El Lexhatx
El Lexhatx (pronounced [lɛˈd͡ʒaʒ] (
)) is the legal code of the Kingdom of Talossa, compiled from all of the acts of the Ziu and Prime Dictates. It was passed in February of 2014/XXXV by the 46th Cosa after its introduction by Sir Alexandreu Davinescu. At its passage, it codified 151 prior laws and specifically repealed another 111 acts of questionable effect. El Lexhatx also included a blanket repeal of all prior law, to finally put an end to the worries about missing records from past Cosas. "Lexhatx" is a Talossan word, meaning an "ongoing ordering of the law." The bill was passed by full unanimous votes in both the Cosa and the Senäts, and it remains the only bill known to have passed thus in modern Talossa.
After a prefatory declaration of principles, el Lexhatx is divided into ten sections, sorting out all the current law into different categories, referred to as "titles." These categories are general crime (detailing the criminal code, acceptable punishments, and broad principles); elections (governing political parties and how the Chancery conducts elections); offices of the royal household (including the Chancery, the Scribery, the Civil Service, and the Bar); the government (describing the duties of all the bureaus and sub-bureaus of the Talossan government); immigration (who is allowed to enter the country, and the appropriate procedure); culture (such as holidays, official symbols, and the like); justice (how the Cort Pü Inalt and the Magistracy work); legislation (detailing how it is submitted and passed in the Ziu); the military (in all of its fractal complexity and silliness); and the Lexhatx itself (how it should be maintained and amended).
The preface, which does not have legal effect, is a statement of Talossan principles which invokes the language of some important laws from history: the Code of Ur-Nammu, the Magna Carta, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the 1979/I Declaration, and the 1988/IX Constituziun. [1]
Citation
Reference to a provision of el Lexhatx is made by first citing the document (as Lexh), then by appending the letter of the specific title, and then by adding the number of the provision. If referring to a subsection or a subsubsection (or so on). Separate each division with a full stop. Thus, referring to the seventh section and eighth subsection of Title J, the citation would read: Lexh.J.7.8. This style of notation is described in Title Z of the law.
The abbreviation "Lexh" is preferred over "Lex," since the digraph "xh" represents a single sound in Talossan.