Special Bulletin from Militia Captain Robert, Commander of the Northern Liberation Forces

Day 4 brought another tricky issue for us, the judicial structure. We knew at the end of day 3 that it was coming, so I asked Emilia to meet me that night so we could come up with a plan to present. She wanted directly elected judges, at least at the lower levels, but I said they wouldn't be very independent that way. We can't protect minorities from the whims of the majority with directly elected judges. She admitted I was right. I said we should have regionally appointed judges, and a supreme court with one judge from each region. It would be indirectly democratic, through the regional governments, and relatively independent. She liked it, but recommended terms of no more than 10 years to ensure new appointments are made regularly, in order to prevent the courts from being too insular. I agreed.

When we presented our plan, our initial opponent was Pepe, making his biggest push since his upper house proposal. He wanted a single centralized court system appointed by the Directorate, and some kind of peer review system for the judges to decide amongst themselves who gets promoted to higher levels. It sounded incredibly unaccountable. Before we could settle that debate, Aguilo stepped in with his own idea. He wanted a military court system separate from the civilian courts, and a third of the Supreme Court derived from the military system.

I have encouraged Emilia to wait a few days before writing about this debate, so she can cool her head a bit. Her ongoing public feud with Aguilo is bad for this constitutional process, I believe. I do sympathize with her though, this proposal would have put an alarming amount of military influence over our courts. Despite my respect for General Aguilo, I must strongly disagree with such a proposal. It was Dauphin who, once again, pulled this debate out of the fire, and gave us a workable compromise.

He proposed 5 regional court systems, with the lower courts appointed by the regional governments. 1 military court system, appointed by its own internal rules. The Directorate would promote from within those systems to appellate courts and the Supreme Court. His Supreme Court had 11 members, 2 from each region and 1 from the military. I felt this was an acceptable compromise that still gave a large role to the regions.

Emilia was still concerned about the lack of democratic accountability, so Dauphin suggested that the lower house could remove judges by a supermajority, to balance independence with democratic accountability in extreme cases. I urged her to take the compromise as a reasonable deal, and she accepted.

Statement from General Aguilo, Revolutionary Commander - Western Front

Day 4 began with another weighty matter, the courts. We all knew how corrupt the courts of the old monarchy were, so it was of the utmost importance that the new courts be the guardians of the revolutionary spirit. The initial debate was between Robert and Pepe, primarily over regional versus centralized control of the courts. I favored Pepe’s proposal but I had my own idea as well. 

I had previously discussed with Oliphaunt and Dauphin a parallel military court system as well as representation for the military on the Supreme Court. Dauphin was weakly in favor of it, but suggested the civilians would not tolerate so much military influence. Oliphaunt on the other hand seemed quite supportive. When I finally presented the idea, Pepe lost his composure for at least 3 seconds before calmly stating he would consider it.

I’m sure Dauphin had been thinking about a compromise since I first told him my idea, but he must have made up some details on the fly as he heard the proposals of the other members. He once again managed to combine multiple proposals into a workable compromise. Notably, he reduced the military influence on the Supreme Court down to 1 seat out of 11. I was hesitant to see the crucial stabilizing force of the military diminished in such a way, but Crysta seemed very impressed with the compromise. I had been pushing against her quite a bit in this convention, perhaps it was time to defer to the mother of the revolution.

Dispatch from Admiral Dauphin, Revolutionary Naval Command

I knew Day 4 was going to be a rough one. Aguilo informed me in advance of his proposal for military influence on the Supreme Court. The public would not stand for this, and frankly he should know it. Many people already have serious concerns about the military influence on this convention, and his ongoing public feud with Emilia isn’t helping matters. However, I knew if I carefully reduced the military influence he would grudgingly accept it, and the others would likely accept it as well. There was another more difficult puzzle to solve.

Pepe and Robert had competing visions for the judiciary. Centralized and internally accountable vs regional and democratically accountable. Pepe’s system of internal peer review was interesting, but it would never work. Even if we could muster the votes to get it into the constitution, it was a legitimacy crisis in the making, it had to go. There was, however, merit in balancing central vs regional control. My idea was to let the regions appoint the lower courts, and the Directorate to appoint the higher courts, with specific seats reserved for each region on the Supreme Court, and one seat for the military as well.

Emilia was still not satisfied with my proposal. She's got guts, she stands up for what she believes in. I decided she might be right, if the system we choose now isn't accountable enough, it might very well cause trouble in the future, so let's deal with it. I proposed that the democratic lower house have the power to remove judges by a 60% supermajority. High enough so they can’t be removed for trivial reasons, but in cases of serious misconduct they could be removed. Aside from this removal mechanism they would serve for life to allow for strong independence from the political system. Emilia seemed satisfied by this, she's more reasonable than Aguilo admits.

From the Office of Chancellor Pepe, Acting Head of Civil Service

Day 4 - Morning - Judicial Structure

Following the discussion of rights on day 3, it was widely agreed we needed a strong independent judiciary to interpret those rights and keep the legislative and executive branches in check. There was some disagreement about how to maintain that independence.

I proposed a centralized court system, with lower judges appointed by the Directorate, and a system of internal peer review would allow for the promotion and removal of judges. The system would remain fairly insulated from outside pressure and also lead to a focus on expertise to rise to the highest levels of the judiciary. It seemed to be exactly what we needed.

Another system was championed by Robert and Emilia. They claimed my system was too insular, and the judges should serve fixed 10 year terms and must regularly be replaced by new appointments, to allow democratic accountability. Their vision for maintaining independence was to put the courts in the hands of regional governments. 5 separate court systems, one for each region, and a 5 member supreme court on top, with one member from each region. It would act as a check on the national legislature and executive because the judiciary was ultimately accountable to the regions. Not a terrible concept, but it was too prone to political meddling.

Aguilo and Oliphaunt were sympathetic to my centralized plan, but they wanted a military court system in parallel to the civilian courts, and no less than a third of the Supreme Court derived from the military system. I did wince at the thought of so much military influence at the top of the judiciary but I was seriously considering their proposal. Fortunately, Dauphin came up with another compromise which combined regional representation, democratic accountability, centralized appointments of upper levels, and a tolerably small level of military influence. The man may be an admiral, but he has the brains to work in the civil service if he wanted to.

Result - Consensus reached on judicial structure.

Structure: Six systems—5 regional, 1 military. Lower courts feed into appellate courts, topped by a Supreme Court.

Appointments: Regional governments appoint lower civilian judges; military appoints its own per internal rules. Directorate (majority vote) promotes judges to appellate courts. Supreme Court: 11 members (2 from each region, 1 from military), promoted similarly.

Terms: Life appointments (or until retirement).

Removal: Lower house can remove any judge with a 60% supermajority.

Role: Broad discretion to interpret laws, review constitutionality, and adjudicate rights. Independent of political pressure.