Arguments: When I first joined Agora, back in 'oh-such-and-such, contracts,
including partnerships and assets, were among my favorite aspects of the game.
They were one of the defining features of Agora, setting it apart from B Nomic
as "the awesome nomic". (Another feature I really liked was the distinction
between Ordinary and Democratic proposals.) Assets generated quite a bit of
gameplay, too.
(Miniproto: set the rules to what they were at the end of 2008, with some
modifications.)
Presumably this won't happen unless someone volunteers to be Notary. (Why's
everyone looking at me?)
—the Warrigal
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Proposal, "Bring back contracts!", adoption index 1:
Reenact Rule 1742, with the following text, and set its power to 1:
Contracts are binding agreements governed by the rules. Any
agreement made by one or more persons with the intention that it
be binding on them and governed by the rules is a contract
(unless it would automatically terminate as a contract).
Persons SHALL NOT create excessive numbers of superfluous
contracts.
A contract automatically terminates if the number of parties to
it falls below the number of parties the rules require for the
contract. If other rules do not specify such a number for a
contract, then a contract requires at least two parties.
Parties to a contract SHALL act in accordance with that
contract, as long as this is reasonably possible.
If a contract contains a clause identifying it as public, and
the contract's text has been published, then the contract is a
public contract. Changes in the text or membership of a public
contract do not take effect until the new text or membership (as
applicable) is published.
Reenact Rule 2173, with the following text, and set its power to 1:
The Notary is an office; its holder is responsible for keeping
track of contracts.
The parties to a public contract SHALL keep the Notary informed
of its text and set of parties. The Notary's monthly report
includes this information for each public contract.
The Notary CAN terminate any contract without objection.
If a proposal submitted in the same message as this one, titled "Bring back
partnerships!" or "Bring back assets!", has already taken effect, then it takes
effect again.
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Proposal, "Bring back partnerships!", adoption index 3:
If no proposal submitted in the same message as this one, titled "Bring back
contracts!", has yet begun to take effect, then the remainder of this proposal
does not take effect.
In Rule 869 "How to Join and Leave Agora", delete following paragraph:
Any organism that is generally capable of freely originating and
communicating independent thoughts and ideas is a person. Rules
to the contrary notwithstanding, no other entities are persons.
Reenact Rule 2150, with the following text, and set its power to 2:
A person is an entity defined as such by rules with power of at
least 2. A person CAN generally be the subject of rights and
obligations under the rules.
Any biological organism that is generally capable of
communicating by email in English (including via a translation
service) is a person.
A first-class person is a person of a biological nature. All
other persons are second-class.
The basis of a first-class person is the singleton set
consisting of that person.
Reenact Rule 2145, with the following text, and set its power to 2:
If a contract devolves its legal obligations onto a subset of
its parties, all of them being first-class persons, then those
parties onto whom the obligations are devolved are the members
of the contract. A public contract with at least two members is
a partnership. A partnership is a second-class person.
Parties of a partnership CAN publish messages on its behalf by
announcement as allowed (in the sense of ability, not
permission) by the text of the partnership. Persons SHALL NOT
attempt to do so unless it is unambiguous whether or not the
publication is thus allowed.
Reenact Rule 2144, with the following text, and set its power to 2:
A partnership's basis is the set containing its members who are
first-class persons, along with each member of the basis of each
of its members who are partnerships.
If a partnership's basis is the same as, or a subset of, the
basis of any registered partnership, then the former partnership
CANNOT register, and can be deregistered by any person With
Notice.
Reenact Rule 2170, with the following text, and set its power to 3:
A public message's claim as to who published it is
self-ratifying, unless the claim is self-contradictory, or a
challenge of identity pertaining to the claimed publisher has
been issued within one month before its publication.
The Executor of a public message is the first-class person who
sends it, or who most directly and immediately causes it to be
sent. The executor of an action performed by announcement is
the executor of the announcement.
[It happens that Rule 2124 "Agoran Satisfaction" still contains a sentence
containing the word "Executor" by mistake. It also happens that this sentence
is exactly the sentence I would want to add, if it were not already there.]
Replace all instances of "person" with "first-class person", and "player" with
"first-class player", in:
* The phrase "information sufficient to ... contact each player" in Rule 2139
"The Registrar".
* Rule 2424 "Recruitment Bonus".
* Rule 2425 "Go Out and Vote".
* The phrase "The entities eligible ... by default, all players" in Rule 2124
"Agoran Satisfaction".
* The phrase "Any player (a deputy) CAN perform an action" in Rule 2160
"Deputisation".
* Rule 683 "Voting on Agoran Decisions".
* Rule 879 "Quorum".
* The paragraph of Rule 2431 "Proposal Competitions" containing the phrase "any
player CAN specify that a Proposal e submits is a Competition Proposal".
* Rule 1698 "Agora Is A Nomic".
* The phrase "all players except the initiator and" in Rule 991 "Calls for
Judgement".
* The phrase "During a Moot, any player CAN publish" in Rule 911 "Motions and
Moots".
* [Note: Rule 2426 "Cards" should be amended to say that memberships can be
held responsible for partnerships' actions, except that there is *currently* no
requirement that the person punished be the person who committed the offense.]
Amend Rule 2175 "Judicial Retraction and Excess" by replacing the sentences
An excess case is a new case whose initiator previously
initiated five or more cases during the same week as that case.
A person SHALL NOT initiate an excess case.
with
An excess case is a new case whose initiator is not a
first-class person, or previously initiated five or more cases
during the same week as that case. A first-class person SHALL
NOT initiate an excess case.
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Proposal, "Bring back assets!", adoption index 1:
If no proposal submitted in the same message as this one, titled "Bring back
contracts!", has yet begun to take effect, then the remainder of this proposal
does not take effect.
Reenact Rule 2166, with the following text, and set its power to 1:
An asset is an entity defined as such by an instrument or public
contract (hereafter its backing document), and existing solely
because its backing document defines its existence.
Each asset has exactly one owner. If an asset would otherwise
lack an owner, it is destroyed. If an asset's backing document
restricts its ownership to a class of entities, then that asset
CANNOT be owned by an entity outside that class.
The recordkeepor of a class of assets is the entity defined as
such by its backing document. That entity's report includes a
list of all instances of that class and their owners. This
portion of that entity's report is self-ratifying.
If an asset is defined by a contract, then the contract must
unambiguously define the asset's recordkeepor as being a party
to the contract. If it does not, then, the above paragraphs
notwithstanding, the entity is not an asset.
To "gain" an asset is to have it created in one's possession; to
"award" an asset to an entity is to create it in that entity's
possession.
An asset generally CAN be destroyed by its owner by
announcement, subject to modification by its backing document.
To "lose" an asset is to have it destroyed from one's
possession; to "revoke" an asset from an entity is to destroy it
from that entity's possession.
An asset generally CAN be transferred by its owner to another
entity by announcement, subject to modification by its backing
document. A fixed asset is one defined as such by its backing
document, and CANNOT be transferred; any other asset is liquid.
If two assets do not have properties distinguishing them from
each other, the two assets are fungible.
