This repository contains the official **Legal Code** of the Free Nation of New Athens. It serves as the centralized, version-controlled system for publishing, organizing, and maintaining all statutory laws enacted under the authority of the Constitution.
The Legal Code is distinct from the Constitution, which defines the foundational structure of government, enumerates unalienable rights, and establishes the supreme principles of national governance. The Legal Code, by contrast, contains specific acts and regulations that implement, interpret, or expand upon powers already granted by the Constitution.
## Purpose
The New Athenian Legal Code is designed to:
- Serve as the authoritative public reference for all current laws outside the constitutional text
- Provide a scalable and organized framework for future legislation
- Maintain transparency and accountability through version history
- Enable collaborative drafting, review, and amendment of statutory law
## Legal Authority and Governance Model
New Athens is a constitutional monarchy. Under this system, the Constitution grants the Reigning Monarch broad executive authority, including the power to create ministries, appoint officials, and issue laws by royal decree.
However, Parliament, comprising all citizens with voting rights, also holds the authority to propose, deliberate, and pass legislation in all areas of national governance, provided the legislation:
- Does not contradict the Constitution
- Receives a majority vote in accordance with Article XV
- Receives Royal Assent by the Reigning Monarch before taking effect
This model ensures that both the Monarch and the Parliament may legislate, with clearly defined roles:
- The **Monarch** may issue decrees and create ministries to manage executive and administrative functions
- **Parliament** may legislate through the Legal Code to create policies, programs, and regulations for the nation, in addition to constitutional amendments
- The **Legal Code** serves as the authoritative record of all such non-constitutional laws
Laws recorded in the Legal Code may be repealed or revoked by either a royal decree issued by the Reigning Monarch or by parliamentary amendment passed in accordance with Article XV.
The Legal Code includes any law, regulation, or binding public decree, whether enacted by Parliament, Royal Decree, or Ministerial Decree, provided it carries general legal effect. Ceremonial proclamations, internal directives, or administrative orders without legislative force are excluded. All such laws follow a unified naming and categorization format.
- A **living record file** named after the category (e.g., `Citizenship.md`, `Health and Welfare.md`) contains the current, consolidated version of all **active** law and policy in that category.
- **Year-based folders** contain one Markdown file per law, preserving all historical legislation and amendments.
This system enables clear historical preservation while offering a simplified reference for the current legal state.
### Historical Records
Each law is assigned a unique identifier using the following format:
`CCC-YYYY-X`
Where:
-`CCC` is the 3-letter acronym for the category
-`YYYY` is the Gregorian year the law was enacted
-`X` is the sequential number of the law enacted in that year within its category
Laws are organized in folders:
```
/<Category>/
CATEGORY.md (living record)
/<Year>/
CCC-YYYY-X.md
```
Each Markdown file for acts begins with this standardized metadata header:
Each category folder includes a `CATEGORY.md` file (e.g., `Citizenship.md`, `Health and Welfare.md`), which contains a structured, sectioned overview of all currently active laws, decrees and policies in that category. When a law is amended, repealed, or superseded, the act to do so is added to its respective year subfolder and this file is updated to reflect the new legal state. The commit history of this file serves as the complete audit trail.
Additional categories may be created as needed to support new legislation.
## Usage
This repository is intended for both public reference and internal legislative management. The public may browse the laws freely, while authorized legislative officials may propose edits or new legislation through tracked changes.
This repository is licensed under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
You are free to:
- Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially
Under the following terms:
- **Attribution** - You must give appropriate credit to the Free Nation of New Athens
- **ShareAlike** - If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license
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For questions or official requests, please contact the Speaker of the People at [speaker@newathensgov.org](mailto:speaker@newathensgov.org).
