The Sôgmô has issued a decree that creates a new legal status in Sandus, known as adjacency. This new status is the Sandum equivalent of a legal status of permanent residency but is suited best to Sandus, since the State of Sandus does not claim territory in a traditional Westphalian sense. Since the State of Sandus exists wherever Sandum citizens are, there can be no legal status based on residency, and adjacency instead focuses on those people who otherwise have a relationship with Sandus, Sandum citizens, or who have taken part in Sandum events before.
The new decree comes after last year’s Blue Lecture that announced new legal statuses for those who play a role in Sandus, although they are not Sandum citizens. Originally, the decree was intended to grant two other legal statuses, royal citizenship and honorary citizenship, before it was decided to not grant honorary citizenship to maintain the importance of the Sandum philosophy in the country. Royal citizenship, on the other hand, was incorporated instead into adjacency.
Adjacent possess many of the same rights as Sandum citizens, with one key distinction: they do not have suffrage, even in the Council. (The Council gives suffrage to all citizens, including peregrini and social citizens, automatically.) However, after spending one year as an adjacent, an adjacent may express their intention to become a citizen. This announcement begins a process whereby objections can be made in the Council, forcing a vote in the Council on the adjacent’s request to become a citizen. If there are no objections in three days since the announcement was made, however, the adjacent can become a citizen once the Sôgmô gives the oath of citizenship.
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