Kim Robinson - The Martians

We the people of Mars have gathered here on Pavonis Mons in the year 2128 to write a constitution which will serve as a legal framework for an independent planetary government. We intend this constitution to be a flexible document subject to change over time in the light of experience and changing historical conditions, but assert here that we hope to establish a government that will forever uphold the following principles: the rule of law; the equality of all before the law; individual freedom of movement, association, and expression; freedom from political or economic tyranny; control of one’s work life and the value thereof; communal stewardship of the planet’s natural resources; and respect for the planet’s primal heritage.

Article 1. Legislative Department

Section 1. The Legislative Bodies

1. The legislative body for Martian global issues will be a two-house congress , consisting of a duma and a senate .

2. The duma will be composed of five hundred members, selected every m-year by a lottery drawn from a list of all Martian residents over ten m-years old. It will meet on Ls=0 and Ls=180, every m-year, and stay in session for as long as necessary to complete its business.

3. The senate will be composed of one senator from each town or settlement on Mars with a population larger than five hundred people (changed by Amendment 22 to three thousand people), elected every two m-years, using an Australian ballot system. The senate will remain permanently in session, aside from breaks of no more than a month out of every twelve.

Section 2. Powers Granted to the Congress

1. The duma will elect the executive council’s seven members, using an Australian ballot system.

2. The senate will elect one-third of the members of the global environmental court, and one-half of the members of the constitutional court, using an Australian ballot system.

3. The congress will pass laws enabling it: to lay and collect taxes equitably from the towns and settlements represented in the senate; to provide for the common defense of Mars; to regulate commerce on Mars, and with other worlds; to regulate immigration to Mars; to print money and regulate its value; to form a criminal court system; and to form a standing police and security group to enforce the laws and defend the commonwealth.

4. All laws passed by the congress shall be subject to review by the executive council; if the executive council vetoes a proposed law, the congress can override the veto with a two-thirds vote.

5. All laws passed by the congress shall also be subject to review by the constitutional and environmental courts, and a veto by these courts cannot be overridden, but shall be grounds for rewriting the law if the congress sees fit, after which the process of passing the law shall begin again.

Article 2. Executive Department

Section 1. The Executive Council

1. The executive council shall be formed of seven members, elected by the duma every two m-years. Executive council members must be Martian residents at the time of their election, and at least ten m-years old.

2. The executive council shall elect one of its members as council president, using an Australian ballot system. It shall also elect or appoint a reasonable number of officers needed to help perform its various functions.

Section 2. Powers of the Executive Council

1. The executive council shall command the global police and security force in the defense of Mars, and in the upholding and enforcement of the constitution on Mars.

2. The executive council shall have the power, subject to the review and approval of the congress, to make treaties with Terran political and economic bodies (and the other political entities in the solar system, as stated in Amendment 15).

3. The executive council will elect or appoint one-third of the members of the environmental court, and one-half of the members of the constitutional court.

Article 3. Judicial Department

Section 1. The Global Courts

1. There shall be two global courts, the environmental court and the constitutional court .

2. The environmental court shall consist of sixty-six members, one-third elected by the senate, one-third elected or appointed by the executive council, and one-third elected by the vote of all Martian residents over ten m-years old. Individuals elected or appointed to the court shall hold their office for ten m-years.

3. The constitutional court shall consist of twelve members, half elected by the senate, half elected or appointed by the executive council. Court members shall hold their office for ten m-years.

Section 2. Powers Granted the Environmental Court

1. The environmental court shall have the power to review all laws passed by the congress for their impact on the Martian environment, and have the right to veto such laws without appeal if their environmental impact is judged unconstitutional; to appoint regional land commissions to monitor the activities of all Martian towns and settlements for their environmental impact; to make judgments in disputes between towns or settlements concerning environmental matters; and to regulate all land and water stewardship and tenure rights, which are to be written in conjunction with the congress, to replace or adapt Terran concepts of property for the Martian commonality.

2. The environmental court shall rule on all cases brought before it in accordance with concepts ensuring a slow, stable, gradualist terraforming process, which terraforming will have among its goals a maximum air pressure of 350 millibars at six kilometers above the datum in the equatorial latitudes, this figure to be reviewed for revision every five m-years.

Section 3. Powers Granted the Constitutional Court

1. The constitutional court shall review all laws passed by the congress for their adherence to this constitution, and judge all local and regional cases submitted to it that it determines to concern significant global constitutional issues, or to impinge on the individual rights established in this constitution. Congressional and local laws it judges unconstitutional can be revised, and resubmitted to the court by the relevant legislative bodies.

2. The constitutional court shall oversee an economic commission of fifty members. The court shall appoint twenty members, all Martian residents of at least ten m-years of age, to terms of five m-years. The other thirty members shall be appointed or elected by guild cooperatives representing the various professions and trades practiced on Mars (provisional list appended). The economic commission shall submit for legislative approval a body of economic law and practices which will combine publicly owned not-for-profit basic services, and privately owned taxed for-profit enterprises; specify what the public services shall be and how they will be regulated; set legal size limits on all private enterprises; establish legal guidelines for private enterprises which ensure that employees own their enterprises and the capital and profits associated with them; and oversee the welfare of a participatory, democratic economy.

Section 4. Reconciliation of the Two Courts

1. The executive council shall elect a reconciliation board, composed of five members of the environmental court and five members of the constitutional court, which shall mediate, arbitrate, and reconcile any disputes, discrepancies, or other conflicts between the judgments of the two global courts.

Article 4. The Global Government and the Towns and Settlements

1. The towns, tented canyons, tented craters, and smaller settlements on Mars shall be semiautonomous in relation to the global state and to each other.