I'm writing a model constitution and was wondering what you would want changed or added to a new one. I'm pretty much writing a libertarian constitution (minarchist).

Here's some changes
Self-defense forces instead of military, think Japan
Better right to bear arms and concealed carry
freedom of association in addition to assembly
freedom of information/expression/speech
rejection of the initiation of force
self-ownership
intent statement about individual liberty
and the usual suspects

I've taken some language from the declaration of human rights too.

I'm having a some difficulty understanding your post. Why can't we use the US Constitution as a model constitution? If your hope is to portray the deltas, you'd be better off starting with one of the major parties. My thoughts are the Libertarians and the Constitution Party are trying to return the federal government to an institution bound by the US Constitution. Their constitution IS the US Constitution.

"Government's only role is to help individuals defend themselves from force and fraud." (pulled from the Libertarian website). This of course is much different from the major parties' interpretation of the federal government's responsibilities.

Essency Wrote:I'm having a some difficulty understanding your post. Why can't we use the US Constitution as a model constitution? If your hope is to portray the deltas, you'd be better off starting with one of the major parties. My thoughts are the Libertarians and the Constitution Party are trying to return the federal government to an institution bound by the US Constitution. Their constitution IS the US Constitution.

"Government's only role is to help individuals defend themselves from force and fraud." (pulled from the Libertarian website). This of course is much different from the major parties' interpretation of the federal government's responsibilities.

Our constitution is rather old and a lot of newer constitutions have better safeguards and rights. Germany's is better for example. Brazil also has a pretty good one. Basically, if you could start over and make a new constitution what protections would you add? I think it would be good for America to replace the old one with a better one.

We could mandate a fair tax, an explicit right to privacy, limit gov't more, etc.

We could also add a technology/internet clause. I plan on incorporating most of the current U.S. constitution, but I want to eliminate some loop-hopes and expand rights. It would be great if we could destroy the commerce clause (at least the way the courts have construed it).

If you haven't tried this site, it may be helpful. They have constitutions for most countries, a model constitution, and an outline for developing a constitution. It is hosted by a university in Switzerland, I believe, used to be Germany.

http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/index.html

You might look at the Swiss constitution. It is a more libertarian model than ours, and the cantons generally have greater powers than our states.

In particular I like their initiative and referendum process.

Also, I forget whether it's constitutional or not, but by constitution or statute they can't have a tax increase without submitting it to a popular vote.

Jugnaut Wrote:I'm writing a model constitution and was wondering what you would want changed or added to a new one. I'm pretty much writing a libertarian constitution (minarchist).

Here's some changes
Self-defense forces instead of military, think Japan
Better right to bear arms and concealed carry
freedom of association in addition to assembly
freedom of information/expression/speech
rejection of the initiation of force
self-ownership
intent statement about individual liberty
and the usual suspects

I've taken some language from the declaration of human rights too.

I'm a little confused. The declaration of human rights seems in many ways to be a non-libertarian type document. It seems to be founded more on the idea that the government's role is to provide many of those things that libertarians see as individual responsibilities.

There are some parts of it that do appeal to a libertarian, but others do not. Perhaps you are just using the ones that do.

Take a look at France's too. They have several things I like.

For one, their courts (including their supreme court) are restricted to interpreting the laws as written. Decisions regarding constitutionality are reserved to something called the Constitutional Council which has 9 members serving 9 year terms--3 appointed by the president, 3 by senate, and 3 by assembly (house of representatives)--plus all living former presidents are ex officio members. If a court thinks a law is unconstitutional it refers it to the CC; if the CC upholds the law of refuses to hear the request, then the law is constitutional. Also, the CC can give advisory opinions on pending legislation, and I believe the usual practice is to run pending legislation by the CC to test it.

For another, they are more of a parliamentary republic. The assembly functions more like a parliament in other coutnries, with a prime minister. I think there could be some advantages there.

Germany, where you can go to jail for holocaust denial.

Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:Take a look at France's too. They have several things I like.

For one, their courts (including their supreme court) are restricted to interpreting the laws as written. Decisions regarding constitutionality are reserved to something called the Constitutional Council which has 9 members serving 9 year terms--3 appointed by the president, 3 by senate, and 3 by assembly (house of representatives)--plus all living former presidents are ex officio members. If a court thinks a law is unconstitutional it refers it to the CC; if the CC upholds the law of refuses to hear the request, then the law is constitutional. Also, the CC can give advisory opinions on pending legislation, and I believe the usual practice is to run pending legislation by the CC to test it.

For another, they are more of a parliamentary republic. The assembly functions more like a parliament in other coutnries, with a prime minister. I think there could be some advantages there.

Thanks Owl 69/70/75, the site looks like it'll help a lot. I'm only using a few of the human rights ones. I used some of Thomas Jefferson's original version of parts of the constitution before arguments and edits. I planned to use the Swiss Referendum thing to, but not to add any laws, only to vote down laws past by Congress. Swiss do both I believe. I really like the rejection of force and self-defense forces of Japan's constitution. I'm taking criminal procedure right now and there's a lot of stuff I'd change because we've eroded a lot of search and seizure protections. My constitution will look a lot like ares but better. Less government and more freedoms. Basically it's a libertarian version of our constitution with a few extras through in.

Bourgeois_Rage Wrote:Germany, where you can go to jail for holocaust denial.

I think those kind of laws are more questionable in Britain and France, but it seems like Germany has better reason to have that kind of law.

There's nothing wrong with our Constitution.