Imperial Confederacy

Founded by the United Empire of Colerica on October 12th, 2004, the Imperial Confederacy exists as a military and political union open strictly to nations that define themselves as empires. Admission is restricted to non-Communist empires with a population equal to or greater than fifty million people. In 2005, Colerica gave joint control of the alliance to Azazia, who crafted the IC's official charter.

The Mission Statement

The United Empire of Colerica wishes to present the newly designed Imperial Confederacy. Following the miserable failure of its prior incarnation, the United Empire has revamped the Imperial Confederation to better suit our views. This alliance shall offer empires to join one another in a loosely-tied confederacy to provide for the common defense of all nations involved.

The IC will be nothing more than a simple military and commerce pact between any nation that chooses to join. It is, of course, entirely voluntary to enter or exit from this proposed alliance. The IC hopes to strengthen the empires of NationStates by joining them -- albeit, loosely -- together to form a better union. The UEC feels that all empires share a common bond simply by nature. An empire is a rare form of nation; an all-powerful, over-seeing government that is has vast holdings throughout the world. While the United Empire is by no measure the strongest empire in NS, we feel that we are a rising star, if you will, among the many great empires.

By joining this proposed alliance, all nations involved would be assured helpful military assistance (should they require or request it) in military operations of their choosing. All nations involved are available to form better national ties amongst one another and, thusly, can form greater ties to commerce. The economies of all nations involved shall flourish with inner-alliance trade and commerce.

Members of the Imperial Confederacy shall govern themselves. We will never try to force our will over any members of the alliance. For all intensive purposes, you're allowed to do as you please to. However, we have to have some form of rules amongst ourselves or we will surely fall apart.

Charter

It is in the nature of man to stake a claim to a piece of land as his own. Since the first claim, all men have competed to control the most land or the most property. However, after numerous conflicts it has also been shown that a world without order results in all being targets of everyone else, which is ultimately an inefficient state of affairs. For this reason, man entered into a contact with fellow men wherein he agreed to cede some of his natural inherent power to a body, be it a person or persons, that would facilitate the interactions of its constituents.

Through history, many such bodies have come into existence, taking the form of states, later of entire nations. Most recently, of multi-national empires. It is in these empires that the ultimate goal of peaceful facilitation will be met. With fewer nation-states to compete for depleting resources, the larger empires will hold immense power in negotiation as the increase in territory leads to an increase in resources. Eventually, when the size of all empires becomes too great war to conquer other empires will become prohibitively expensive and will cease to occur. Then, peaceful negotiations between the multi-national empires will allow for all constituents of the governing bodies to live their lives to the fullest as agreed upon in their basic social contract.

It being noted that the below-signed nations are multi-national empires, we agree in principle to the ideal of furthering the betterment of mankind through primarily peaceful means. Also noting, however, that the world is still inhabited by many states that wage war for illogical asinine reasons.

The below signed states have agreed to the contract and find themselves bound to it.

Section I

The Government of the Imperial Confederacy

Having stated the need of bodies to work as agents of the constituents, the Imperial Confederacy, hereafter referred to as the IC, will consequently require a governing body to facilitate any disputes or problems of the member nations.

The governing council will consist of three bodies, the Council President, the Council of the Imperial Confederacy, and the Court of the Imperial Confederacy. All members of the governing bodies of the Imperial Confederacy can be removed for violations of laws of regulations of the Imperial Confederacy by a majority vote before the Court of the Imperial Confederacy, however, such action may only be brought forward by the Council of the Imperial Confederacy.

The Council President

Will serve as the public face for the IC. He or she will lead the Council as a non-binding voter unless Council is deadlocked on a specific issue or piece of legislation. He or she will be chosen from the member states through a designated rotation. He or she will serve for two years. He or she will be elected as such:

All states will rotate the position of the presidency in order of the time spent as a member of the IC. The longest standing nation (by time of signing up on the forum) will hold the seat first, then the second longest standing nation, then the third. When the end of the list has been reached, the cycle will repeat, adding on any new nations. This is to ensure that no member of the IC has any unduly large influence on the governance of the IC.

The Council of the Imperial Confederacy

Will be a body serving to legislate any ammedments to this charter or any regulations or official announcements. To pass any legislation requires a simple majority, any ammednment to this charter would require a two-thirds majority of the Council. Any legislation that cannot be passed by majority, i.e. even split, will be decided by the Council President, who under all other circumstances may exercise his right to vote as his official opinion on the matter, but that vote is non-binding and will follow the Council vote so as not to unduly influence the vote of the Council.

Members of the Council will be chosen by the member state through whatever procedure that nation chooses. They will be appointed every five years although can be removed by their member state at that state’s choosing.

The Council will be the body responsible for charging any individual from banishment from the governing bodies of the IC for breaches of the regulations.

The Court of the Imperial Confederacy

Will be a body serving to mediate all disputes between members of the IC. It will consist of five judges to be elected from all member states and will each judge will serve for a period of five years.

The court will issue binding-resolutions on matters pertaining to conflicts within the IC. However, any judge who comes from a state that has an issue before the Court will be required to recuse him or herself from the bench. At this time the first alternate judge will be briefed on the case and will serve as temporary judge.

The alternate bench will consist of three judges, who will be elected after the first bench. The alternate bench will not have any judges from the same state as those of the first bench. The alternate bench will be elected for specific numbered slots, the first slot being the first alternate judge in cases where first bench judges are required to recuse themselves. The second slot alternative being the second alternative judge, et cetera.

The Court will be the body responsible for banishing an individual from serving on the governing bodies of the Imperial Confederacy for violation of its regulations, detailed later. The Court will also be charged with deciding punishment. The same regulations of recusing judges for potential conflicts of interest will be maintained. Any judge serving from the same state as the one before the Court will be required to recuse himself and be temporarily replaced by an alternate judge.

Section II

All member states are equal before the Charter of the Imperial Confederacy and are fully entitled to the benefits, both explicit and implicit, laid out by this charter. In such equality to the benefits of membership, all are equally bound in the duties and obligations established by this treaty regardless of their own constitutional requirements and limitations, except where established by specific addenda to this charter.

Every member of the Imperial Confederacy will respect the rights of every other state, except where such rights conflict with the national interests of the Confederacy’s individual constituents or the interests of the Confederacy as a unified body.

In the interest of maintaining the security of all through the security of the one each member state will develop – in conjunction with mutual aid, research, and development – and maintain their own independent capacity to defend themselves from any armed attack.

If the member state(s) require(s) assistance when territorial integrity, political independence, and/or national security is threatened, the Council of the Imperial Confederacy will convene and formulate a common course of action which the member states will carry out.

An armed attack against one member of the Imperial Confederacy is considered an armed attack against all parties constituting the Imperial Confederacy; and should such an attack occur each state will exercise its right to individual or collective defence so as to facilitate the defence of the member state(s) under attack until peace and stability can be brought to the member state(s).

Section III

In the interests of further strengthening each member of the Imperial Confederacy, equal attention must be paid to the economic security of each nation if not more so.

All states party to the treaty will agree to a free-trade zone between member states, eliminating most tariffs and duties on goods being imported and exported between member states.

Of course, each state will have the right to enforce temporary, limited protectionist tariffs on only select industries, if proper cause and justification can be provided to the whole of the Imperial Confederacy.

Each state will contribute 1% of its Gross Domestic Product to a collective fund that will provide financing to those states in dire and immediate need of assistance, these states need not be within the Imperial Confederacy – with the aim of furthering the international appeal of the Confederacy – although all such emergency economic assistance will also be required to pass through a vote of the Imperial Confederacy

Section IV

The Imperial Confederacy requires real and fictional assets in addition to an expanded bureaucracy in order to further its goals of supporting empires abroad, as well as streamlining the Confederacy’s bureaucracy.

A designated site, away from major cities and military bases, will be transferred outside of the host nation’s sovereignty and will exist as the sovereign territory of the entire Imperial Confederacy.

The territory will become the headquarters for the entire organization, and needs to be of sufficient size to host several large buildings with adequate transportation to major cities or centers of transportation to facilitate travel and communication between member states.

Given the importance of the economic security of the member states and the organization as a whole, a council of economics – the Council for the Development of Economic Security – will be created and will be the primary means of the entire Confederacy voting on, and making known its opinions on matters relating to economic security.

The aforementioned collective fund will be the Treasury of the Imperial Confederacy, and will have an executive board of five individuals to be elected from nominees selected by the Council for the Development of Economic Security; these officials will represent the interests of the Confederacy’s economic policies, and will be constituted by no more than one individual per state.

Members

The following is a list of nations that are presently a part of the Imperial Confederacy. The list will be kept current and up-to-date as more members join.

Colerica

Red Tide

Azazia

Tomzilla

Buben

Praetonia

Psov

Empire Napoleonien

Young Warriors

Camewot

Sonaj

Nebarri Prime

Borman Empire

Zatarack

(it formerly possessed twenty-six members, but several were ejected due to inactivity within the alliance).