The following table contains an incomplete list of features of isopublic. The entries are brief and cursory. The table isn’t intended to be an exhaustive treatment of isopublic, but to give a general sense of the model.
Notes:
| Podcast | Feature | Category |
|---|---|---|
| The moral philosophy of isopublic is evolutionary utilitarianism which is stated as, “the greatest equal freedom for the greatest well-being of the greatest number." Meaning the maximum equal freedom of each to exercise their personal evolutionary advantages, i.e. tool-use, cognition, and language, for maximum progress of civilization, all things considered over time. Other terms for evolutionary utilitarianism are “cultural use-inheritance” and “social Spencerism” (after the 19th century English philosopher, Herbert Spencer). | Ideology | |
| Another way to express evolutionary utilitarianism is "do, learn, teach." This is the paradigm of progress and, as under evolutionary utilitarianism, about creating optimal social conditions for all to have the greatest opportunity of each to act, assess, and communicate. | Ideology | |
| The word "isopublic" is a hybrid of Greek and Latin roots. Iso- from Greek isos meaning "equal" and -public from Latin publicus meaning "of the People, of the state, done for the state," i.e. political society. Thus, isopublic means equal political society, or restated, a society of political equals. | Ideology | |
| Isopublic is a state without government, i.e. a self-governing or self-regulating society. The Authority of isopublic does not regulate society, the People regulate themselves, meaning one is legally liable for harm done to others, not harm that might be done. | Ideology | |
| Isopublic is a voluntary state. To become a citizen, one must sign the Compact, the citizen contract and literal social contract containing the totality of public law. | Ideology | |
| The Trilibrium is the prime political doctrine of isopublic. The Trilibrium is stated as "equal freedom, equal rule, and equal justice maintained in steady-state equilibrium." | Ideology | |
| Isopublic is to be a state with courts, police, and prisons. | Ideology | |
| Isopublic is to have a national defense comprised primarily of a citizen-militia. There is to be no standing army in isopublic. A standing army is dangerous to the integrity of the state and liberty. The defense of liberty is too important to delegate to others. With respect to maintaining maximum equal freedom, every citizen has "skin in the game." | Ideology | |
| The Eudemic Code is a complete system of morality for isopublic prescribing good conduct in all moral domains, i.e. personal, social, and political. Meaning, how you should treat yourself, how you should treat others, and how the state should treat you. The word eudemic is from Greek roots. Eu- meaning "happiness, health, and prosperity," i.e. well-being all things considered over time. -dem- from demos meaning "the People," i.e. civil society. The eudemic society is to be the fittest society in nature, all things considered over time. Click to read the Eudemic Code. | Ideology | |
| The political authority of isopublic, called the Tricuria, must not act on the People (i.e. does not interfere in society) except to remedy harm individuals do to others and to perform only those functions that are vital to the viability of the nation. This because the act of regulating society is itself doing harm to the People and denies individuals their right of due process, i.e. it's wrongful to punish for harm individuals might do before harm is actually done. | Ideology | |
| In a moral society, political leadership is inclusive of the People. All citizens of the isopublic are to have an equal chance of serving at the highest level in the Tricuria via the democratic convention of selection by lottery, called sortition. A second step, the Autoselect, is to be used to put the most competent individuals into the most responsible roles. | Ideology | |
| Under the Eudemic Code's 1st Imperative, each person is to have the unalienable equal rights of selfdom, freedom, and property. Selfdom (i.e. self-dominion, self-ownership, or self-sovereignty) means dominion over one's person, mind and body. Freedom means freedom to exercise one's personal faculties and includes freedom of speech, religion, education, etc., so long as one doesn't infringe on another's equal freedom. Property, in the Lockean sense, means that you own what you produce mixing your labor with nature. To deny one the product of their labor, of mind and or body, is slavery—socialism, communism, and fascism are based on slavery because they deny an individual’s right to own the products of their labor. | Ideology | |
| Allowances of Vital Necessity (under the Eudemic Code) identifies areas whereby the Tricuria is to be permitted to infringe on the People's 1st Imperative rights, the only areas the state is granted allowance to act on the People by the People. Thus for example, public schools and welfare would not be allowed. The Allowances are preliminary at this time. In an active isopublic, i.e. after a finalized Compact is in effect, the Allowances could be changed by nomothesion. Allowances of Vital Necessity are as follows:
| Ideology | |
| The Tricuria would employ democratic conventions to maintain the integrity of state. Click to read about democratic measures to prevent political corruption and also listed under the Integrity category in this table. | Ideology | |
| The administrative division of isopublic is called a demy (pl. demies). A demy tricuria makes its own policy but is not able to make law because the Compact is universal law in the isopublic. There is a National or Capital Demy and common demies. The National Demy is the seat of the National Tricuria which houses the State and Defense departments. All demies have their own Justice, Interior, and Fidelis departments. | Ideology | |
| The demy (including the National Demy) has a maximum and minimum population. If a demy exceeds the maximum, it must be divided into two demies (like cell mitosis) and if below the minimum must be absorbed by a neighboring demy. Because demies are administrative and not jurisdictional, division or absorption should be mostly transparent to the People. Because demies are only administrative, should a power struggle between demy tricurias occur, something very wrong is afoot. | Ideology | |
| It's important that no demy be allowed to exceed the maximum population contained in the Compact (e.g. two million citizens or five million total) to keep the Tricuria at a human scale and responsive to local concerns. The Tricuria is intended to be decentralized with autonomous demies under the universal Compact law. This is especially true of the National Demy which, apart from specific functions (e.g. administering the ValEN, National Grand Courts, etc.) and Departments of Defense and State, it operates like any other demy. | Ideology | |
| Isopublic is highly scalable. If the entire world with population of eight billion was a single isopublic and assuming an average demy population of 3.5 million, there'd be about 2,300 demies worldwide under the single universal Compact law. That sounds like a lot, and it is, but given there're about 195 countries today, that's only about 10 divisions per country on average (e.g. the US would divide into about 85 demies and China 400). Thus, a global nomothesion would have a World Citizen Assembly of 7,500 members x 2,300 assemblies or 17 million people voting. Again while that's a big number, consider the 2016 US presidential election had almost 130 million voters. | Ideology | |
| Isopublic promotes private mutual aid societies by eliminating interference from the state and tax-funded welfare. The People must rely on family, community, and charity to weather difficult times. Thus, does isopublic strengthen the altruistic virtues of generosity, charity, and compassion. Extended families and community are important in isopublic. So for instance, there'd be no taxpayer subsidized single-motherhood thus encouraging sexual responsibility. | Ideology | |
| The Tricuria, as the political authority of isopublic, is the guardian and steward of the Trilibrium. The word, tricuria, is from Latin roots with tri- from tres meaning "three" and -curia meaning "council, court or assembly." In the case of Tricuria, suggesting council, court and assembly, a reference to the three branches of the Tricuria—the Executive, Judicial, and Citizen Assembly. Usage: Capitalize Tricuria when referring to the concept or a specific tricuria, e.g. the National Tricuria. Use lower case, tricuria (pl. tricurias), when referring to a non-specific tricuria, e.g. a demy tricuria. | Authority | |
| The Triennial Selectoral is the process by which political leadership is selected. Every three years, individuals are selected from the citizenry by lottery, i.e. by sortition. From that group, the most competent are selected to serve as councilors by their peers in a 2-day event called the Autoselect. | Authority | |
| Councilors are paid at the highest level of compensation in the Tricuria. All councilors are paid identically regardless of type but adjusted by demy cost of living. Cabinet officials are next highest not to exceed 90% the compensation councilors receive. Compensation is set by the outgoing National Executive Council; thus, they can't receive the benefit of their own increase. Compensation levels are set once every three years. The expectation is for councilors to receive compensation at three or four times the national average. | Authority | |
| Able-bodied citizens of any age serve in the Citizen Assembly, but one must be 21 to serve on council with no maximum age. The only requirement for service is to be a citizen in good standing, i.e. not currently in prison. Any citizen unable to serve if selected receives a deferment. Any individual deemed mentally incompetent would need to have their legal status changed to dependent person thus removing their citizen status. It's essential that the widest cross section of citizens be included and no filtering or prejudicing of selection be allowed. | Authority | |
| Each demy conducts a triennial selectoral lottery which selects a statistically significant random sample size multiplied by nine from the citizenry called citizens-select. For example, given a demy with 1,000,000 citizens, the selectoral sample size is 1,100 x 9 or 9,900 citizens-select. From this group, councilors are selected in an autoselect. Everyone not selected for council service serve on the assembly. Assuming this citizen population, there'd be a 1% chance of being selected every three years, 10% chance over thirty years, and 25% over a lifetime for someone becoming a citizen at age 15 and living to be age 90. | Authority | |
| The Autoselect is the second step of the Triennial Selectoral and is used to assign the most responsible roles (i.e. executive and judicial council seats) to the most competent people in the opinion of their peers. The Autoselect is a 2-day event over which all those selected in the Lottery by demy convene for a 3-round mutual interview process. For each round, the citizens-select are randomly divided into groups of nine for a 3-hour session to ask each other questions and review short bios. At the end of the session, each ranks from most to least preferred the other eight in the group. For each round, the groups are randomly assigned such that no two individuals participate in the same group twice. After the third round on the second day, the rankings are published. Starting with the highest ranked individuals (i.e. having the lowest score of 3 x 8 or 24), the council seats are filled beginning with the executive councils (National first followed by each demy council), then judicial councils (National Court-of-courts first, followed by demy courts-of-courts, and finally, the remaining court council seats by demy). All those not selected for council then serve on the respective demy citizen assembly. | Authority | |
| With respect to starting-up an isopublic, an estimated minimum citizen population of 4,000 is needed to support a minimal Tricuria. Meaning, the minimum-sized viable isopublic might be around 10,000 population including children and non-citizen residents (i.e. legal independent residents). | Authority | |
| The Executive Branch of the Tricuria is divided into five departments—Justice, Interior, Fidelis, State, and Defense. All demies, including the National Demy, have the Judicial, Interior, and Fidelis departments. Only the National Demy has the State and Defense departments. When a councilor is serving on council (National, demy, or department), they're to act on their individual conscience, not as part of a group. For example, when a Defense Department councilor is serving on the National Council, they're not at that time part of the Defense Council per se, meaning they vote as an individual member of the National Council, i.e. the Defense Department Council doesn't act as a block with respect to National Council votes. | Authority | |
The five departments of the Tricuria Executive Branch perform the following general missions:
| Authority | |
| The Tricuria is highly decentralized. Each demy council has authority over its own demy tricuria. The National Council has authority over the capital demy tricuria and those functions expressly limited by the Compact nationally, e.g. national defense, foreign affairs, national security, national currency. Common demy tricurias are to be expressly prohibited from engaging in these functions. | Authority | |
| The principle political bodies that govern the Tricuria are executive councils, judicial councils, and citizen assemblies. All serve on a 3-year term with councilors serving full-time and assembly members on a by-vote basis. Councils are either by demy or the National Council seated in the capital demy. National Councilors are selected from the highest autoselect-ranked citizen-selects nationally. | Authority | |
| The Tricuria Executive Branch is governed by executive councils. Each executive department is governed by a department council with nine members The department councils combine to form the executive council. Thus, a common demy executive council (called a demy council) has 27 members, i.e. the combined demy Justice, Interior, and Fidelis department councils. The National Council has 45 members, i.e. the combined Justice, Interior, Fidelis, Defense, and State Department councils. | Authority | |
| In isopublic, there are no elections, no elected public officials, no political parties, and no political campaigns. | Authority | |
| The Citizen Assembly is a branch of the Tricuria consisting of everyone who didn't get selected for council in the Autoselect. The Citizen Assembly has the power to nullify any executive policy, remove any executive council, cancel a state of emergency, and make the final decision on changes to the Compact. The Citizen Assembly is not a deliberative body, i.e. the Assembly only convenes for the purpose of casting votes. An executive council can dispute any Assembly vote except on the removal of an executive council. A disputed vote goes before the grand courts (demy or National as appropriate) to break the tie. | Authority | |
| The Tricuria is to be prohibited from issuing debt except during a declared state of emergency. The debt issued must be paid within 30 years (i.e. in one generation and 10 service terms). Debt could be issued either by demy or National tricuria but the issuing tricuria is responsible for repaying the debt from its respective budget. | Authority | |
| Disputes between executive councils and citizen assemblies are resolved by the Grand Courts. The Grand Courts mediate disputes and, by final court decision, is the dispute resolved. The disputing assembly and executive council each appoint a team of three to represent their position to appear before the courts. A dispute between the National Assembly and National Council is resolved by the National Grand Courts. | Authority | |
| Disputes between demy tricurias including disputes between the National Council and common demy tricurias are resolved by the National Grand Courts acting as mediators. | Authority | |
| In the isopublic, there is a general separation of science and state. The only science to be conducted by the Tricuria (i.e. with public funds) is under the Security of State Allowance, i.e. for national security and defense. There's to be no social science funding and no educational funding except under the Security of State Allowance. Science in isopublic is to be pursued by private interests, and only so far as it remains lawful and doesn't do harm or endanger the security of the state, meaning that under the Security of State Allowance, science can be regulated by the National Council and associated National department councils. Science should be motivated by profit (to serve humankind)--not politically motivated (to subjugate humankind). | Authority | |
| Because political honorifics (e.g. The Honorable, Your Honor, Your Grace, etc.) suggest status and hierarchy, there are to be no political honorifics used in the isopublic. Personal honorifics such as Dr., Prof., Ms. are okay for councilors and assembly members. Titles of political leadership roles in the Tricuria are—Member (for those serving on a citizen assembly), Councilor or Executive-councilor (for those serving on a demy council or National Council), and Judge or Judge-councilor (for those serving on a judicial council, i.e. court panel). | Authority | |
| Foreign affairs are to be under the direct authority of the State and Defense Departments of the National Tricuria and under the ultimate authority of the National Council. The State Department includes a foreign service which employs diplomats. | International | |
| No policies are to be adopted that restrict imports or exports except under the Security of State Allowance. Thus, the National Council is to have no authority to impose economic sanctions against other countries. | International | |
| No oaths, affirmations or swearings-in are performed in courtrooms or any official functions of the Tricuria. Giving testimony to the Tricuria is with the express acknowledgement that communicating false-factual information or by omission with intent, knowingly, or due to gross negligence is a criminal act of false reporting. All information provided to the Tricuria (e.g. testimony, exhibits, etc.) must be factually correct and complete to the best of one's knowledge. | Law | |
| Religious observances (e.g. prayers, rituals, etc.) are prohibited from all official Tricuria functions. The isopublic is a free society meaning there’s to be religious freedom meaning the authority, the Tricuria, must remain neutral on religion. That doesn’t mean the Tricuria is atheistic, i.e. taking a stance against religion, but rather taking no stance for or against. | Law | |
| The Compact is the political contract between independent persons with the citizenry as the principle signatories. In isopublic, the Compact is a literal social contract containing the totality of public law. Because the Compact is to be written in principle-based law, exclude case law/legal precedence, and isopublic is a free society with minimal law in the first place, the Compact is expected to be no more than the length of a short novel. At this time, the Compact is conceptual and not drafted. | Law | |
| In the isopublic, only citizens are allowed to own land (documented by a title-in-land) and have title to natural resources (documented by a title-in-nature). | Law | |
| A legal tract of privately-owned land in isopublic is called a parceloid. A parceloid is a parcel (i.e. land inscribed by a 2D boundary) plus "100 above and below" (i.e. space 100m above and below the datum surface). Property owners are legally entitled to do all that they will within the parceloid they own such that no nontrivial, nonconsensual effect is done to another’s parceloid beyond the boundary. | Law | |
| Each party in a court proceeding, civil or criminal, is granted the right of one appeal without qualification in isopublic. Thus, there could be three total trials per case. In criminal inquests, the parties are called the accused and accuser. In civil adjudications, the parties are called claimant and defendant. By final court decision is the last court judgment after appeals are exhausted, either performed or waived. | Law | |
| Civil dispute resolution in isopublic consists of three steps—Step 1) direct resolution, Step 2) 3rd-party private mediation, and Step 3) binding adjudication by the courts. Prior to courts adjudicating a dispute, one or both parties must file a Record of Mediation from Step 2. Adjudication is binding after both parties exhaust their one appeal, if desired. Court councils are mandated to achieve the most equitable decision which might not satisfy either party but is intended to re-equilibrate social disharmony. With adjudication, the courts act as "mediators of last resort” in the isopublic. | Law | |
| Tricuria courts consist of panels of judge-councilors selected from the Triennial Selectoral and serve a 3-year term. They are expected to be competent amateurs. | Law | |
| Criminal trials in isopublic are inquisitorial not adversarial and there are no lawyers. Court councils act as judge, jury, and prosecution. Adversarial legal systems result in regressive justice, i.e. the rich get justice, not the poor. In isopublic, the accused and accuser each receive the right of one appeal. | Law | |
| Every accused person in isopublic possesses the legal rights of due process, speedy trials, a presumption of innocence, protection against self-incrimination, to face their accusers, protection against double-jeopardy, and of habeas corpus (i.e. against unlawful detention or imprisonment). | Law | |
| Personal debt in isopublic is a matter of civil contract meaning failure to pay one’s debt falls under the civil dispute resolution process with private 3rd-party mediation followed by court adjudication if mediation fails. No one is imprisoned in isopublic for failure to pay a debt absent fraud. And there is bankruptcy protection and debt relief under Compact law if failure to pay is involuntary (e.g. loss of income, illness, etc.). | Law | |
| The Compact is changed via nomothesia, the legislative process of the Tricuria. There is no dedicated legislative body or branch in the Tricuria. A single instance of nomothesia is a nomothesion. A nomothesion is a 3-step process— Step 1) Executive deliberation by the National Council, Step 2) Judicial review by the National Grand Courts, and Step 3) Adoption or rejection by the National Citizen Assembly. In Step 1, a National councilor, referred to as the sponsor, must introduce a measure, called the nomothesis, to the National Council to change the Compact which must be seconded to initiate a nomothesion. The measure is then debated and on a 2/3rd majority 'yea' vote goes to the courts. Step 2 of a nomothesion is conducted by the National Grand Courts which perform a judicial review to determine if the nomothesis, if adopted, would conflict with or corrupt unchanging Compact law or the principles of isopublic. The Compact is "prosecuted" by the courts with the pro nomothesis team acting as the "prosecution" and opposition team acting as the "defense" (i.e. in defense of the Compact as it is). This is the only instance of adversarial court process in isopublic. By final court decision of the National Grand Courts after both sides exhaust their one appeal on a 2/3 majority 'yea' vote does the nomothesis go to Step 3. Step 3 of a nomothesion consists of the National Citizen Assembly performing an up/down vote. By a 2/3 majority 'yea' vote is the Compact changed and the nomothesis adopted to become law. There are no debates or deliberations by the Assembly. The procedure is to consist of only a reading of the nomothesis text and by vote as a show of colored paddles on video, white for ‘yea’ and black for ‘nay.’ | Law | |
| In isopublic, there are no victimless crimes. Consensual activities traditionally considered vices are legal for example drug possession, manufacture and distribution, prostitution, gambling, etc. Restrictions on dependent persons apply. | Law | |
| There is no capital punishment in isopublic due to the risk of executing an innocent person. However, there is a life sentence for committing murder or treason. Anyone receiving a life sentence is given the option of voluntary, humane assisted suicide at any time while serving their sentence. Because murder cannot be remedied and the victim incapable of forgiveness, murder is treated as a life for a life. Murder by definition means the murderer acted with intent or knowingly to cause the death of another. Death due to gross negligence would not receive a life sentence though the victim can't be remedied there must be recognition the death was not due to malevolence. Treason receives a life sentence under the Security of State Allowance. Treason is any act committed by a current or former citizen of the isopublic, as convicted by final court decision, which causes grievous harm to national security and or aids in war against the isopublic. | Law | |
| Under the right of selfdom, assisted suicide is legal in isopublic so long as ample documentation is presented to the courts proving the individual was at the time an independent person of sound mind not acting under duress. | Law | |
| Under the right of selfdom, selling one’s organs is legal in the isopublic for an independent person of sound mind and not under duress by others. Thus, there should be no organ shortages in isopublic. | Law | |
| Right of privacy is protected in isopublic under a standard of reasonable expectation of privacy including privacy of mind, e.g. thoughts, dreams, etc. as determined by final court decision. For instance, doxing is likely a privacy violation in isopublic since though address information might be public information, publishing it on social media violates the reasonable expectation of privacy standard. | Law | |
| Blackmail is not explicitly illegal in isopublic but contributing factors could be. For instance, blackmail would become illegal if it involves violating a person's reasonable expectation of privacy by secretly recording a phone call, hidden camera, wiretap, etc. However, blackmail over a public activity is legal under a threat of revealing factual information with no expectation of privacy. What constitutes a "reasonable expectation" of privacy would be by final court decision. | Law | |
| Right of self-defense is to be guaranteed in isopublic. All independent persons are permitted to own guns and other weapons for civil defense, i.e. rightful self-defense or to defend others. Under the Security of State Allowance, military-grade weapons are to be regulated, e.g. delivered explosives, weapons of mass destruction, automatic weapons, cannons, grenades, armed vehicles, etc. The National Defense Council maintains the list of controlled weapons. Since all citizens are members of the militia, all citizens receive firearms safety and use training. | Law | |
| Right of free speech (to mean any form of communication) is protected in isopublic under the right of equal freedom. Facts and opinions (e.g. satire, beliefs, comedy, fiction, etc.) are protected forms of communication. Communicating nontrivial false-factual information is prohibited. Examples of false-factual information are defamation, slander, libel, fraud, deepfakes, half-truths (i.e. omission with the intent to deceive), etc. Courts are to apply a standard of reasonable expectation of fact over complaints involving false-factual communications such as defamation. | Law | |
| Title-of-easement (which can be added on to any title such as a title-in-land, title-in-nature, etc.) is the legal device used in isopublic to allow another person not the owner to make use of the property. For example, a waterline passing through a parceloid would require a title-of-easement. Other uses could be roads, overhead powerlines, underground fiber optic, etc. Title-of-easement acts as a contract between the property owner and easement holder. Easement transfers with property, for example, a buyer must consent to the easement as a condition of buying land. | Law | |
| Eminent domain, i.e. the Authority taking private property for public use, is prohibited in isopublic except under the Security of State Allowance. All works that impact parceloids not owned by the provider must be performed with the informed consent of all owners. An impact is defined as any nontrivial, objective affect caused by a person not nature. Any such affect requires a title-of-easement and the express consent of the impacted owners. | Law | |
| Under the right of property, intellectual property (IP) is protected by law in isopublic. Patents and copyright are protected under public-use-license, and trade- and wordmarks under title-in-mark. The owner of IP is responsible for bringing suit against infringers. The Tricuria does not proactively police IP infringement in the same way it wouldn’t act to prevent trespassing on land. | Law | |
| One-sided contracts are prohibited in isopublic. Contracts must be equitable. Thus, hire-at-will, termination without cause, change of terms without remedy, and similar one-sided clauses are not permitted. Isopublic is essentially a contracting society, i.e. all nontrivial exchange is to be contractual whether explicit or implied. Contract disputes are to be subject to the civil dispute resolution process, i.e. direct resolution, 3rd-party mediation, followed by court adjudication if necessary. Contracts can be for marriage, employment, terms of service on a social media site, etc. Compact law is to specify that contracts be equitable and not contain, by opinion of the courts, egregious one-sided clauses. The courts must invalidate such clauses and render an equitable settlement. In principle, one-sided contracts create zero-sum outcomes—the isopublic is a positive-sum society. | Law | |
| All court decisions are by blind vote where each judge places by-hand a flat token with an indentation or other physical mark, one denoting "guilty" the other "innocent," into a special bag presented by the bailiff. There is no private deliberation, no collusion, no discussion, and no coordinated decision-making between judges. These measures are meant to promote voting of one’s conscience and to eliminate any influence of an "alpha" judge or factions on the bench. After collecting all the tokens, the bailiff pours out the bag onto a clear stand in front of the courtroom and tallies the results. A criminal conviction is by 2/3rds and a civil judgment is by simple majority. | Law | |
| Each demy has a court-of-courts which acts as the administrative body over the other demy courts. A court-of-courts is not a supreme court, i.e. it has no authority over the decisions of other courts. A court-of-courts sets courtroom policy, budgets, etc. A court-of-courts is a grand court, i.e. with 27 judge-councilors. A court-of-courts is to try judge-councilors for misconduct. There is to be a National Court-of-courts which acts similarly to a demy court-of-courts but only with respect to national and capital demy courts. The National Court-of-courts is to set nomothesia policy for the Judicial Branch and is to be the first court of a nomothesion. | Law | |
| All meetings of councils, assemblies, and autoselects must be held in a single physical location and not remotely (i.e. not over the Internet or an intranet). The risk of a vote being hacked is too great. Thus, for example, a vote by the National Assembly requires all demy assemblies to convene in-person at their respective meeting hall or arena. | Integrity | |
| The Triennial Selectorals must be transparent and open to public scrutiny. The Selectoral Lottery is based on open-source code for identifying councilor-selects and the results made available for public review. | Integrity | |
| National defense of isopublic is militia-based with no standing army per se. The model of isopublican military is generally inspired by the military of Switzerland. 2-5% maximum force strength is a professional, full-time military cadre with 98-95% force strength consisting of the citizen-militia. All citizens of isopublic, male and female, become members of the militia upon signing the Compact. Combat-grade weapons could be stored in community armories. | Integrity | |
| Paranomon (Greek for "beside the law") means to propose a new law or a change to existing law which conflicts or corrupts unaffected law. Paranomon was practiced in the democracy of ancient Athens. In Athens, any citizen could make an accusation of paranomon which could be abused. In isopublic, an accusation of paranomon is made only by a sitting member of the National Council or the National Grand Courts (participating in a nomothesion). An accusation of paranomon stops the nomothesion until the matter is resolved by a separate national grand court whereby the assigned court conducts an inquest. Paranomon is a political crime making it a crime of high infamy resulting in a much longer sentence than an equivalent civil crime. | Integrity | |
| Euthyna is an audit conducted on all outgoing executive councilors and cabinet members of financial activities. Euthyna was practiced in the democracy of ancient Athens. Audits are performed by the Fidelis Department. In the event there is evidence of official wrongdoing, Fidelis would file the complaint with the appropriate court-of-courts prompting an inquest into official crimes called an apophasis. | Integrity | |
| Apophasis is a special investigation by a court-of-courts into official misconduct, i.e. wrongdoing by Tricuria personnel. An apophasis would be convened by motion of an assembly or executive council. If a National councilor becomes the subject, the apophasis is performed by the National Court-of-courts, and for a demy councilor by the respective demy court-of-courts. If there’s concern over the objectivity of a local demy court-of-courts, the apophasis could be conducted by grand courts in another demy. Apophasis judge-councilors could do the investigating themselves or use Fidelis Dept. staff. If the apophasis involves national security, the investigating judges are granted the necessary level of security clearance. | Integrity | |
| All members of the National Council possess Level-1 security clearance, the highest in the Tricuria. Thus, Level-2 is the highest security clearance of anyone not actively serving on the National Council. Thus, the National Council is able to meet in complete secrecy. National councilors have access to all activities of the Tricuria, i.e. no official information is to be withheld from a National councilor without committing an official crime. The Fidelis Dept. is responsible for maintaining internal security. | Integrity | |
| All councilors and assembly members serve a 3-year term and no more than one term in 30 years. | Integrity | |
| Cabinet officers are appointed by sitting department councils at the end of their first year. Cabinet officers are appointed every three years and cannot serve again before nine years after their term ends. | Integrity | |
| There are two principle legal classifications of person under Compact law—independent and dependent persons. A legally independent person is someone capable of acting responsibly in society and able to comprehend the Compact. Since the Compact is the law of the land and one must expressly agree to the terms and conditions therein, i.e. itself a physical contract, to be an independent person in the isopublic means having read and comprehended the Compact. A dependent person is someone determined by the courts to be unable to act in a legally responsible manner, i.e. unable to comprehend the Compact or the consequences of their actions, e.g. children or mentally incompetent adults. The dependent person must have a Certificate of Guardianship signed by one or more independent persons acting as guardians. | Personhood | |
| The Rite of Independence is a court procedure (typically to be conducted by a 3-judge petit court) for granting a dependent person independent person status. The dependent person must demonstrate to the court they've read and comprehend the Compact. If the court denies their request, the decision, as with all court decisions in the isopublic, can be appealed. This process is the typical method by which a minor becomes a legal adult in isopublic. Thus, there is no age of consent per se with legal majority obtained on a case-by-case basis. This, in recognition that everyone matures at a different rate. | Personhood | |
| Immigration in isopublic is a private matter generally, i.e. there is no state-sponsored immigration or immigration programs. Immigrants are able to reside in isopublic upon invitation by a citizen-sponsor. The immigrant is issued a visa unless denied under the Security of State Allowance. Because there's to be no public welfare or assistance in isopublic, immigrants must be able to support themselves or rely on assistance from private parties. Immigrants convicted of a crime in the isopublic must serve their prison time and pay damages, then are immediately deported to their country of origin. The citizen-sponsor could be held financially liable to pay damages too. The Tricuria is permitted to restrict immigration under the Security of State Allowance if there is a credible threat to national security—which itself could be challenged by vote of the National Assembly. | Personhood | |
| Abortion is unconditionally legal in isopublic for legally independent women up to the first day of the third trimester, i.e. the Day of Attainment. Attainment means the fetus attains legal personhood as a dependent person with the mother as de facto guardian. Attainment is intended to be near but prior to the onset of sentience which seems to occur well into the third trimester. Sentience being defined as the capacity to suffer (as opposed to only a pain response). After the second trimester, pregnancy is to be legal to terminate to save the life of the mother. | Personhood | |
| A dependent female (for example, a teenager with a Certificate of Guardianship) who becomes pregnant is not allowed to obtain an abortion without guardian consent. She has the option of petitioning the courts for the Rite of Independence to gain her legal independent person status. If granted, she could choose abortion without guardian consent. No abortion service provider is legally permitted to perform an abortion on a dependent person without guardian permission. | Personhood | |
| With respect to having a child, the biological mother is the de facto guardian of her offspring under Compact law. Only with the mother’s consent would the father become a guardian by signing the child’s Certificate of Guardianship. This, because though the father contributes DNA to start the child, the mother provides her body to carry the child beyond its Day of Attainment. Thus, in isopublic, the biological father would have no legal responsibility for a child until being voluntarily added as a guardian by the mother. Under circumstances of rape or paternal deception or negligence, the biological father would be compelled by the courts to provide child support. If the mother is a legally dependent person after the fetus’ Day of Attainment, her guardians are to be de facto guardians of her child until she is granted independent person status at which time guardianship would normally transfer to her. In the event either the mother or guardians dispute the Certificate of Guardianship, the courts could rule the mother was acting as an independent person prior to Attainment, thus making her the sole guardian. The biological father would have no financial responsibility for the mother's pregnancy; thus, females are to be the de facto financially responsible party. It would be important in isopublic that any woman who could become pregnant either has an agreement with the father (e.g. marriage contract) or is able to take care of the child herself before becoming pregnant. Thus, in isopublic, sexual responsibility is encouraged. The Tricuria is to be the guardian of last resort should no one be available to care for the child. | Personhood | |
| In isopublic, adoption is a simple matter of changing guardian names on the Certificate of Guardianship. As a matter of policy, courts might be required to approve the change. Children could be bought and sold in isopublic so long as the child is not subject to harm under Compact law. | Personhood | |
| Vaccines for dependent persons (e.g. infants or anyone under a Certificate of Guardianship) are prohibited in isopublic by right of selfdom unless proven to be 100% safe for those dependents receiving the vaccine. This, because a dependent person can't by definition give their informed consent to the risk of vaccine injury. The exceptions are 1) there is an overwhelming threat the dependent person is at credible risk of imminent infection by a disease threatening life or limb, or 2) a disease that threatens the isopublic under the Security of State Allowance. If an administered vaccine causes a nontrivial harm to the dependent, the vaccine giver and producer could be required to remedy by the courts and even face criminal penalties if the risk was known. In the isopublic, if harm is done intentionally, knowingly, or due to gross negligence in the opinion of the courts, a crime has been committed. It's immoral under the Eudemic Code and illegal under Compact law to do harm to one person to prevent injury or death by disease of another. Disease is an act of nature and, though tragic, vaccine injury is an act by a human hand and unacceptable under the Eudemic Code. | Personhood | |
| Male and female genital cutting (e.g. male circumcision, female cutting, etc.) of dependent persons (e.g. infants) is generally illegal in isopublic. This, because genital cutting, as a nontrivial body alteration, is a violation of the right of selfdom and dependent persons are by law unable to give their informed consent. The only exceptions to a general ban on genital cutting, or any nontrivial body alteration of dependents, is for medical necessity and or to correct a nontrivial physical defect or injury. | Personhood | |
| Anyone visiting the isopublic for a short stay, a tourist for example, has the choice of either signing the limited Compact for non-citizen independent persons or stay under the sponsorship of a willing citizen-sponsor. For example, an adult traveling to the isopublic on vacation would either sign the limited Compact or perhaps a tour guide citizen would act as the tourist's legal sponsor. | Personhood | |
| The Commons consists of all natural resources within the political boundaries or jurisdiction of the isopublic either not contained wholly within a privately owned parceloid or crossing multiple parceloid boundaries (e.g. streams, air, sunlight, aquifers, lakes, etc.). The Tricuria acts as the steward of the Commons and trustee of the citizenry to make the Commons usable by the People via titles-in-nature. | Nature | |
| Public lands such as natural parks, conservancy districts, and nature preserves are possible in isopublic to be approved by demy and or National councils depending upon in which the lands are contained, respectively. All public lands are contained within the Commons and are managed by their respective Interior department. | Nature | |
| Only citizens can own land in isopublic. And there is a limit on the maximum amount of ownable land by individuals (i.e. the land allotment). The maximum amount of land would be established as the amount that could be economically farmed by an individual. Land allotments can be combined to allow groups of individuals to own more land in common but no single individual would be able to exceed the maximum allotment. This policy prevents the "Ted Turner effect" whereby a single very wealthy individual owns enormous tracts of land making land ownership more equitable, i.e. more available and affordable. | Nature | |
| Genetically modified organisms (or GMOs) are legal in isopublic, however, GMOs are treated as property of the producer. So long as the GMOs remain within the parceloid of the producer there’s no problem. But if the GMOs escape and do nontrivial harm to person or property of others, they become illegal. The courts must then remedy harm done by the GMOs which could include punitive remedy (i.e. prison for the responsible parties). Under the Security of State Allowance, GMOs can be regulated if in the opinion of the National Council they represent a threat to the security of the state. | Nature | |
| A title-in-nature is the legal instrument by which citizens are able to claim and make use of a natural resource in the Commons. The claim must be specified and be specific to that which the title holder is able to practically make use of, i.e. no claims on resources the applicants can't reasonably act upon or for more than the specified uses. The courts act as trustees for the citizenry representing their interests. Titles-in-nature mustn’t create a conflict with prior titles-in-nature and no prior title can be used to obstruct a claim that doesn't conflict. | Nature | |
| Eudemic society is the civil society of isopublic operating under the moral philosophy of evolutionary utilitarianism and system of morality, the Eudemic Code. | Society | |
| Private property is a fundamental isopublican right. Property being in the Lockean tradition, i.e. "Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property.” All property derives from this principle. With employment, the laborer has consented to the product of his labor transferring to their employer for a voluntary wage, i.e. there’s no such thing as "wage slavery," i.e. denying a person the product of their labor, which communists, socialists, and all collectivists do, is actual slavery. | Society | |
| "Cancel-culture" so-called, where social media is used to attack a person's reputation, social capital, income, etc. is not illegal in isopublic explicitly but does come with legal risks that should greatly mitigate this harmful phenomenon. Cancel-culture is in isopublic generally immoral under the Golden Maxim which holds laissez-faire (i.e. live and let live) as a virtue. Under Compact law, publishing false-factual information (e.g. defamation, fraud, etc.) which often is a part of cancel-culture, is a violation as is harassment and interference with another's equal freedom. Given that justice is a public good in isopublic, i.e. available to all, and doing harm to someone wrongfully is unlawful, anyone engaging in cancel-culture would take considerable legal risk, either with civil or criminal penalties. | Society | |
| The do no harm principle is to be imbued in Compact law. Violators are punished for harm done, not for harm that might be done, i.e. isopublic is a self-regulated society. Regulation by the state is a violation of due process, i.e. violators are denied their day in court and punished for potential, not actual harm done. | Society | |
| In isopublic there is no compulsory education, i.e. there’s a separation of school and state. Education is market-based and the responsibility of legal guardians. | Society | |
| There is religious freedom in isopublic so long as the religion is practiced as a personal faith, i.e. no theocracy or theocratic political influence, i.e. there’s a separation of church and state. Note that just because religious observances are not permitted or recognized by the Tricuria, that doesn't mean it endorses atheism but that the Tricuria must remain neutral on the question. Thus, there are no religious representations or displays on public property or during official functions. | Society | |
| In isopublic, there are two categories of legal person—dependent and independent person. A dependent person is one who is mentally unable to act responsibly in society, i.e. not able to competently comprehend consequences of actions such as children and mentally disabled adults. A dependent person must have a Certificate of Guardianship. Dependent persons can't enter contracts but guardians can on their behalf. The legal obligation of guardians is to maintain their ward and do no criminal harm. The Tricuria can’t interfere with guardian/ward relations except to remedy criminal harm done under the Guardianship Allowance. Guardians are legally liable for the actions of their wards. By final court decision, a person can be ruled dependent or independent. | Society | |
| Under Compact law, dependent persons in isopublic can't participate in sexual activity or be exposed to sexually explicit material that is deemed by the courts to be nonessential to the dependent's health. Depictions of dependent person sexual activity (such as child porn) are legal in isopublic so long as no actual dependent person is involved or consumes such material. This because no real child is involved. | Society | |
| Pollution is illegal in isopublic. Pollution is any non-natural substance that causes a nontrivial, nonconsensual, and measurable harmful effect on another's person or property. Such harm as determined by final court decision would be remedied by the perpetrator as compelled by the Tricuria. If the violation is considered to be caused with intent, knowingly, or from gross negligence, the responsible parties are to be subjected to a criminal inquest and, if convicted by final court decision, there's to be both civil and punitive remedies, i.e. civil damages up to three times the estimated measurable costs and prison time. | Society | |
| The national currency in isopublic is the ValEN (for Value Exchange Network). The basic unit of currency is called the valen (for value exchange unit). The ValEN is administered by the National Council under authority of the National Interior Council with the National Council having ultimate authority. | Economy | |
| Laissez-faire capitalism is the economic system of isopublic, i.e. the separation of economy and state. | Economy | |
| Isopublican money, the valen, is "true money." True money is based on three operating principles—a constant sum of currency units, demurrage, and digital cryptography. The purpose of true money is to provide the most accurate price information to economic actors, thus the name "true money." The constant sum of currency units, called the Grand Sum, prevents price distortions due to inflation and deflation. The demurrage fee is charged by the Tricuria in the form of a tax on valens that haven't been transferred after a set period of time (e.g. annually, quarterly, maybe monthly) to promote currency circulation to reduce speculation and hoarding which both practices increase price volatility. The similarity between Bitcoin and the ValEN is that both are cryptocurrencies, but Bitcoin is persistent, has a changing total of bitcoins in circulation (though more static over time), and has no demurrage. Bitcoin has the properties of digital gold. The demurrage fee assures that currency isn't accumulated by the wealthy, and in Bitcoin's case early adopters, which is why “sound money” (e.g. gold and silver coins) is value regressive, meaning poor consumers must pay persistent money for perishable goods of wealthy producers. Bitcoin and all forms of digital currency would be illegal in isopublic since they compete with the ValEN and take revenue from the Tricuria. Thus, if one consents to be physically in the isopublic, one agrees upon signing the Compact not to use other forms of digital money for all intrapolity transactions. The ValEN is intended to be based on open-source software operating on a central computer system administered by the Tricuria National Interior Department. The ValEN is to be anonymous such that the Tricuria can only gain access to a user's account by court-issued warrant based on probable cause. A ValEN user account is to be considered private property. | Economy | |
| Commodity-based money (e.g. gold and silver coins) is legal tender in isopublic, however, all transactions using commodity-based money must be by transferring the physical money. Using proxies or redeemable notes of commodity-based money are to be prohibited under Compact law. | Economy | |
| The Tricuria has one source of revenue, the ValEN Tax or V-tax. The V-tax is a charge that is applied to every valen transfer. The National Council sets the statutory rate each based on forecasted Tricuria spending over the coming year. Because the cost of the Tricuria is relatively low and the V-tax is spread over the entire economy, the statutory rate should be low (1% or less est.). In the event of a state of emergency, the statutory rate might be increased to cover increased costs. | Economy | |
| The Tricuria is prohibited from enacting trade sanctions. The only trade restrictions are those justified under the Security of State Allowance. | Economy |