The Honourable Sôgmô has issued a new decree on “internal powers,” a newly defined category of customary powers that það has used in the past. These powers, so called because they are used within (i.e., internally) the Sandum government, include a variety of executive functions that have, until now, been poorly defined in Sandum law but have been regularly used by the monarch. These powers include the power to govern, such as to enact law through decrees, to manage the Central People’s Government, and to establish standards and rules “in conformity with the Council’s laws and the Party’s plans.”
Other powers include judicial powers over investigation, prosecution, and judgement as well as a so-called “sacred power.” Sacred power here refers to the concept of sacrality and sovereignty postulated by the philosopher Giorgio Agamben in his influential 1998 monograph, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. In Sandus, this is the power to make decisions during political crisis, so as to ensure the activity and welfare of the Sandum State.
Although all these powers have existed previously, even if rarely used, this decree is most novel in its broadening of the decree category of Sandum law. Sandum law presently has three categories of law: laws passed by the Council, plans drafted and adopted by the Party and Sôgmô, and decrees enacted by the Sôgmô. This new Internal Powers Decree creates both new types of decrees but also forms new formulas for them. For example, the Sôgmô may exercise their power to govern by proclamation while managing the Central People’s Government. They may also enact edicts to establish rules and standards, constitutions (in the archaic sense as a constitutio) to make constitutionally significant changes to Sandum governance during crisis, and they may pass judgements through adjudications. Each of these types of decree have their own formulas established by the new Internal Powers decree.
Finally, the decree clarifies the longtime murky power of the Sôgmô to pass judgement in their royal court as a court of law. Historically, Sandus has seen only one legal action in its history in February 2010 against a former citizen who had seceded from the then-Barony of Sandus. The new decree, however, clarifies that the Sôgmô has the power to “keep peace and order” and to “arbitrate between citizens in legal actions and disputes.” According to the decree, the Sôgmô also administers and oversees the system of courts and the procuration of justice in Sandus, while the Council may pass laws regulating the courts and judicial procedure.
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