Constitution of the High Kingdoms

The Constitution of the High Kingdoms is the supreme law document of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia. The first draft was mainly a stitched together from the constitutions of Ahitereira-Koresa and Kiavalar, but the current version was finalised and implemented following the integration of both Empherias and Peryzium, in late 2452.

Article I
This article primarily describes the opening text of the document:


 * Following the tragic death of her majesty Queen Joana I, the realms of the United Kingdom of Ahitereira and Koresa and the High Kingdom of Serene Kiavalar were joined together in a personal union. The federation would soon blossom into a mighty country respected across the world with the addition of two new members - Empherias and Peryzium. This document lays the basis of the union in the law, its government and proceedings, and how the country will function. To ensure unity within not only the legislative, executive and judicial bodies of the country but unity between the many peoples inhabiting it. There are some fundamental rights and statute laws that are the bare minimum for states to function properly. This document will also primarily serve as the basis for other governments to build upon.
 * For terminology in this constitution, the entity of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia shall be referred to as ‘the union’, ‘the HKA’ or ‘the country’. Those countries within the union, which are the entities of Ahitereira, Empherias, Kiavalar, Koresa, and Peryzium, shall be referred to by their names, ‘the devolved countries’ or ‘the constituent countries’.
 * The union of these five member countries (Ahitereira, Empherias, Kiavalar, Koresa, and Peryzium) shall be known as the “High Kingdoms of Alaxia  . Also accepted are shortenings to “H.K.A” or the “High Kingdoms  . Citizens of this country will foremost take the citizenship of their individual member state. Those citizens born in Ahitereira shall be an Ahitereiran; those citizens born in Empherias shall be an Empheri; those citizens born in Kiavalar shall be a Valari, those citizens born in Koresa shall be a Koresan; those citizens born in Peryzium shall be a Peryzi. Those born to High Alaxian parents outside of the union shall be referred to as just that: a High Alaxian. Those who later wish to have no specific devolved country as their citizenship can also refer to themselves as a High Alaxian.
 * The official language of the country will be the officialised Ahitereiria-Kavalar creole, known as Exteras. Each individual constituent country’s government will have the ability to approve a devolved secondary language with a simple majority in their devolved parliament. Ahitereira has secondary languages which include: Ahitereiran. Empherias has secondary languages which include: Traditional Empheri, Palak, and Traditional Durbinian.

Article II
This article summarises the levels of government to which later articles will go further in depth on. The federal government of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia would be split, as many are, into three branches of executive, legislative, and judicial. Of the legislative branch, the House of Representatives would be a single chamber made up of 525 nation-wide representatives. Of the executive branch, the President would be elected through the electoral college and serve a term of five years. Of the judicial branch, the Supreme Court would be made up of 15 justices, 3 from each devolved nation, and would oversee a variety of courts below.

Section I
This section would go into more detail about the legislative branch.


 * 1) The House of Representatives would be a single chamber made up of 525 nation-wide representatives. Legislative elections to elect these members would take place every three years. The amount of representatives in the House is set at a total of 525 members and cannot be changed. The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution states that each devolved country would be assigned 104 seats, and for the province of Esperiy to have a further 5 seats themselves. Previously, in the original constitution, each devolved country had 175 seats, owing to the fact that only Ahitereira, Kiavalar, and Koresa, had representation in the House. The 1st Amendment changed this to 105 seats for each devolved country owing to the inclusion of Empherias and Peryzium. The current amendment was created to give Esperiy, the later built capital city, to have it's own representation separate from Ahitereira.
 * 2) The distribution of these 104 seats across a devolved country would be done differently by each country. Redistricting would happen every ten years on the 1 July of every year ending in '7', the last of which being 1 July 2517, to match new population trends. Some redistricting would be done federally, some devolved, some by government-owned commissions, some by completely independent commissions. In Ahitereira, the devolved government assigns each province a set amount of districts to which the provincial government would set the district borders within them. In Empherias, the devolved government gives power to an independent and non-partisan commission to set the districts nationwide, but within the borders of provinces. Details of the Kiavalari, Koresan, and Peryzi methods to come.
 * 3) The winning party in each district only needs a plurality, not the majority, of the vote. The candidate from the appropriate party would then be elected as Representative of the District.

Section II
This section would go into more detail about the executive branch.


 * 1) Elections to the President of the High Kingdoms
 * 2) The President would appoint a cabinet including these members:
 * 3) *Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
 * 4) **Secretary of Special Interests
 * 5) **Secretary of Trade
 * 6) *Secretary of the Treasury
 * 7) *Secretary of Defence
 * 8) *Secretary of Justice
 * 9) *Secretary of Energy and Resources
 * 10) *Secretary of Agriculture and Nutrition
 * 11) *Secretary of Commerce
 * 12) *Secretary of Science
 * 13) *Secretary of Transport
 * 14) *Secretary of Health
 * 15) *Secretary of Labour and Pensions
 * 16) *Secretary of Education
 * 17) *Secretary of Housing
 * 18) *Secretary of Intelligence
 * 19) *Secretary of the Environment

These two houses are presided by the President of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia, elected by a two-candidate run-off system counted with direct votes. The vice-president is elected at the start of each term by a majority of the senate. If they can’t reach a majority then the President will have the authority to assign a vice-president for a full year at which point they will try again.

The President will then create the Federal or Central Government of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia. They will create a cabinet and assign current senators or representatives to cabinet positions. Current cabinet positions include:


 * Secretary of Foreign Affairs. It is their role to oversee the Department of the Foreign Office, manage ambassador and diplomat positions, regularly meet with foreign governments, and keep up relations with the rest of the world.
 * Secretary of Special Interests. As subservient and below the position of Secretary of Foreign Affairs, they ultimately report to the Department of the Foreign Office. They will regularly meet with the minor countries of Grensalbourg, Illuaq, the International City, and Aether, and ensure their relationship with the High Kingdoms of Alaxia remains secure.
 * Secretary of Trade. As subservient and below the position of Secretary of Foreign Affairs, they ultimately report to the Department of the Foreign Office. They will manage and negotiate trade deals with foreign countries, ensure that the nation’s trade follows international law, prevent delays, look at or implement suggestions from devolved countries about trade.

The Department of the Foreign Office is therefore quite powerful and the position of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs will have high stature within the cabinet.


 * Secretary of the Treasury. It is their role to oversee the Department of Finance which deals with taxation, other streams of revenue, bonded debt, financial collection, deposit of public moneys, revenue sharing, government spending, tariffs, import quotas, and other such financial exercises. Due to the somewhat economic sovereignty of the devolved countries, the department and position hold little power as they often take and implement suggestions made by the devolved chancellors of the exchequers and the national bank. Their main job is to scrutinise and rubber stamp economic policy decided by the devolved governments, keep stability, and control national monetary and fiscal policy.
 * Secretary of Defence. It is their role to oversee the Department of Defence and the several different branches of the military. Notably, the minister is not the commander in chief and is therefore only second in command to the President of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia. It is important, though not required, for this position to be filled by someone knowledgeable in the military.
 * Secretary of Justice. It is their role to oversee the Department of Justice and the Department for Prison Services. They will serve as an adviser to the President on matters ethical and legal matters, investigate methods in reducing re-offending, protect the public, provide access to justice, and increase confidence in the justice system. The secretary will also have input to the selection of supreme court judges through suggestions and vetoes - although it will be assured that no government can select or bar a judge’s appointment without approval from the Justice Appointments Committee.
 * Secretary of Energy and Resources. It is their role to oversee the Department of Energy and the Department of Resources. They will take recommendations from energy companies, set regulations for energy companies, manage nationalised energy company policies, review standards, etc. Devolved policy will often overrule central government policies although the Department for Energy will introduce guidelines and baselines to follow. Furthermore, they will be able to pass executive action to limit policies of devolved energy ministries that would threaten the stability or wellbeing of the union as a whole. The Department of Resources would do similar such things.
 * Secretary of Agriculture and Nutrition. It is their role to oversee the Department of Agriculture.
 * Secretary of Commerce
 * Secretary of Science
 * Secretary of Transport
 * Secretary of Health
 * Secretary of Labour and Pensions.
 * Secretary of Education
 * Secretary of Housing
 * Secretary of Intelligence
 * Secretary of the Environment

Furthermore, devolved governments will have the ability to send a single representative to sit in on cabinet meetings to represent local interests.

Section III
This section would go into more detail about the judicial branch.

Article III
This article summarises the exercise and power of the devolved governments.

This article will summarise the levels of government and parliaments of the devolved countries. Specifically, this article will detail the roles and position of each devolved nation’s Prime Minister, government and cabinet, their powers, the parliament and their powers, and elections. Devolved matters not detailed in this article will be those of local elections, possible constituent assemblies and mayoral districts / elections - all of which shall be detailed in later articles.

Each devolved country will have a single chamber of legislature known as the House of Parliament or other such local slang name. Usually, these will be located in the capital city - although not required - and serve a total of 600 members of parliament. To distinguish between members of parliament in different nations, they will be given special names: Ahitereiran members of parliament shall be referred to as MAPs, Empheri members of parliament shall be referred to as MEPs, Kiavalari members of parliament shall be referred to as MVPs, Koresan members of parliament shall be referred to as MKPs, and Peryzi members of parliament shall be referred to as MPPs.

The executive of each devolved country will be formed from the legislature. Any party that holds a majority of the seats in parliament will automatically be given the role of forming a government. In cases where no party holds this title, the otherwise largest party would be invited to form a minority government - this holds no legal differences but would be expected, though not required, to call elections two years earlier than required, and be forced to use less executive powers and rely more on votes in the legislature to pass any type of changes to law. Furthermore, two or more parties can agree to form a coalition agreement where they will compromise on policy and combine their voting power in the House of Parliament. Where coalitions become the largest voting bloc or majority, the largest party there would be invited to form a government with its coalition partners.

Those with the possibility to form a government will do so under the leader of its party / coalition who would become Prime Minister. This individual can refuse to form a government. In this scenario, either the individual can nominate another person in their party or coalition to become the Prime Minister (e.g in a coalition agreement to give another coalition partner the premiership) or give the opportunity of forming a government to the next largest party or coalition. Furthermore, if no government is formed after three weeks of the elections, there would be a vote in the House of Parliament that would require a simple majority (50%) to pass a motion of the dissolution of parliament with fresh elections to take place five weeks later.

During times in which there is no Prime Minister (for example, when all individuals have refused to form a government, the incumbent has died, resigned or lost a vote of confidence in the chamber), there is a clear chain of succession:


 * 1) The incumbent in-office Prime Minister can take the powers of Acting Prime Minister first. The only requirement is that they must still be a member of parliament and member of the same political party as during their premiership. They will receive this automatically in the case of a government unable to be formed for three weeks, at which a motion in the House of Parliament would give MPs the option to vote Yes, or No, to continue granting them the powers for another three weeks. If the vote is no, or the incumbent Prime Minister has died, is no longer an MP, or refuses the position, the next in line is chosen.
 * 2) The Speaker of the House can take the powers of Acting Prime Minister second.

the levels of government to which later articles will go further in depth on. Of the legislature, there is the Senate and the House of Representatives which act as the upper and lower levels of the Central Government of the High Kingdoms of Alaxia. Of the House of Representatives, 525 nation-wide representatives elected in constituencies somewhat proportionate to the population. Of the Senate, 75 senators are elected proportionate to the current makeup of the devolved countries’ parliaments (15 from each).

Article IV
This article summarises the administrations within the devolved governments including provincial governments, local governments, and local courts.

Article V
This article summarises the use of federal land and relations between the devolved countries.

Article VI
This article summarises the core fundamental laws of the union including civil liberties and the right of people.