Law:Amendment of the What's the Difference Act

37PD2 — Amendment of the What's the Difference Act

I, Mà la Mhà, Prüm Barôn Tepistà, Seneschál del Regipäts Talossán, with all duly vested authority and stuff, do hereby and forthwith declare the following Prime Dictate, beseeching his Majesty the King to grant his assent with all due celerity that it might become law:

WHEREAS Talossan statutory law 37RZ2 (The What's the Difference Act) clarified Talossa's laws with respect to membership by Talossan citizens in micronations, and;

WHEREAS micronations are slippery things, and any legislative definition is likely to be either underbroad or overbroad, and;

WHEREAS the soundest policy for Talossa is to retain a potentially overly-broad definition, but create a mechanism whereby we can except specific organisations that ought not to be considered micronations for the purposes of citizenship law, and;

WHEREAS some micronations grant "honourary citizenships" which do not create the kind of continuing bond with which we as a nation need to be concerned, and;

WHEREAS Talossan citizens should not feel obligated to embarass those who seek to honour them by affirmatively rejecting such purely honourary grants of "citizenship," and;

WHEREAS it appears that Talossa's laws with respect to membership in "micronations" therefore need further clarification, now;

THEREFORE I declare that The What's the Difference Act, 37RZ2, is hereby amended by adding the following clauses:

8. Any Talossan citizen who desires to belong to an organisation but fears that the organisation falls within the definition of "micronation" contained in clause 5 of this Act may petition to have the organisation listed on a whitelist maintained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The whitelist shall include organisations which have been the subject of such petitions and participation in which has been determined by the Minister of Foreign Affairs not to be incompatible with Talossan citizenship, in consultation with the Attorney General and with the approval of the Seneschál.

9. The provisions of clause 6 shall not apply to membership in any organisation contained on Ministry of Foreign Affairs whitelist, and inclusion of any organisation on the whitelist shall not be construed as a recognition of sovereignty or statehood by the Kingdom of Talossa.

10. "Citizenship" in a micronation, as prohibited by clause 6 of this act, shall not include "honourary citizenship," where the honourary citizenship

• does not entitle the honouree to vote in the micronation's elections,
• does not entitle the honouree to hold political, governmental, or administrative office in the micronation,
• does not obligate the honouree, after the grant of honourary citizenship to pay taxes, fees resembling taxes, or membership dues, and
• does not create any continuing obligation or bond of allegiance to the micronation.

11. Non-citizens who would be in violation of this Act upon becoming Talossan citizens are not eligible for Talossan citizenship, and the Ministry of Immigration may require prospective Talossan citizens to certify that they are not citizens of any micronation. "Honourary citizenship" in a micronation is not a bar to immigration if the prospective Talossan citizen certifies that such honourary citizenship does not involve any obligation or loyalty to, or participation in the activities of, the granting micronation.

12. The Minister of Immigration may bring a petition as described in clause 8 on behalf of prospective citizens, in order to determine their eligibility to immigrate into the Kingdom of Talossa.

Dïeu salvadra el Regeu! Dïeu salvadra el Regipäts Talossán!

Done under my hand as from Kenwood House this fifteenth day of November in the year 2007, being the twenty-eighth year of the independence of the Kingdom of Talossa, and the first in the reign of our Sovereign John.