Covenant

Under Construction This page seems to be Under Construction. Watch out for large groups of Rebel fighters. After construction is complete, please place a note on the article's talk page and remove this message.

Origins

Coming Soon!

Amendment History

1st Amendments

Approved: 7/20/06

• Added "Introduction"

• Added to Section 1.1a: "The Covenant is the written authority that establishes the basic organization, the powers and limits of the leaders, and the rights of the membership."

• Added to Section 1.2a: "...with prior and appropriate notification made to the Dark Council."

• Removed Article IX "The Brethren"

• Made Article II "The Brethren" moved the "Rights of the Brethren".

• Moved "Rights of the Accused" to Section 8.02

• Added Plagiarism and Rites of Combat to Section 8.06

2nd Amendments

Approved: 1/14/07

• Added Statute of limitations and clarified adjudication process, did so by addition of following into 8.03:

“To begin the process of adjudication, a member must submit a formal complaint to the Chamber of Justice. The complaint must indicate the parties to the action, must give a brief statement of the facts, and must clearly delineate that the member requires formal action from the Chamber of Justice rather than other action such as mediation. Sufficient for the last requirement are phrases such as "I present a formal complaint," "I officially request action be taken," or an email subject of "Formal Complaint against XXXXX."”

“Statute of Limitations: All complaints must be received within three months of the underlying event or else they will be dismissed as time-barred. If the complaint is derived from a series of events, the three month time period will begin tolling from the last known event.”

“Once a complaint is submitted, the member's rights in that complaint shall not expire until a full conclusion of the case through trial, settlement or dismissal. The Justicar must give the complaining member notice of the finality of the case.”

“The Justicar, the Grand Master or a Hand of Justice, upon receiving a formal complaint, may attempt to mediate the dispute to arrive at a settlement. Attempted mediation does not bar the member from continuing the adjudication under their complaint if mediation fails. At the end of a successful mediation the Justicar may ask for a withdrawal of the complaint or, if three months have passed since the end of mediation without any further inquiries by the complaining member, the Justicar may dismiss the complaint himself.”

3rd Amendments

Approved: 2/5/07

• Changes to appointment voting and covenant amendment process

• Added new section 1.05 (Voting), containing the following:

"Any vote required by this Covenant must be preceded by a 48-hour discussion period. During the discussion period, the voting members are free to ask any questions they may have, state any concerns or opinions, , or ask to see the other applications for comparison."

"Unfilled positions are not tallied in the voting totals in any fashion. If a position is empty, the total number of votes needed to pass a measure is reduced by one."

"Members are free to abstain from voting. Should a member abstain from voting, the required number of votes to pass the measure is not reduced."

"The provisions of this section do not apply to any of the voting procedures used within the Chamber of Justice, its juries or the appeals panel."

• Changed section 1.02a to disallow Grand Master's ability to freely amend voting (1.05) and rights of the accused (8.02) sections

• Changed section 1.02d, added sections 1.05 and 8.02 to the list of articles requiring a three-fourths Dark Council vote for amending

4th Amendments

Approved: 2/21/07

• Reorganized Section 8.03 "Process of Adjudication" to better reflect actual process

• Added to 8.03: "In addition, the Chamber has its own investigatory and complaint powers. The Chamber may proceed with its own investigation and complaint at its own discretion without the need for a member submission."

• Reworded process in by which charges are prepared: "If the Chamber finds merit to the claim, the case will be pursued. The Justicar or the Right Hand of Justice will prepare the slate of charges against the accused. Prior to giving his final approval, the Justicar will present the charges to the complaining party, if applicable, and the Grand Master for comments. Once a final slate of charges is approved by the Justicar, it will be sent to the appropriate parties to the case."

• Reworded summary of charges, plea, and trial type: "The Chamber of Justice must issue a summary of charges to the accused, and offers the accused the opportunity to enter a plea of innocence or guilt. If they plead innocent, the Chamber of Justice initiates either Trial by Justicar or Trial by Jury, as outlined in the following sections. If they plead guilty, the Justicar imposes a sentence."

• Added trial by Justicar requirement: "For all trials in which the proposed penalty is a one-grade Equite or Elder demotion, a two-grade Journeyman demotion, a Letter of Reprimand, one year probation, or a combination of the above, the Justicar, with the advice of his Hands, will determine the guilt or innocence of the accused."

• Added trial by jury requirement: "For all other charges, the accused shall choose between Trial by Justicar or Trial by Jury to weigh evidence and determine guilt or innocence."

• Added a required public posting of Chamber of Justice Communique: "Upon conclusion of the trial, the Justicar shall post the results in a Chamber of Justice Communique. This Communique shall contain a summary of the trial, the result, and the Justicar's opinion. For cases decided by Justicar, this opinion shall contain official explanation for the Chamber's decision. For cases decided by jury, it will contain the reasons for the specific sentence and any other comments the Chamber wishes to include."

• Modified record keeping requirements: "The Chamber of Justice shall keep records on the members for use in cases of repeat offenses. In addition, the Justicar is responsible for archiving and protecting all Chamber information for future reference."

• Updated information for warbanners, lightsabers, and robes:

"7.03.a Members are entitled to a Warbanner upon reaching the appropriate rank"
"7.03.b Members are entitled to own a lightsaber at the appropriate rank, and to customize the saber at higher ranks."
"7.03.c Members are entitled to own a set of robes, and the ability to choose from options based upon their rank."

5th Amendment

Approved: 4/20/07

• Added tampering with evidence rule to section 8.06: "Tampering with Evidence: No member, under any circumstances, will forge, alter or otherwise tamper with evidence to be used in any executive or judicial decision-making process."

6th Amendments

Approved: 7/2/07

• Reworded many subsections in 8.06 "Articles of Conduct and Reprimand"

• Added this clarification to 8.06, "The term “Brotherhood proceeding,” as used in this section refers to actions taken under this Covenant, including, but not limited to, any executive action by the Grand Master, any action by the Dark Council, or any judicial action by the Chamber of Justice."

• Updated wording discrimination rule in section 8.06: "Discrimination: No member shall discriminate against another member in regards to promotions, medal awards, praise and acknowledgment, or positions on the basis of real-life political affiliation, gender, race, creed, heritage, nationality or sexual orientation."

• Changed "sexual harassment" to new "sexual favors" rule in section 8.06: "Sexual Favors: No member shall accept, promote or solicit sexual favors in exchange for elevation, award, citation, or other honor."

• Updated wording for crude behavior rule in section 8.06: "Crude Behavior: No member shall engage in crude behavior in any mode of communication. Crude behavior includes, but is not limited to: the excessive use of swear words; provocative speech; excessive sexual discussions; and unabated insults toward another’s real-life political affiliation, nationality, gender, race, creed, heritage, or sexual orientation."

• Removed dereliction of duty statute from section 8.06

• Updated Abuse of Power rule: "Abuse of Power in section 8.06: No member shall use their position, rank, tenure or any other membership status to unfairly benefit themselves or others with rewards or promotions; or to unfairly influence any Brotherhood proceeding."

• Updated Verbal abuse rule: "Verbal Abuse in section 8.06: No member shall engage in the excessive verbal abuse of another, including, but not limited to: insults regarding a member’s real-life political affiliation, gender, race, creed, heritage, nationality or sexual orientation; character assassination; or unjust use of Brotherhood resources to attack another through defamatory statements."

• Updated disreputable behavior rule in section 8.06: "Disreputable Behavior: No member shall partake in any action that brings disrepute onto themselves, the Brotherhood as a whole, or any Clan, House, Battle Team, or individual member. Actions include those done by a member, either within or outside traditional Brotherhood activities and communication channels, that reflect on the above parties, such as: treason, acts to sabotage, stealing of property, or any conduct forbidden by these articles."

• Updated cheating rule: "Cheating in section 8.06: No member shall willfully or knowingly exploit, abuse, or otherwise tamper with official game play or official activity in the form of competitions, tests, or other activities."

• Updated cloning rule in section 8.06: "Cloning: No member, without prior approval of the Justicar, shall have more than one persona in a single household. Any offense committed by such an unauthorized clone shall be attributed to the original member. Matching IP addresses create a presumption of cloning that can only be rebutted by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that two people exist."

• Updated plagiarism rule in section 8.06: "Plagiarism: No member shall submit any plagiarized work as his own or fail to give appropriate credit to the author of any work."

• Updated Rites of Combat statement in section 8.06: "Rites of Combat: The Rites of Combat govern the conduct for all Gaming Competitions. Every article of conduct listed herein still applies."

• Updated tampering with evidence rule in section 8.06: "Tampering with Evidence: No member shall forge, alter or otherwise tamper with evidence to be used in any Brotherhood proceeding."

• Added false statements statute in section 8.06: "False Statements: No member shall make false statements with the intent to change the outcome of a Brotherhood proceeding."

• Added harassment statute in section 8.06: "Harassment: No member shall engage in persistent harassment or torment, or outrageous attacks on any other member. This includes statements and actions taken to attack a member’s real-life political affiliation, family or significant other, gender, race, creed, heritage, nationality or sexual orientation. This article extends to cover harassment through the distribution of personal information, the creation of groups or modes of communication for the purpose of attacking the member, and unwanted contact with the member through non-internet means of communication. Harassment punished under this article must be to the extent and of the form that would injure a reasonable person of normal sensibilities; mere mocking does not suffice."

• Added hacking statute in section 8.06: "Hacking: No member shall access, without the proper permission and authority, any unauthorized section of the Brotherhood website. No member shall misappropriate the dossier of another member."

• Added clarification of executive actions to 3.01: "Actions taken by the Grand Master are executive in nature and do not affect or usurp the performance or jurisdiction of the Chamber of Justice"

• Added clarification of judicial actions to 4.01: "Actions taken by the Justicar or the Chamber of Justice are judicial in nature and do not affect or usurp the performance or jurisdiction of the Grand Master. Limitations and rules placed on the judiciary in this Covenant do not apply to the Grand Master unless the application is clearly stated."

• Added clarification of council actions: "With powers derived from the Grand Master, Dark Council actions are executive in nature and do not affect or usurp the performance or jurisdiction of the Chamber of Justice."

• Updated Covenant introduction

7th Amendment

Approved: 7/8/07

• Modified the burden of proof in section 8.04: "The burden of the Jury will be to reach an unanimous decision on the innocence or guilt, supported by a preponderance of the evidence, of the accused on each charge presented."

8th Amendment

Approved: 7/14/07

• Changed section 3.03 (Indictment of the Grand Master) to match up with last group of amendments: "The burden on the Jury will be a three-fourths conviction, supported by a preponderance of the evidence, of the accused on each charge presented."

9th Amendments

Approved: 9/18/07

• Added subsection to 8.01 for Chamber policies: "The Justicar may create Chamber of Justice Policies and Procedures that are separate from and not in conflict with this Covenant. Such Policies and Procedure operate with the authority of this Covenant only in regards to judicial issues.”

• Added subsection to 8.01 concerning references: "The rules within the Covenant and the official Chamber of Justice Policies and Procedures exclusively govern all Chamber of Justice proceedings. No reference made to any outside rule of law will be honored. "

• Changed section 8.02 (Rights of the Accused) to reflect Chamber trial policy: "All members are afforded the right to choose between a Trial by Justicar or a Trial by Jury in their case as detailed in the following sections. The court shall not choose for them, unless the defendant refuses to select for themselves."

• Added subsection to 8.03 regarding case dismissal: "The Justicar, with approval from the Grand Master, may summarily dismiss charges regardless of the stage in the proceedings. Charged that have been so dismissed are not barred from retrial through double-jeopardy.”

• Added to section 8.04 for jury fairness: "The Grand Master shall independently verify that the jury was selected at random."

Justicar's Hints

Coming Soon!