[pp.int.general] Court of Arbitration ruling 2012-1-A: public call for evidence

[Andrew Norton]

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On 1/24/2012 12:44 PM, Boris Turovskiy wrote:
> Hi Thijs,
> 
> a Court of Arbitration is - at least according to German law on
> political parties - a necessary part of a democratic party structure to
> resolve internal disputes and issue rulings in case of conflict. Its
> core characteristic is that it must be independent of the respective
> Board - it is elected independently by the General Assembly and the
> Board has no rights to disband the CoA. Also, in each specific case only
> those CoA members who are not personally involved may handle the
> proceedings.

Just two points.
1) PPI is not a German political party
2) An unpublished no-notice 'election' with excessive restrictions on
candidates (had to be physically present), exclusion of a significant
percentage of the voters (remote participants were not able to
participate, partly because we didn't know and partly because the system
just didn't work) would have it's validity in serious doubt even if PPI
*WERE* a German political party (and not a Belgian NGO as I believe it's
supposed to be)

> 
> The idea behind it is to set up a checks-and-balances solution which 
> limits the Board's powers, e.g. has the power to penalize the Board if
> it goes against the statutes; which protects individual members (that's
> why rulings on expelling a member can only be made by a CoA, not by the
> Board or the General Assembly: the first would give the Board the power
> to exclude members who they personally dislike, the second would
> encourage mob justice); and which allows conflicts inside the
> organization to be resolved without involving a regular court.
> 
There are better ways to set up a system. I actually prefer a per-case
empaneling system, rather like Jury duty, but asking for volunteers for
the arbitration group when an issue comes up. Say 5 members, while each
side can reject upto a certain number of proposed arbitrators (details
to be ascertained depending on the size of the pool)

Here's another issue. As set up, who investigates the CoA? When this
issue was brought up last March, I was told that if I wanted to protest
the election of the CoA, I would have to go to.... the CoA.
yeah....

There is already some limited oversight in the statutes (OM's can call a
new GA to replace PPI Board members). However, for the more specific
issues, the COI just moves the lack of oversight from one group to
another. My suggestion would at least make it so that we could
investigate a 'ArbPanel' without having to get the same people to rule
on it.

I thought we were about new solutions to problems, not about using the
same old 'solutions' that are the cause of the problems.

Andrew

> It is difficult to say whether a CoA makes sense within the PPI in its
> current state; especially potential conflicts of interests are
> exceedingly difficult to keep at bay, as inside the PPI personal
> relationships, national Parties' ambitions and even intercontinental
> conflicts overlap, making it difficult to find a truly uninvolved person
> in any conflict situation. However, before calling for the CoA to be
> disbanded, consider that without a CoA there is no way at all to
> penalize the Board if it comes to real corruption or misjudgments.
> 
> Best regards,
> Boris
> 
>> Am I the only one who finds it hilarious, that on their very first case,
>> the CoA proves to be just as corrupt as the establishment we all oppose?
>> Really... what is this CoA anyway? Some pitiful attempt to proclaim some
>> half-witted people experts, and having us all follow their judgements.
>> What
>> a way to supplant transparent debate with closed proceedings. These
>> people
>> should not exist, CoA should not exist. Lets get rid of this now,
>> shall we?
> ____________________________________________________
> Pirate Parties International - General Talk
> pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
> http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general


- -- 
Andrew Norton
http://ktetch.blogspot.com
Tel: +1(352)6-KTETCH [+1-352-658-3824]
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