Following yesterday's diplomatic summit, a Second Draft of the Treaty of Curacao has been agreed upon. As the next stage our Diplomatic negociations, this Draft is now open to consultation with representatives of the Indpendent Miners Guild and Orbital Spa and Cruise, as well as further amendment from the Liberty or Bretonian Governments.
Quote:Preamble
We, the representative governments of the Republic of Liberty and the Realm of Bretonia, in order to establish free and unhindered travel of goods and people between our two nations, to fight the scourge of piracy and terrorism, to protect the rights and freedoms of all our law abiding citizens, and to bring security, order and governance to the Star Systems of Magellan and Cortez, do ordain and establish the following Treaty.
Article I - Governance
Clause 1: The Systems of Magellan and Cortez are to have the offical status of Joint Protectorates of the Republic of Liberty and the Realm of Bretonia conferred upon them.
Clause 2: The President of Liberty and the Monarch of Bretonia shall jointly recieve the offical titles of "Protector of the Independent Worlds of Magellan and Cortez".
Clause 3: A quartet of the Liberty Government, Bretonian Government, the Indpendent Miners Guild and Orbital Spa and Cruise shall, in council upon the Planet of Curacao, make any future decisions regarding the governance of these two systems, through amendments to this Treaty.
Clause 4: In these such meetings, each member of the quartet shall hold a single vote. In case of tie, casting votes for issues concerning only Cortez to be held by Orbital Spa and Cruise, casting votes for issues concerning only Magellan to be held by the Independent Miners Guild. For issues concerning both systems, no casting votes may be held; agreements would require an absolute majority agreement from 3 of the 4 parties. Abstentions are permitted.
Clause 5: The trade lanes within Magellan and Cortez are to be nationalised by the House Governments of Liberty and Bretonia. Trade lanes in the eastern half of both systems shall pass into the ownership of the Liberty Government. Trade lanes in the western half of both systems shall pass into the ownership of the Bretonian Government.
Clause 6: All property rights within the Magellan and Cortez are to be strictly protected by this Treaty. This includes all ships, stations, planetside facilities, satellites or mining installations under lawful private or corporate ownership. All natural resources within the systems are in the public domain, and shall remain free and open to private or commercial appropriation.
Article II - Rights
Clause 1: Liberty Navy and Bretonian Armed Forces vessels and warships, of any class, shall have full access rights to fly through and patrol any portion of space within Magellan and Cortez
Clause 2: Liberty Navy and Bretonian Armed Forces vessels and warships, of any class, shall have full docking rights to base themselves from Planet Curacao.
Clause 3: Liberty Navy and Bretonian Armed Forces vessels and warships, of any class, shall not have docking rights nor base themselves from Freeport 4, under penalty of a 250,000 credit fine to the IMG.
Clause 4: Liberty Navy and Bretonian Armed Forces vessels and warships, of any class, may under emergency situations only, dock on Freeport 4 for repairs or supplies without which their lives would be endangered. If possible, permission should be sought from Independent Miners Guild authorities.
Clause 5: The Liberty Navy and Bretonian Armed Forces retain the right to pursue outlaws caught in criminal acts within their home space into Magellan and Cortez, there to catch and impose punishment upon them.
Clause 6: The Liberty Navy and Bretonian Armed Forces retain the full rights to enforce within the systems of Magellan and Cortez, all the articles and clauses of this Treaty, and any subsequent amendments to it.
Article III - Laws
Clause 1: A no fire-zone with radius 5K around Freeport 4 is to be offically established and enforced. All vessels shall comply with this, with the exception of self-defence. This Law is to be enforced by official agents of the Independent Miners Guild.
Clause 2: Free Trade is to be fully open between Bretonia and Liberty. Any act considered to represent an Obstruction to Free Trade shall be considered a criminal offence in the eyes of Liberty and Bretonia. Obstruction to Free Trade shall carry an attached fine of 200,000 credits per offence, collectable by any lawful agent of the Bretonian or Liberty Government, half payable to the government of each nation.
Clause 3: Piracy shall be considered a criminal offence in both systems, defined as the extortion of money by non-lawful agents from any ships under threat of destruction or damage. Vessels found pirating in these systems shall receive kill on sight status in both Liberty and Bretonian House space, as well as in the Independent Worlds. This to be maintained until a fine of 4 million credits has been payed by the vessel in question, half payable to the government of each nation.
Clause 4: Terrorism shall be considered a criminal offence in both systems, defined as an unwarranted attack resulting in destruction or damage to any lawful vessel or space installation. Vessels found engaged in acts if terrorism in these systems shall receive kill on sight status in both Liberty and Bretonian House space, as well as in the Independent Worlds. This to be maintained until a fine of 6 million credits has been payed by the vessel in question, half payable to the government of each nation.
Clause 5: The trafficking of counterfeit software from Liberty to Bretonia is to be considered a serious offence by both Houses. Any vessel caught with counterfeit software anywhere in Liberty space, Bretonian space, or Magellan or Cortez space, shall be considered guilty of a crime against both Liberty and Bretonia. Any lawful agents of either government catching such offenders are to seize and destroy all such software, and impose a fine of 400 credits per-unit upon the vessel, half payable to the government of each nation. This to be done regardless of where the vessel in question was apprehended.
Article IV - Combined Operations
Clause 1: The Bretonian Armed Forces and the Liberty Navy may, at their discretion, patrol and enforce this Treaty in Magellan and Cortez acting independently in seperate operations, and maintaining seperate command structures.
Clause 2: At the request of the ranking officer present of either the Liberty Navy or the Bretonian Armed Forces, the total military forces present within the Independent Worlds shall become combined. All joint operations should use Combined Fleet status.
Clause 3: When in Combined Fleet status, the ships shall no longer act as vessels of the Liberty Navy or Bretonian Armed Forces, but as ships or fleets of the Naval Alliance Treaty Organisation, NATO.
Clause 4: When in Combined Fleet status, no operations in the partisan interests of the Bretonian or Liberty governments can be conducted. Only operations related to the enforcement of this Treaty can be conducted, without prior approval of both national governments.
Clause 5: NATO fleets may not engage national enemies of one or the other of the member nations (e.g. KNF) but if any NATO ship is attacked whilst in Combined Fleet status, regardless of the attacker, the entire fleet should respond to their defence.
Clause 6: When in Combined Fleet status, all military ships shall use the NATO Equivalent Ranking Command Structure (see appendix i). The ranking NATO officer may accept or deny requests for the fleet to separate again.
Clause 7: IMG and Orbital Spa and Cruise ships may, as signatories of this Treaty, also be admitted to serve alongside NATO fleets, at the discretion of the ranking NATO officer.
Clause 8: The Headquaters of the Naval Alliance Treaty Organisation shall be Planet Curacao.
Appendix:
i) Equivalent ranking chart
ii) Collected fines: All fines collected in payment for crimes against the Treaty are to be divided equally between Liberty and Bretonia - collecting officers should forward 50% to the following 2 addresses:
For Bretonia: QCG|HMS-Exchequer(T)
For Liberty: [LN]-Armoury.001
If any OFFICIAL senior diplomatic representatives of the IMG, OSC, BAF or LN wish to make make comments or suggest amendments, now is the time to do so. This channel is NOT open for consultation with the general public - any non invited statements here will be ignored.
If everything is satisfactory, we shall arrange a provisional date for the Signing of the Treaty on Curacao.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this document. We are pleased with the language thus far, though we would request the addition of several points:
All references to our organization should read "Miners" rather than "Mining."
Article I, Clause 4 - The Independent Miners Guild should have veto rights over policies affecting Magellan, given that we, and neither BAF nor LN, have a base there. I would include the same for OSC in Cortez.
Article II, Clause 3 - Any LN or BAF vessel found having docked at Freeport 4 without authorization from IMG or not under emergency circumstances will be fined 250,000 credits payable to any official IMG vessel.
Article III, Clause 1 - Any damage to Freeport 4 or IMG vessels by LN or BAF forces violating this policy will require suitable reparation from the organization of the respective violator.
Article III, Clause 6 - Under no circumstances are the natural resources of Magellan or Cortez to be nationalized by either the Bretonian or Liberty governments.
Also, there should be some mechanism for future amendment by signing parties.
At the moment, these are the additions we propose. We will continue our consideration of the Treaty and notify you if we have further comment.
Sincerely yours,
Peter Barrington
Guild Master
Independent Miners Guild
Taking into account your suggestions, Mr Barrington, I have made the following amendments to the main text to try and satisfy your requests:
1. References have been altered to reflect the official title of the Independent Miners Guild
2. Article I, Clause 4 has been amended, granting more equitable voting rights to the quartet, and establishing a legal framework under which future amendments to the Treaty can be made. More democratic tie-breaking votes have replaced the LN and BAF vetos.
3. Article II, Clause 3 has had the relevant passage inserted into it.
4. Added Article I, Clause 6. This should protect against your fears of any government appropriation of the natural resources of Magellan or Cortez.
5. I do not consider it neccessary to insert a clause relating to damage to your Freeport or ships by BAF or LN officers specifically. Your concerns regarding this should be alleviated by the Property Rights as defined in the new Article I, Clause 6, by which you would naturally have the right to sue for damages to any of your corporate property, by BAF, LN, or indeed any other vessels.
I trust you find these relevant changes satisfactory,
Awaiting your further response on this matter,
Commodore Stanley Nelson
BAF Diplomatic Officer
5th Fleet - HMS Suffolk
TO: Commodore Stanley Nelson
FROM: Peter Barrington, GM
RE: Treaty of Curacao
Commodore Nelson,
Thank you for your courteous adjustments to the treaty thus far. I have only two more to request at this point.
First, you neglected to insert "payable to any official IMG vessel" at the end of Article II, Clause 3. This phrase is necessary considering point ii) of the appendix, under which the fine in question would go to the BAF and LN, thus negating the force of the clause. Of course, the official IMG vessel conducting the citation would be the logical recipient for payment.
Second, I am forced to inquire as to why only counterfeit software is specifically mentioned in Article III, Clause 5, and not other contraband, such as cardamine. Disrupting cardamine traffic is a priority for the Guild, and would therefore be an important element of law enforcement in Magellan. Cardamine is, of course, illegal in both Liberty and Bretonia.
Yours,
Peter Barrington
Guild Master
Independent Miners Guild
I have inserted the explicit specification that the IMG should receive money for unauthorised docking on Freeport 4, as requested.
In response to your second point, sir, the Liberty Navy and myself feel that counterfeit software is a special case, as all known routes involving its transport pass from Liberty where it is sourced into Bretonia where it is sold. Consequently, any vessel found carrying counterfeit software in Magellan can be safely assumed to have already committed a crime against Liberty, and to be about to commit a crime against Bretonia. Therefore it is legally acceptable for us to extend our juristictions against them in this way.
Other contraband items, such as slaves or cardamine, are harder to trace, and many of them may be brought in via the so-called "barrier pass" which is beleived to enable them to enter Cortez without having passed through either Liberty or Bretonia. Other reasons why we have not specified restrictions against these items include their differing legal statuses in Liberty and Bretonia; whilst all cardamine traces are illegal in Liberty, 5 units or less for personal consumption have legal status in Bretonia. Similarly synthetic marijuana is only classed as "limited contraband" in Bretonia, whilst Orbital Spa and Cruise have already expressed their objections to any restrictions on narcotics use in Cortez, which they feel would be harmful to their commercial interests, as they currently fully legalise use of such substances in their resort.
That said, if our conter-software smuggling strategy proves particularly successful, we may well consider extending it to other contraband items at a later date. Naturally this would be done in accordance with the Treaty Amendment provisions as laid out in Article I Clauses 3 and 4.
Hoping that you are satisfied with my response,
Commodore Stanley Nelson
BAF Diplomatic Officer
5th Fleet - HMS Suffolk
TO: Commodore Stanley Nelson
FROM: Peter Barrington, GM
RE: Treaty of Curacao
Commodore,
My thanks, once again, for agreeing to our proposed insertion.
As to cardamine, we will not press the issue further at this point, except to say that were we to witness the transport of significant amounts of said contraband into Bretonian or Liberty space, we would insist upon the immediate halting and prosecution of the vessel in question. The response demonstrated by authorities of your respective houses will indicate to us to what degree your governments take this plague, and the dangerous criminal elements its supports, seriously. In the future, it may become necessary for the Guild to respond to the cardamine trade more directly, and we expect your governments to respect our rights in that regard.
At this point, we have no further suggestions, but will contact you should a concern arise. Again, thank you for your attention to these matters.
Yours,
Peter Barrington
Guild Master
Independent Miners Guild
INCOMING TRANSMISSION
From: David Sanders, CEO, PanGalactic Travel Company
Re: Treaty of Curacao
I've been sent by the board of Orbital Spa and Cruise to liaise on this matter. Most of the treaty is very agreeable to them, but one point does need clarification, specifically Article IV, Clause 7: Does admitted imply that Spa and Cruise and IMG ships may be permitted to join NATO forces voluntarily, or that they would be required to join if instructed to do so by said NATO forces? Clarification of this point would be appreciated.
The clause in question, I think, was originally drafted with the intention that Orbital Spa and Cruise and Independent Miners Guild ships could be requested by acting by acting NATO commanders to serve alongside the LN and BAF forces. However, the OSC and IMG ships in question would always retain the right to opt-out of any such participation, as they represent primarily commercial rather than military forces. Naturally no requests would be made in any way obliging civilian trade vessels to engage in combat actions. Note also that I had not included equivalent rankings for OSC and IMG officers under the NATO shared command structure - the intention was always that OSC and IMG would remain only affiliated members of NATO, and that any of their ships agreeing to serve alongside regular NATO forces would not do so in a position of command as ranking NATO officers.
I trust that you may pass these comments on to your Orbital Spa and Cruise collegues, and reassure them that the main role of Orbital Spa and Cruise in NATO would be hosting the organisation's headquaters on Curacao, rather than contributing to its combat forces. I am sure they would agree that the prestige associated with such a significant organisation would naturally be to Orbital Spa and Cruise's commercial advantage.
Yours sincerely,
Commodore Stanley Nelson
BAF Diplomatic Officer
5th Fleet - HMS Suffolk