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Laws recorded in the Legal Code may be repealed or revoked by either a royal decree issued by the Reigning Monarch or by parliamentary amendment passed in accordance with Article XV.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.

Structure

Each legal code category is represented as a folder in the repository. Inside each category folder:

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:

---
Title: [Full Title of the Act]  
Law Number: CCC-YYYY-X  
Category: [Legal Code Category]  
Sponsor: [Title and Name]
Cosponsors: [Title and Name(s)]  
Enacted Through: [Parliament / Royal Decree / Ministerial Decree]  
Date Ratified: [Gregorian Date]  
NAD Date: [New Athenian Date]  
---

Living Records

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.

Legal Code Categories and Acronyms

Code	Category Name	Description
GOV	Governance and Administration	Internal government operations, appointments, records, and administrative policies
CIT	Citizenship	Naturalization, documentation, revocation, and related procedures
JUS	Justice and Civil Order	Legal systems, courts, enforcement, identification, and regulations on public behavior
DIP	Foreign and Diplomatic Affairs	Diplomatic recognition, international treaties, and representation protocols
ECO	Economy and Agriculture	Fiscal policy, national economic programs, business regulation, and agricultural development
EDU	Education	Laws on public and private education, curricula, institutions, and educational standards
HEA	Health and Welfare	Public health initiatives, medical regulations, and social well-being policies
INF	Public Services and Infrastructure	Transportation, utilities, communications, and other essential public services
SCI	Science, Innovation, and Aerospace	Research, national scientific advancement, and aerospace initiatives
CUL	Culture and National Identity	National holidays, symbols, language, heritage, and ceremonial practices
ENV	Territory and Environment	Environmental protection, land use, geographic data, and territorial administration

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.

To read the laws: Navigate through the folders by category and year, or refer to the CATEGORY.md file for a summary of active law
To propose changes: Submit a pull request or contact the Speaker of the People
To view legal history: Use the repository's commit history or browse historical law folders

Contributing

New Athenian citizens may suggest changes by submitting pull requests, which will be reviewed in accordance with national legislative procedures.
Pull requests must only include one act, ensuring that royal assent can be granted or denied to each proposal individually.
Only authorized legislative personnel may directly modify this repository.

License

This repository is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC 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

For questions or official requests, please contact the Speaker of the People at speaker@newathensgov.org.

Hosted in New Athens