1. As soon as practicable after the Althing is summoned, its members shall elect a Lawspeaker. The Lawspeaker shall be charged with the responsibility of facilitating and conducting the business of the Althing, and upholding the Standing Orders.

2. The Lawspeaker shall also be charged with the following duties:

                    a) to establish, moderate and maintain a discussion forum for members of
                    the Althing, in which all members of the public will be allowed to observe
                    but not participate without the Althing's invitation;
                    b) to make sure all resolutions and legislation presented to the Althing
                    conform with the Standing Orders and accepted standards of legal
                    wording;
                    c) to draft legislation for presentation to the Althing on such matters of
                    interest as may be brought to him by members of the public
                    d) to continually maintain and consolidate a public archive of the Standing
                    Orders of the Althing.
                    (e) to adjudicate in disputes as to interpretation of the Standing Orders.

3. A new Lawspeaker shall be elected in the following manner:

          a) The outgoing Lawspeaker shall call together an Electoral Conclave, consisting of all
          members of the Althing, of which he shall be Chair.
          b) If the outgoing Lawspeaker fails to do so within three days of the Lawspeakership becoming
          vacant, then the Deputy Lawspeaker shall perform this function. If the Deputy Lawspeaker fails
          to do so within a week of the vacancy, then any Thingman may perform this function.
          c)  (i) The first business of this Conclave shall be that all Thingmen shall announce
               to  the Chair which Thingman has their confidence to become the new
               Lawspeaker, or make a formal abstention. These declarations shall be published,
               and each  Thingman may change their declaration at any time during the Conclave
               by notifying the Chair.
               ii) No Thingman shall make a declaration supporting him/herself. Any Thingman
               who has not made a valid declaration by the end of the first week of the Conclave
               will be assumed to have formally abstained.
          d) If the Chair is a Thingman, then he shall also make such a declaration.
          e) The Conclave shall continue discussion until all Thingmen have either made a
               declaration giving their support to the same Thingman or a formal abstention. At
               that point, the Chair shall declare that Thingman to be the new  Lawspeaker, and
               the Conclave shall be closed.

4.  The first task of the Lawspeaker shall be to nominate a Thingman to become Moderator of the Althing, and the nominee will assume the position upon ratification by a consensus of the Althing.

5.  The Moderator shall be charged with responsibility for maintaining the tone of debate appropriate for succesful functioning of the consensus system, including:

               a) defence of the free speech rights of all Thingmen;

               b) identification and denunciation of abusive behaviour by Thingmen towards each
               other or to non-members of the Althing, and of breaches of process by the
               Lawspeaker, including if necessary bringing charges before the Privileges Committee;

               c) resolving conflicts between Thingmen that interfere with the succesful functioning of
               the Althing.

The Moderator shall also perform all the functions of the Deputy Lawspeaker, as mandated in these Standing Orders and the Agreement of the People.

6.. The Althing may alter the Standing Orders by resolution at any time; and it may impeach the Lawspeaker or the Moderator for neglecting to follow these Standing Orders.

7. A new Lawspeaker or Moderator shall be elected as soon as the office becomes vacant.

8. The Lawspeaker shall issue at least one Althing Journal every fortnight while the Althing is in session,except when there is no material to be published, as soon as practicable after noon Saturday Penguinean (i.e. Australian Eastern) Standard Time.
 

     9. The Journal shall contain the Results of Voting on matters proposed in the last Journal; the Minutes of
     the previous fortnight's discussions on the Althing discussion forum; and the Order of Business to be voted
     on by the Althing, in the order prescribed below:

     Official Questions that have been answered

     Proposed resolutions of the Althing

     Proposed legislation

     Motions for prorogation or dissolution

     10. When the Lawspeaker decides that the full text of a proposal is too large to fit in the Journal, he may
     include a hyperlink in the Journal to the full text, with or without a brief summary in the Journal proper.

     11.1: Every Member of the Althing who wishes to submit a matter for the Althing to debate shall publish it
     on the Althing discussion forum. They shall indicate whether they wish the matter to be formally voted on
     by the Althing.

     11.2: In the event that a Member of the Althing is unable to access the discussion forum, the proposal
     should be sent to the Lawspeaker, who will have to publish the proposal on the discussion forum as soon
     as possible.

     11.3: Should the Althing discussion forum be inaccessible to all Members of the Althing, discussions shall
     be continued using the Althing email adress. The Lawspeaker shall file these submissions and publish them
     on the discussion forum, when it is reestablished.

     12.1: The Lawspeaker shall publish the text of all matters proposed by Thingmen for voting in the first
     Althing Journal issued seven days or more after the initial proposal of the matter on the Althing discussion
     forum; except for motions of prorogation or dismissal, which shall be published in the first Althing journal
     issued after the initial proposal.

     12.2: The proposer's name shall be recorded with every matter for debate, and all matters of debate shall
     be ordered alphabetically by title within their category of business.

     13. The Lawspeaker may edit proposals published in the Althing Journal for clarity, consistency and such
     other standards as mentioned in section 2; but shall publish no proposal whose wording has not been
     finally approved by its author.

     14.1: The Lawspeaker shall propose all legislation submitted to him by the House of Keys.

     14.2: Any legislation which is returned to the Althing from the House of Keys, that House having withheld
     its assent, shall be immediately reproposed on the Althing discussion forum by the Lawspeaker, along with
     the amendments suggested by the House of Keys.

     15.1: Thingmen shall vote on matters proposed in the Althing Journal by communication with the
     Lawspeaker.

     15.2: The records of the votes from the previous Journal shall record whether each Thingman supported,
     stood aside from, blocked or failed to vote on each proposal. A Thingman who wishes to stand aside from
     a proposal may further indicate their approval, disapproval or neutrality on it, to be recorded in the
     Journal. A Thingman who wishes to block a proposal shall provide an explanation of why they have
     imposed their block and, if applicable, a suggested amendment which would enable them to remove their
     block, to be published in the Journal. To be valid, a blocking vote must indicate a specific objection to the
     text of the proposal which is being blocked.

     16. Any proposal which no Thingman blocks and at least half the Althing supports shall be deemed to
     have passed the Althing, and shall so be recorded. If legislation, the Lawspeaker shall then officially ask
     the House of Keys for their assent to it.

     17. The Results of Voting shall record whether each bill was PASSED or CONSENT WAS WITHHELD. If
     consent is withheld on a proposal, its proposer may withdraw it, or alternatively, shall resubmit an
     amended version to the Althing discussion forum which takes the stated objections into account and will
     be more likely to gain the objector's support. Resubmitted proposals will appear before any new business
     on the Order of Business in the Journal, and shall be exempt from the mandatory seven days of debate
     mandated by Standing Order A 12:1.

18. A Thingman, when voting on a resolution or law, may, if they wish, assent to, oppose, or abstain upon individual sections of the resolution or law rather than voting on it as a whole.

19. If it should happen that some but not all of the sections of a law or resolution are passed by the Althing, the author of the law or resolution may, if they so desire, withdraw the bill in its entirety. If they choose not to do this, these sections shall be deemed to have passed.

 20. The quorum of the Althing shall be three-quarters of its total membership not having given prior leave of absence, and no decision shall be valid unless at least a quorum has voted upon it.

21. If the Lawspeaker has not received the votes of a quorum of the Althing by the publication deadline of the Althing Journal, he shall have the right to postpone publication by up to forty-eight hours to await outstanding votes. If such votes are not received at that stage, that Journal shall be considered inquorate and all decisions shall be held over until the next week's Journal.

22. If a member of the Althing, not having given prior notice of his absence to the Lawspeaker, fails to vote for more than one calendar month, the Lawspeaker shall suspend him from his duties.

23. If a suspended Thingman does not petition the Lawspeaker to reclaim his seat within the same week of Althing business of his suspension, his seat shall be considered permanently vacant, and shall be filled as mandated by law. If such a petition is presented, then the Thingman shall reclaim his seat.

24. All business published on the Journal last published before dissolution of the Althing shall be held over for consideration by the next Althing.

25:1. All petitions from electors of the Commonwealth to the Althing shall be directed to the Lawspeaker, who shall publish them on the Althing discussion group. The Althing shall, within a week of receiving a petition, approve a response to it, which shall be published along with the initial petition in the Althing Journal.

25:2 If all members of the Althing have not approved a response to a petition by the end of one week, the Lawspeaker shall formulate the response to be printed.
 
 

Section B: Standing Orders Relating to Questions.

1. Questions may be put to the House of Keys, or to any member thereof, or to any delegate of that House, relating to public affairs with which the Key(s) or delegate(s) is officially connected, to proceedings pending in the House, or to any matter of administration for which the Key(s) or delegate(s) is responsible.  Questions may also be put to the Lawspeaker or to any other Thingman,  relating to any bill, motion, or other public matter connected with the business of the House, of which the Thingman has charge.

2. All Questions shall be addressed to the Lawspeaker, as chair of the Althing, who shall forward them to
     the Thingmen, Keys, or delegates concerned. Any questions addressed to the House of Keys collectively
     shall be forwarded to the Chancellor of the House of Keys.

3. An answer shall be relevant to the question, and a question fully answered cannot be renewed.

4. The reply to a question shall be given by delivering it to the Lawspeaker. A copy of the reply shall be supplied to the Thingman who asked the question as soon as it is received, and the question and reply shall be printed in the Althing Journal.

5. If a reply to a question has not been delivered to the Lawspeaker by the time of publication of the next Journal, the Thingman who asked the question may request the Lawspeaker to write to the person concerned, seeking reasons for the delay in answering.

6. At the discretion of the Lawspeaker supplementary questions may be asked to elucidate an answer, and these questions and the response thereto shall be printed in the next Althing Journal.

7. Questions should not contain:

(a) statements of facts or names of persons unless they are strictly necessary to render the question intelligible and can be authenticated;
(b) arguments;
(c) inferences;
(d) imputations;
(e) epithets;
(f) ironical expressions; or
(g) hypothetical matter.

(a) for an expression of opinion;
(b) to announce the Government's policy, but may seek an explanation regarding the policy of the Government and its application and may ask the House of Keys whether a delegate's statement represents government policy; or
(c) for legal opinion.

1.  If a Thingman alleges that another Thingman has violated a Resolution of the Althing, or the Standing Orders, or abused Althing privilege as provided in the Agreement of the People, the charges shall be considered and acted upon by a committee composed of all members of the Althing except the accuser and the accused.

2. The committee shall be chaired by the Lawspeaker, if they are a member, or else the deputy Lawspeaker, if they are a member, or else the Thingman on the committee with the greatest length of service in the Althing.  If two Thingmen have served equally long, priority shall be given to the one whose surname comes first alphabetically.

3. The committee shall, as far as possible, be conducted according to the Standing Orders for the full Althing.  However, the Chairman may order such modifications of procedure as may be necessary for the committee to carry out its function.  However, under no circumstances shall the percent majority required for the committee to reach a decision be less than that required for the full Althing to pass a law.

4. If the committee finds that the preponderance of the evidence indicates that the alledged violation of the resolution or standing order, or abuse of privilege, took place, they may order that action be taken to reverse the violation; however, they may not impose any penalty on the accused unless they find that the guilt of the accused has been proven beyond reasonable doubt.  No penalty more severe than expulsion from the Althing shall be imposed; however this shall not prevent the committee from bringing the matter to the attention of the appropriate tribunal if they believe that shire laws, Commonwealth laws, or the Agreement of the People may have been violated.

5. If the committee finds that the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt either that the accuser knew that the charges were false, or that the charges were false and the accuser made them with reckless disregard for their truth or accuracy, the committee may impose a penalty on the accuser, but not one more severe than would have been warrented by the charges brought, if true.

6. The committee may compel evidence and testimony under subpoena, however the accused shall have all the protections they would be guaranteed by common law or the AP if they were before a Commonwealth court.
 
 

Section D: Althing Code of Conduct

1. In debate on the Althing discussion forum, members of the Althing shall:

(a) refrain from imputations of dishonesty, corruption, bigotry, immaturity, conspiracy, lying and other improper behaviour against other Thingmen; and from any other language which tends to incite personal animosity.

(b) accept the rulings of the Lawspeaker and Moderator without dissent.

2. The Moderator (or Lawspeaker, if the Moderator transgresses) shall require any member of the Althing who transgresses against the above standards to withdraw such offending statements, and to apologise to the Althing and to any member personally implicated.

3. If such a member transgressing against the requirements of s.1 fails to withdraw and apologise within seventy-two hours, the Moderator shall require that the Lawspeaker delete the offending statements from the Althing discussion group.

4. Repeated transgressions against the requirements of s.1 above constitute breach of Althing privilege, and the Moderator shall file a complaint with the Privileges Committee against any member thus repeatedly transgressing, as provided in Section C of these Standing Orders.
 
 

(current as of 31/7/99)

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