Understanding the GA
Metagaming
The General Assembly is a roleplay legislative body within the NationStates world, it legislates international law and public policy principally adhered to by its own member-states. Thus, GA proposals must be in-character, and they cannot break the "fourth wall." In other words, proposals cannot refer to NationStates as a game, attempt to change how any aspect of the game or its forums functions, or impact any other events external to the GA.
Examples of Metagaming violations:
- Referring to regions whatsoever.
- Forcing regions to act in certain ways
- Forcing nations to modify their custom fields
- Adjusting the WA's proposal approval system
- Requiring the Security Council to take action
- Requiring the moderators to take action
- Dissolving the General Assembly or Security Council
You'll get the hang of it soon enough, don't panic!
Jurisdiction
The General Assembly's general purview includes member-states and that outside of the jurisdiction of non-member states (e.g., international waters, stateless peoples, pirates, outer space.) No proposal shall explictly require non-member states to comply with any legislation.
Real World Violations
World Assembly laws are written for the world of NationStates and the fictional countries therein, so your proposal should not contain any specific real world references. This includes but is not limited to, world leaders, real world persons, places, organizations and/or events. Generic references, however, are permitted, such as religions, political philosophies, languages, scientific measurements, and phenomena.
The Basics
Generality
Proposals should never refer to specific nations, places or individuals by name. (Barring one exception, see below for "Co-Authorship".)
Grossly Offensive
If you want to execute left-handed men named "Earl" in your country, that's fine. Don't go yammering about it in a Proposal. Yes, this includes screwing with a 'majority' group. Killing all whites is just as bad as killing all Jews. Or blacks. Or poor people. Things such as eliminating "all rights for $group", forced deportation of said group and the like fall under this too.
Contradiction
A proposal cannot require the exact opposite of an existing resolution.
Duplication
Duplication occurs when proposals feature the same scope as, and are materially analogous with prior legislation. (i.e., "The Right to a Lawful Divorce" may in practice cover what "Forced Marriages Ban Act" does more generally but they are not duplicative; same with "Marital Rape Justice Act" versus the more general "Sexual Autonomy Guarantee"; meanwhile "Missing Minors Database" duplicates "Missing Minors Act" but not necessarily the more general "Missing Individuals Act" - careful!)
Optionality
Proposals are not optional for member-nations. However, mild language such as "RECOMMENDS" or "URGES is acceptable.
Repeal-proof
Proposals cannot explictly bar a resolution from being repealed. In other words: you can't sneak a clause into a proposal that immunizes it from repeals - that'd be clever tho'...
Blockers
A "Blocker" is a colloquial term in the General Assembly for resolutions that defer exclusive jurisdiction on some decisions and spheres of interest to the national domain.
Blockers are permitted provided they would not disrupt players from using a proposal category altogether. Legal Blockers, for example, have prevented the WA from legalizing or banning prostitution; whereas an illegal Blocker might attempt to prohibit the WA from regulating broader areas of policy, such as "Health" or "Crime".
Committees
Committees (tribunals, agencies, organizations, bodies etc) are designed to carry out specific duties related to the proposals.
Committee Rules:
- Unless specifically stated otherwise in a proposal, a committee is staffed by mystical beings who spring into existence after a proposal becomes an official resolution.
- General criteria for the composition of a committee can be provided. (e.g., "voluntary observer states", "gender parity", "term limits", "selected academics" from a particular field of study.)
- Committees continue to exist after its resolution is repealed if it's used in another resolution.
- Single-use committees that died when its resolution was repealed, may be revived for a relevant new proposal.
- Committees are subject to the "metagaming" rules.
No proposal shall be dependent on another resolution. Every resolution must be capable of standing on its own. References to other resolutions are legal so long as the resolution that is doing the referencing could survive if those other resolutions were repealed. A committee may exist in multiple resolutions, and it continues to exist even if the resolution that brought it into existence goes away.
Final Touches
Format
There's no set format for proposals, but there are some basic rules by which all proposals must abide:
- Proposals are works of international law. Blogs, essays, questions, regional ads, spam, and anything else that's not an international law will be deleted. This counts for joke proposals too: if you absolutely must write them, post them to the Joke Proposals thread, but don't submit them.
- Proposals must contain an operative clause. Every proposal has to have some recognizable effect on member nations, such as requiring them to take action or encouraging them to support a policy. If nothing in your proposal is recognizable as an operative clause, it will be deleted.
- Proposals must be in English. Using common legal terms, such as "Habeas Corpus" is fine, but the whole proposal cannot be written in another language. Proposals that are illegible or incomprehensible will also be deleted.
This usually happens with Repeals. Someone will misread the Resolution and submit a Repeal that supports the Resolution, or tries to undo a Resolution because they think it does something it doesn't. Any factual inaccuracy will result in a proposal being pulled.
Category, Strength & AoE
Proposals must be submitted under a category. The proposal's content must align with the chosen category for the majority of the resolution.
Categories have either strength or Area of Effect (aoe).
- Strength: This determines the effect a proposal has on a nation's policy. A proposal with mild language or affecting a narrow area of policy is Weak, a more middle of the road proposal is moderate, while one which a very broad area of policy in a dramatic way is Sweeping.
- Area of Effect: Some categories don't use strength but rather a specific area, so proposals will need to specifiy the area of policy affected from a pre-populated list of options. These options range from specific (eg. Uranium) to broad (eg. All Business).
Proposals cannot amend active resolutions. To introduce new legislation, the target resolution must be repealed. Similarly, repeals cannot be used to introduce new legislation because repeals are single purpose - to remove an undesired resolution.
Repeals must use the provided repeal function. Repeals submitted using anything but the repeal function are automatically removed.
Co-Authorship
Proposals may conclude by noting one or two players, by nation name only, that contributed to the proposal using the following format: "Co-authored by The Most Glorious Hack" or "Co-authored by The Most Glorious Hack and Ardchoille."
I've added that limit.
