- Roleplay. The General Assembly is a roleplay organisation in which legislators from all World Assembly members cooperate to write international legislation. It must also follow certain roleplay guidelines to make new roleplay correspond to prior roleplay. Therefore, prior resolutions have an effect on what can be put in current proposals.
- Perspective. (Merged branding and blogposal) All proposals must take the perspective of the General Assembly. Proposals which violate this rule will be removed or discarded.
- Proposals cannot reference the 'real world'. They also cannot refer to nations directly or refer to NationStates as a game.
- Proposals which attempt to advertise a certain region or nation will be removed. Limited branding is acceptable in that one proposal co-author may be attributed.
- The General Assembly does not recognise the existence of regions.
- Repeals which mention rules violations violate the GA perspective.
- Proposals cannot reference the 'real world'. They also cannot refer to nations directly or refer to NationStates as a game.
- Originality. (Merged duplication and plagiarism based on SC's Rule 2). All proposals must contain a unique and relevant argument.
- Proposals cannot be plagiarised. Proposals which are plagiarised will be removed or discarded. A person who submits a plagiarised proposal will be ejected from the Assembly.
- Proposals cannot duplicate prior legislation. If all a proposal does is something which an extant resolution already does, it will be removed.
- Proposals cannot be plagiarised. Proposals which are plagiarised will be removed or discarded. A person who submits a plagiarised proposal will be ejected from the Assembly.
- Contradiction. Proposals cannot contradict prior legislation. If a proposal mandates something other than what an extant resolution mandates, it will be removed or discarded. Similarly, if a proposal states that a resolution does something that it actually does not do, then it will be removed or discarded.
- Blockers. The General Assembly possesses parliamentary sovereignty. Because of this, it cannot pass resolutions which attempt to prevent it from legislating on broad topics or revisiting a certain topic. Proposals cannot block off entire categories and nor can they pass unrepealable legislation (such as a repeal which includes legislative actions, since repeals cannot be repealed). Proposals which attempt to do so will be removed or discarded.
- Independence. Proposals cannot depend on prior legislation, as if that prior resolution is repealed, the centre of the proposal would be gutted. Committees exist outside of the resolution that created them and therefore can be reused as seen fit. Proposals which cannot stand alone will be removed or discarded, e.g. amendments or references to prior legislation.
- Perspective. (Merged branding and blogposal) All proposals must take the perspective of the General Assembly. Proposals which violate this rule will be removed or discarded.
- Format. Because the General Assembly is a roleplay organisation, resolutions passed in the General Assembly must also abide by formatting rules to make passed resolutions look like resolutions.
- Language. All proposals must be in English, as the rest of the site is in English. Proposals not in English will be removed or discarded.
- Operative Clause. (Allows removal of most, if not all, crap proposals) All proposals must have an operative clause in the text. An operative clause takes the form: 'The World Assembly, ... Urges [x], Bans [y], and Mandates [z]'. Proposals which lack an operative clause will be removed or discarded.
- Language. All proposals must be in English, as the rest of the site is in English. Proposals not in English will be removed or discarded.
- Statistics. When the General Assembly passes a resolution, a statistical effect is placed on all member nations. These rules ensure that the statistical effect is correct, has the correct magnitude, and is the correct type.
- Category. All categories carry a certain statistical effect. A proposal's roleplay implications must fit a certain category's statistical effect. If it does not fit that effect, it will be removed.
- Strength. All categories also carry areas of effect or strengths. They determine the strength or area of effect of that statistical change. A proposal's roleplay implications must also fit that category's strength. If it does not, it will be removed. For example, a proposal to ban nuclear weapons cannot be a mild Global Disarmament proposal (ignoring that such a proposal would contradict 10 GA 'Nuclear Arms Possession Act').
- Optionality. Because all resolutions apply to all nations, all proposals cannot be optional. Proposals which include optionality will be removed. All nations must heed all clauses of the resolution. Note that for recommending clauses, such as 'Urges' or 'Encourages' clauses, all nations do heed the World Assembly's recommendation, but have the option to disregard them, as they are recommendations and not mandates. However, nations are not permitted to ignore recommendations, even if they are not implemented. However, because those recommendations are not binding, they may be applied to non-member nations.
- Category. All categories carry a certain statistical effect. A proposal's roleplay implications must fit a certain category's statistical effect. If it does not fit that effect, it will be removed.
- Mechanics. Metagaming can be defined as attempting to use the General Assembly to go break the 'fourth wall' and force actions outside what the General Assembly can do.
- Examples. (Merges ideological ban, WA military, technical requests, etc.) The General Assembly cannot be used to change the mechanics of the game. That means that the General Assembly cannot:
- Force nations to change their personalised fields or their status in the World Assembly.
- Create a war mechanic, establish a WA army, or create an institutionalised system for appointing members of committees.
- Force moderators or nations to take certain actions.
- Require other actions out of any person in or out of NationStates.
- Force nations to change their personalised fields or their status in the World Assembly.
- Amendments. The General Assembly cannot amend passed resolutions, as that would have an undefined statistical effect. If you would like to change something in prior legislation, repeal and replace it. Proposals which attempt to do so will be removed or discarded.
- Examples. (Merges ideological ban, WA military, technical requests, etc.) The General Assembly cannot be used to change the mechanics of the game. That means that the General Assembly cannot:
- Site rules. All rules pertaining to the website of NationStates and its forum still apply.
I purposefully excluded a few rules from this, things like:
- Committees. The consensus reached in OMGTKK's attempt to rules-lawyer Mall's rules was that in committees, those committees should have a direct effect on national stats if they are to be allowed without other clauses. That is actually a category violation if the committee doesn't influence stats. So, it isn't necessary.
- Repeals. Legislating in a repeal is actually a violation of the blockers rule. Lying in repeals, however, is actually contradiction of prior legislation. If you say [x] is the reason for repeal and the resolution actually says [y], then it contradicts prior legislation.
- WA military and ideological ban have been merged into mechanics.
- Bloody stupid has been removed. It's too subjective and never used anyway. And if a proposal really is bloody stupid, then it would be mauled at vote (if it fits the formatting rules, perspective rules, and also by a miracle, gets to quorum).
- Grossly offensive has been subsumed into the site rules.
- NatSov repeals are something I believe are valid. Basic NatSov repeals, I believe, are doomed to fail.
- On the subject of the blocker rule, that has been subsumed into the category rule. Something that just blocks WA action on things... won't have a category. Therefore, it won't be legal.