Constitution of Sanctaria

Constitution of Sanctaria
Jurisdiction	Divine Federation of Sanctaria
Adopted	1974
Date effective	19 November 1974
Last amended	2018 (federalisation), in force 1 January 2019
System	Federal parliamentary republic
Chambers	Bicameral: House of Deputies and Senate
Head of state	President, directly elected for ten years
Executive	Government, led by the Chancellor
Judiciary	Supreme Court (nine justices), federal courts of appeal and district courts, and state courts
Federal units	Nine states, three of them city-states

The Constitution of Sanctaria, formally the Constitution of the Divine Federation of Sanctaria, is the supreme law of Sanctaria. It was adopted in 1974 to take effect on the death of the Patriarch, ending the Papal States of Sanctaria and establishing the Divine Republic of Sanctaria, and was substantially amended in 2018 to create the present federation.

The Constitution establishes a federal parliamentary republic. It provides for a directly elected, largely ceremonial President, a bicameral Parliament, a Government led by a Chancellor chosen by the House of Deputies, nine states, and an independent judiciary headed by the Supreme Court, which has the power of judicial review. Since 1 January 2019 power has been divided between the federal level and the states. Amendments must pass both chambers of Parliament.

History

Adoption (1974)

The Constitution was drafted in the final years of the Papal States. In 1973 Patriarch Aequitas IV announced that the empire would be broken up on his death, a decision codified in the Aequitaen Treaty of 1974. A new constitution was passed earlier in 1974 with the provision that it would come into effect on the Patriarch's death, and elections were held in the early autumn so that governments and institutions could carry on seamlessly. Aequitas IV died on 19 November 1974, and the Divine Republic of Sanctaria came into being under the new text.

As originally adopted, the Constitution created a unitary, bicameral parliamentary republic. Executive power lay with a strong head of government, then styled Prime Minister, while the President became a weakened head of state. The office of President was established by the same text, and its first holder, Paul Devereaux, took office on 19 November 1974. The House of Deputies, formed in 1974, was initially much stronger than the Senate; reforms over the following forty years strengthened the upper house until the two chambers were broadly equal in power.

Federalisation (2018–2019)

The Constitution was substantially amended in 2018. The "Great Devolution Bill" amended a large number of existing sections of the 1974 text rather than replacing it, and passed both the House of Deputies and the Senate on 3 October 2018 with wide cross-party support. It set out detailed rules on the composition of state parliaments, their titles and the limits of their powers. At the time it was described as the biggest overhaul of the Constitution since 1974.

The amendments were put to a national referendum on Saturday 10 November 2018 and passed with 61% of voters in favour. President Marian Woodstrom signed the legislation giving effect to the result on 17 November, and Sanctaria became a federation at one minute past midnight on 1 January 2019. The head of government's title changed with it: the office of Prime Minister became that of Chancellor. The three city-states, which already had devolved institutions, had state governments from the outset; elections to the new state institutions followed in 2019 and 2020. The House of Deputies was also reduced, from 799 seats to 460, following a boundary report in 2021.

Federal institutions

Parliament

The Constitution defines Parliament as comprising the President, the Senate and the House of Deputies. A money bill may not be initiated in the Senate.

The House of Deputies is the lower house and has 460 members, elected for five-year terms from single-member electoral divisions known as cantons, which are allocated to the states on the basis of population. The government is formed from the House. The Constitution requires by-elections to fill vacancies in it.

The Senate has 40 senators: four from each of the nine states and four elected by Sanctarian citizens living abroad. Senators are elected by the single transferable vote for seven-year terms. The Senate confirms the Government's nominees for the cabinet and for the Supreme Court.

Elections to the two chambers are not usually held at the same time. If the Chancellor seeks a dissolution when less than two and a half years remain of the Senate's term, he or she may also dissolve the Senate; the Senate may also dissolve itself by majority vote.

President

Main article: President of Sanctaria

The President is the head of state, the ceremonial Supreme Commander of the Sanctarian Defence Forces, and formally one of the three parts of Parliament. The office is largely ceremonial: executive authority is expressly vested in the Government, and most of the President's functions are exercised on its binding advice. The President formally appoints the Chancellor and the rest of the cabinet, but must appoint whoever the House of Deputies nominates as Chancellor, and whoever the Chancellor nominates, with the Senate's approval, as ministers. The President also appoints federal judges on the Government's advice, convenes and dissolves Parliament on the Chancellor's advice, represents the state in foreign affairs, may grant pardons for federal crimes, and signs bills into law. The President has no veto, but may refer a bill, other than a money bill or a bill to amend the Constitution, to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality. A small number of powers are exercised at the President's discretion: refusing a dissolution to a Chancellor who has lost the confidence of the House, and withholding assent from a bill of great national importance, other than a constitutional amendment, pending a referendum, if petitioned by a majority of senators and a third of Deputies. Neither has been used.

The President is directly elected by secret ballot using the Alternative Vote, for a term of ten years that may be extended to twelve in a national emergency, and may serve at most two terms. Candidates must be citizens over 35, nominated by at least 40 members of Parliament, three state parliaments or 1,500,000 citizens. There is no Vice President: when the office is vacant, a Presidential Commission of the Chief Justice, the Speaker of the House of Deputies and the Moderator of the Senate carries out its functions, and a successor must be elected within sixty days. The President can be removed if the Supreme Court, sitting with at least five judges, finds the President permanently incapacitated, or by impeachment, a process involving both houses that requires two-thirds majorities.

Chancellor and Government

Executive power is exercised by the Government, made up of the Chancellor and the secretaries of state. The head of government was styled Prime Minister until federalisation on 1 January 2019, when the office was renamed Chancellor.

The Chancellor is nominated by the House of Deputies and formally appointed by the President, who must appoint whoever the House designates. After a general election the House elects or re-elects the Chancellor, and a vacancy during a term is filled in the same way. Where no party holds a majority, a coalition may be formed; if none can be formed before a date set by the outgoing government, another election must be held. The rest of the cabinet is appointed on the Chancellor's nomination with the approval of the Senate, and again the President has no right to decline. A Chancellor who loses the confidence of the House must resign unless a dissolution is granted.

Federalism

The states

The Constitution divides Sanctaria into nine states, three of which are city-states: Sanctus, Corpus and Haven. Each state has its own constitution, legislature, executive and judiciary. Each state, including the city-states, is represented in the Senate by four senators.

The six states that are not city-states are required by the Constitution to have two-chamber parliaments, with a State Assembly as the lower house and a State Council as the upper house. Their head of government is the Premier and their head of state is the Governor. The city-states are governed by a Governing Mayor, an office that combines head of state and head of government, with a City Council.

Division of powers

The Parliament of Sanctaria retains supremacy in law, but states may legislate on most matters. Matters reserved to the federal level include defence, foreign affairs, some tax and financial measures, and matters that require federal involvement, such as national curricula and national minimum wage laws. Responsibility for education, healthcare, transport and other public services has passed largely to the states. States also legislate on criminal law and state policing. Where state and federal law conflict, federal law prevails to the extent of the inconsistency, and the Supreme Court arbitrates.

Judiciary

The Constitution is the basis for all law and for the political and legal institutions of Sanctaria, and the source of all individual rights and responsibilities. Federal law has primacy over state law where the two conflict. The wider system is described in the article on the Judiciary of Sanctaria.

Federal courts

The court system was established under the Constitution in 1974, and the federal courts have three tiers: trial courts, courts of appeal and the Supreme Court. Federal trial courts hear only federal crimes, disputes between residents of different states, and questions of federal law. Federal appeals are heard by three regional courts of appeal, the Eastern, Central and Western Riding, each covering three states. The Court of Appeals for the Western Riding was founded in 2019, after federalisation.

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court was established under the Constitution in 1974 and has nine justices: the Chief Justice and eight associate justices. Justices are nominated by the Government, confirmed by the Senate and appointed by the President. They serve for life, under legislation passed in 1979; the court's first judges had been required by law to retire by 1980.

The court has ultimate and largely discretionary appellate jurisdiction over federal and state cases that involve a point of federal law. It also has original jurisdiction, which it cannot decline, over disputes between states or between the federal government and a state, and over bills referred to it by the President to test their constitutionality. It holds the power of judicial review, and can strike down federal and state law that is inconsistent with the Constitution.

State courts

The Constitution permits each state to establish its own system of common law courts, which apply state law, state precedent and the state constitution. Every state must have at least one court of first instance and one court of final resort, but states may otherwise change their court structures by law, in accordance with their own constitutions. Where federal law is involved, decisions of a state court of last resort may be appealed to a federal court of appeal or to the Supreme Court.

Rights and freedoms

Since 1974 the Constitution has protected Sanctarian citizens from extradition to states that use the death penalty. In 2019 the Supreme Court held that this protection, like the Constitution's rights generally, applies to everyone within the country's borders unless the text says otherwise; political rights such as the franchise are reserved to citizens.

Religion

The Church of Sanctaria is the established church, but it retains no political or temporal power. The Constitution also provides for religious freedom.

Neutrality and defence

The Constitution contains a neutrality clause. It describes the role of the Sanctarian Defence Forces as defensive only. A ruling in 2007 read "defence" to include crisis reaction and conflict prevention, and more broadly the guarding of Sanctaria's security anywhere in the International Democratic Union.

Amendment

Amendments to the Constitution must pass both chambers of Parliament. The 2018 federalisation amendments were also put to a national referendum. Bills to amend the Constitution are excluded from the President's powers to refer a bill to the Supreme Court and to withhold assent pending a referendum.

See also

• President of Sanctaria
• Government of Sanctaria
• Federal Parliament of Sanctaria
• Judiciary of Sanctaria
• Supreme Court of Sanctaria
• States of Sanctaria
• Sanctarian federalisation referendum, 2018
• Papal States of Sanctaria