrity and Related Rights
(1) Everyone has the right to acquire, own, possess, exclusively use, and convey private property within the strictures of this constitution.
(2) Property may not be taken without due compensation.
Article 24 Right to Testify and Inherit
Everyone has the right to testify and inherit.
Article 25 Freedom of Religion and Belief
(1) Everyone has the right to choose and practice his or her religion, creed, conscience, faith, confession, and belief.
(2) Everyone can refuse to give or receive religious instructions.
(3) Everyone can, on the basis of conscience, refuse to serve in armed forces.
Article 26 Freedom of Expression and Information
(1) Everyone has the right to freely express and disseminate his or her opinions.
(2) The Freedom of the press and other media is guaranteed.
(3) Everyone has the right to freely retrieve information from publicly available sources.
(4) Censorship is prohibited.
Article 27 Right to Assemble and Associate
(1) Everyone has the right to peacefully assemble.
(2) Everyone has the right to associate with others; this includes association in political parties.
(3) Every adult has the right to form a civil union with another adult.
Article 28 Right to Privacy
(1) Everyone has the right to privacy.
(2) The home is inviolable.
(3) The privacy of letters as well as the secrecy of mail and telecommunication is inviolable.
Article 29 Freedom of Profession
(1) All citizens have the right to freely choose their occupation, their place of work, and their place of study or training.
(2) There is no duty to work. Forced labor is prohibited.
Article 30 Freedom of Research, Science, and Teaching
(1) Everyone has the right to research and conduct science.
(2) Everyone has the right to perform arts.
(3) Everyone has the right to teach and to found private schools.
The essence of true wilderness is big mammals that can eat you.
Article 31 Electoral Rights
(1) All resident adults have the equal right to vote and to be elected in local elections. In national elections, only citizens have this right.
(2) There is no compulsory voting.
(3) Anyone who has attained the age of eighteen years is an adult.
Article 32 Right to Petition
Everyone has the right to address written petitions to the competent agencies, to governments, and to parliaments.
Article 33 Freedom of Citizenship
(1) Citizens can at any time give up their citizenship.
(2) Citizens may at no time be forced to give up their citizenship.
Article 34 Right to Self-Determination and Resistance
(1) Everyone has the right to collective self-determination including the right to decide about membership in regional or local entities. The Northern Forest Archipelago guarantees these rights through adequate powers of decentralized regional and local governments.
(2) All citizens have the right to civil disobedience and resistance against attempts to abolish this constitutional order, should no other remedy be available.
Article 35 Right to Found Political Parties
(1) Everyone has the right to found political parties respecting the principles of secularity, sovereignty, and democracy.
(2) Everyone is free to carry on political activities in or with such parties.
Article 36 Freedom of Procreation and Childrearing
(1) Everyone has the right to procreation.
(2) Parents have the right to bringing up and educating their children. They have the right to decide about their children's participation in religious instructions.
Article 37 Equality
All humans are equal before the law (general equality).
Article 38 Prohibition of Discrimination and Privileges
No person may be discriminated against or privileged on the basis of sex, gender, origin, race, language, origin, parentage, creed, faith, or nobility.
Article 39 Special Protection
(1) Protection of human dignity is a duty of the Northern Forest Archipelago.
(2) The Natural World has the special protection of the Northern Forest Archipelago.
(3) Families, parents, and minors have the special protection of the Northern Forest Archipelago.
(4) Everyone persecuted on political grounds has the right to asylum.
Article 40 Special Support
(1) Everyone has the right to livelihood, health care, shelter, and education.
(2) Parents have the special support of the Northern Forest Archipelago.
This is what you shall do:
Love the earth and sun and animals.
Stand up for the stupid and crazy.
Take your hat off to no man.
Article 41 Access to courts
(1) Everyone has free recourse to the courts.
(2) Everyone has the right to a constitutional judge. Extraordinary courts are not allowed.
(3) Persons and groups have recourse to the court acting for other right holders not being in a position to seek relief in their own name (third party standing).
Article 42 Fair Trial
(1) Everyone has the right to a fair trial. Evidence obtained illegally is inadmissible. Everyone has the right of access to all Northern Forest Archipelago information required for the exercise or protection of any of his or her rights (file access).
(2) Everyone has the right to trial by jury.
(3) No one may be deprived of liberty, or property without due process of law.
(4) No law shall be passed stipulating regulations of the past without due compensation for all losses (ex post facto law).
Article 43 Criminal Justice
(1) No act may be punished unless it constituted a criminal offence under the law before having been committed (nulla poena sine lege). No one may be punished for the same act more than once (double jeopardy).
(2) Only judges may indict or subpoena persons, or issue warrants for arrest, search, or seizure.
(3) Everyone accused or arrested enjoys the right:
(a) to a speedy and public trial,
(b) to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty,
(c) not to be a witness against himself,
(d) promptly to be informed about the reason of accusation or detention and about the right to be silent,
(e) to counsel for defense,
(f) to communicate with next-of-kin, partner, and legal, medical, and religious counselor,
(g) to be released no later than 24 hours after the arrest if not further detained after court hearing, and
(h) to redress in case of false imprisonment.
Article 44 Prohibition of Extradition
No citizen may be extradited to a foreign country.
Article 45 Admissible Restrictions
(1) The Northern Forest Archipelago can apply restrictions on individual rights only for the purpose of protecting individual rights of other persons or furthering other Northern Forest Archipelago interests explicitly mentioned in this Constitution (constitutional interest).
(2) Any restriction on individual rights must be competent and narrowly tailored to further the constitutional interest. Such restriction must be an adequate means to achieve the purpose of furthering the constitutional interest. In no case may the essence of a fundamental right be infringed.
(3) Any restriction must apply generally and not solely to an individual case.
Article 46 Special Restrictions
Possession and use of firearms and other weapons without a permit is prohibited.
Article 47 General Duties
(1) Parents have the duty to rear and educate their minor children.
(2) Adults have the duty to support and assist their parents if they are in need.
(3) Parents and children have the duty to ensure that minors attend public schools or equivalent institutions (compulsory schooling). Vocational schools and certified private schools are equivalent to public schools.
(4) All citizens have the duty to insure the protection and enrichment of the Natural World.
Article 48 Civil Service
Every citizen of age serves one year in the NFA Environment Corps, for which they receive appropriate renumeration.
Article 49 Taxation
The Northern Forest Archipelago levies no taxes, fees, or tariffs from it's citizens.
Article 50 Monopolies on activities
(1) No one but the Northern Forest Archipelago may coin or print money within the Northern Forest Archipelago.
(2) The Northern Forest Archipelago retains the monopoly on mail and telecommunication networks within the Northern Forest Archipelago.
This is what you shall do:
Be loyal to what you love,
Be true to the Earth,
and Fight your enemies with passion and laughter
Article 51 Forfeiture of Rights
(1) Persons and political parties who abuse fundamental rights in order to combat the free democratic basic order forfeit these rights.
(2) Such forfeiture and the extent thereof are determined by the Supreme Court.
Article 52 Deprivation of Electoral Rights
The right to vote and to be elected can, partially or in general, temporarily or in an unlimited measure, be suspended if an adult:
a) has not the requisite mental capacity for any legal responsibility or
b) commits the act of high treason against the Northern Forest Archipelago.
1) Residents and citizens may lose the right their electoral rights if it is so ruled by the King, the Parliament (by 2/3 majority), or by the Supreme Court.
2) Electoral rights lost through the above process may be regained only by a reinstatement of rights issued by the King.
A Final Thought
Benedicto:
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you --- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.
This and the other quotes interspersed throughout the constitution are the words and thoughts of Ed Abbey, Unknowing Citizen Emeritus of the NFA
Amendments to the Constitution of the Northern Forest Archipelago
- 11/11/2003 - Backwoods has been and will remain the seat of government for the Northern Forest Archipelago. As the NFA grows, new provinces will wish to join. New provinces can be established through the following process: the population of the prospective new province shall apply for citizenship to the NFA; upon acceptance as citizens the population will petition the King for acceptance into the NFA as a new province; if the King approves the new province, parliament must ratify the new province by a 2/3 majority.
- 11/11/2003 - In the fullness of time, it may be necessary for the outlying provinces of the NFA to have regional magistrates. Each province may propose one candidate, that has been chosen by simple majority within the province, to the parliament. If the candidate is approved by the parliament, by simple majority, and not vetoed by the King, they assume the position of regional magistrate for a period of 10 years. The regional magistrates' duties include: appointing local officials as needed to carry out the work of the NFA in their region, communication with both the King and the parliament regarding the special needs of their region, working with local judges to uphold the constitution of the NFA.
- 11/11/2003 - Foreign Relations are to be carried out by the Minister of Foreign Relations, an appointed postion, under the direction of the King. In all manner of foreign relations, the Minister is assumed to be the voice of the NFA, speaking for the King. Other citizens of the NFA, regardless of their status, may not enter into foreign relations representing the NFA in any capacity; all official international and intermicronational communications must go through the Ministry of Foreign Relations.
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