WeaknessesJacinta Ravenswood may have been an experienced legal mind, one of the foremost consulted persons on many different areas, a high flyer and someone used to answering questions but even the likes of her could run into a question that couldn't be answered, although in her experience it was by contradiction, her question was posed by the
Rokkenjiman Constitution and identifying its weaknesses, some were obvious and others were less so but with elections having just happened it was fast getting to the point where she and Emerson would be presenting a proposed new Constitution, more accurately a clearer and updated one, to the Diet for their perusal. She sipped her tea as she put the word 'system' followed by a question mark up on the board.
"What have you got?"
Emerson Ravenswood, her older brother and current Viceregent asked stepping into the office.
"A whole lot." Jacinta said "Want the headlines?"
"Yeah." Emerson said slowly sitting down "How bad is it?"
"It's not bad, the biggest problem is in a collision of theory but we'll get to that." Jacinta said "Let's start with the most obvious article 2."
"The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by Imperial female descendants, according to the provisions of the Imperial House Law." Emerson said
"Clear problem because it relies on female descendants rather than descendants in general, Lodja avoids this because they pick the successor with a much wider net they go from the entire population. If Asuna doesn't have a daughter then the crown goes to Kyoko if Kyoko doesn't have a daughter then it gets very troublesome because blood relations matter in lines of succession you would have a situation where the Empress of Achkaerin is next in line to the Rokkenjiman Throne. However in practically any other monarchy Lucius would be in the line but not here."
"Heirs and spares." Emerson said "And Lucius is currently neither but right now he should be heir or at least when he's of age he should be, it's another branch on the tree that counts."
"And Beatrice did say this should happen 'full equality will extend...' so that's something the Diet's heard before it shouldn't be a hard sell." Jacinta said
"Next?" Emerson said
"Article 3. The Empress is sacred and inviolable." Jacinta said "No longer applicable because it's simply not true, that precedent was set with Beatrice Anselmo and it's why Asuna is now Empress, that's the harsh reality if you're going to say inviolable then it applies consistently it hasn't applied in that manner at all, considering the amount of probable cause there is against certain other monarchs for criminal acts it strikes an odd note to pursue them but not hold yourself to the same standard, and you can't really claim to be justice seeking if all are unequal before the law because that creates issues of access to justice." she paused "Then Article 31 says The provisions contained in the present Chapter shall not affect the exercise of the powers appertaining to the Empress, in times of war or in cases of a national emergency. Again no longer relevant in that form because it's superseded by Rokkenjima's signature on the MCUR, the correct approach is now for the Empress to derrogate in accordance with article 21 of the MCUR."
"Anything else on the Crown element?" Emerson asked
"I'd probably remove the ability of the Crown to appoint the Imperial Council if the Council continues to exist." Jacinta said "But that's because of the dual responsibility that body has."
"Ok next? Emerson said
"The big problem." Jacinta said "The Constitution seems at odds with political reality."
"Explain." Emerson said
"The Constitution outlines a model of government that is essentially a Presidential system. The Empress is in the role of the President, the Imperial Council is the Government and the Diet is the legislative, however the political reality of having a Premier who is an elected head of Government suggests in practice that Rokkenjima is in fact working as a model of a Parliamentary system but the two are incompatible because right now the Empress has the authority but the mandate to govern rests with the Premier, in short the Empress has too much political power for a Parliamentary system to be viable. So the question is legitimately this - Premier or no Premier?"
"Assume we say Premier." Emerson said
"Then it's got to be a power shift and a significant one at that." Jacinta said "Abolishing the Imperial Council probably becomes required, the Empress would need to give up policy making power because the mandate to govern as demonstrated by the people at the ballot box rests with the Premier not the Empress."
"And if we say no Premier?" Emerson asked
"Then the Presidential model becomes the government, it has a fairly big weakness of its own right now because of who the largest party in the Diet is, were it not for the situation in the Councillor's Rokkenjima would in fact be a one party state." Jacinta said "Constitutionally that would in practice mean amending article 47 to replace Premier, presumably with the Speaker of the respective chamber. Aside from that the Diet bit needs belt and braces, maximum time between elections needs to be in there, as would a mechanism for the Diet to override the Crown given the amount of administrative power the Crown has, and if not the Diet with that mechanism then the Imperial Council, assuming it stays."
"Speaking of, if the Council stays what are we looking at there?" Emerson asked
"Constitutionally an update to reflect the changing nature of it." Jacinta said "Prior to you as Viceregent the Council was more a group of advisors, it's more than that now you set it up as a scrutineer body you've got experienced people in there with the intent to say when the Empress is wrong, I would safeguard that function yes it exists to advise the Empress but it must have the security to do so, this Constitution has to be futureproof and that means checks and balances across the board. The Imperial Council may not have a legislative function but it can comfortably be the body that checks the Crown in fact it probably should be. And I think it more likely that certain elements may prefer the Imperial Council to wield that power rather than the Diet. Just needs the safeguards."
"What else?" Emerson asked
"The Finance stuff needs making far simpler and less contradictory and there needs to be a clear amendment provision for the future." Jacinta said "But this is going to be a two question matter. The first is does the Diet believe the position of Premier should exist yes or no? And that decision needs to be made with the understandings of the consequences either way, and then depending on the answer to that we can lay before the Diet the proposed new Constitution for their consideration."
"So we have one version where there is a Premier and a version where there isn't?" Emerson asked
"Correct," Jacinta said "Technically speaking the Premier has already been elected to the Diet at the moment the confirmation of that is being delayed because we need that question answering."
"Then we'd better go and see the Diet then." Emerson said