A Proposed Constitutional Restoration: Three Amendments
These amendments are designed not to add new power to government, but to repair damage done to reason, language, and the natural sovereignty of the People. They are offered in Classical Latin — the most precise legal language in Western civilization — with plain English so that no intermediary is required to understand them.
Amendment I — On Truth in Courts
Latin:
Nulla curia in tota terra id pro vero habebit quod manifeste falsum esse probatur. Fictio iuris structuram rationis, sine qua iustitia persequi non potest, destruit.
Plain English:
No court in the land shall hold as true that which is demonstrably proven to be false. Legal fiction destroys the structure of reason without which justice cannot be pursued.
Amendment II — On the Language of Law
Latin:
Lex I:
Omnes leges primum in Latino sermone classico componuntur, deinde in sermonem Anglicum communem conversae populo traduntur, ut unusquisque civis legem sine interprete intelligere ac uti possit.
Lex II:
Quaeque lex malum quod remediari intendit expresse declarat, ne spiritus et littera legis umquam divellantur. Lex ultra malum declaratum non extenditur.
Lex III:
Haec omnia intra octodecim menses a die promulgationis perficiuntur; quod post hunc terminum non factum erit, nullius vigoris est.
Lex IV (Addendum — Expungement):
Omnia iudicia, sententiae, ac praecedentia quae ad leges non renovatas pertinent, una cum ipsis legibus, e recordis publicis expunguntur ac pro nullis et irritis habentur, perinde ac si numquam lata essent.
Plain English:
All laws shall first be composed in Classical Latin, then translated into plain English and delivered to the People, so that every citizen may understand and use the law without an intermediary.
Every law shall expressly declare the specific ill it intends to remedy, so that the spirit and letter of the law are never separated. No law shall extend beyond its declared ill.
All of this shall be accomplished within 18 months of ratification. Any law not so resubmitted and passed anew shall be of no force whatsoever.
All judgments, opinions, and precedents built upon expired laws shall be expunged from public record and held as null and void — as though they had never been enacted.
Amendment III — On Equality Before God and Law
Latin:
Nulla curia ministro publico, ob officium quod gerit, maiorem standi auctoritatem tribuet quam civi privato. Omnes personae, sive publicam sive privatam vitam agant, sub Deo et lege aequaliter stant neque ulla immunitate gaudent quae a lege communi eos separet.
Plain English:
No court shall grant a public servant greater standing or authority on account of the office he holds than it grants a private citizen. All persons — whether they live public or private lives — stand equally under God and law, and enjoy no immunity that separates them from the common law.
The Design
These three amendments attack the three classical instruments of legal tyranny:
Amendment I — forbids courts from treating the false as true
Amendment II — forbids legislatures from hiding law from the People, and destroys the accumulated sediment of obscurantist precedent
Amendment III — dismantles the informal caste that places public servants above those they serve
More amendments are in development. Discussion and adversarial critique welcome — especially attempts to find the loopholes. That is precisely how this work is being tested.