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The Deep Space Resources Act
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Saturday, 18 Dec 2010, 6:17 PM | Message # 1 |
 Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 803
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| The Deep Space Resources Act
An act to regulate the mining of deep space resources, and to ensure that the Imperial Treasury is able to profit from the bounty of the void which is the rightful possession of the Empire as the Galactic Sovereign.
Definitions
A "resource" is any physical entity of limited availability, or anything used to help one earn a living. In most cases, commercial or even ethic factors require resource allocation through resource management. For the purpose waves and rays created by stars shall not be considered "resources". In situations where a system has no unified government or there is a dispute over resources (such as in the event of an overlapping heliosphere), the Sector Moff will arbitrate a mutually agreeable solution.
A "Star system" shall be defined as the Heliosphere of the star.
"Interstellar space" shall be all space outside of the heliosphere of a star, for the purpose of this act it shall also include the space inside the heliospheres of uninhabited systems.
Section 1 - Ultimate Declaration of Imperial Ownership
All resources in interstellar space are henceforth to be considered possessions of the Imperial Treasury.
Resources within the heliospheres of populated Imperial Systems shall be considered the property of that system's people (unless declared otherwise by the Sector Moff or Imperial Government), and law governing them and their ownership and exploitation for practical purposes shall be issued by system legislatures.
Section 2 - Prospecting and Mining
1. Prospecting of these resources shall be allowed only with a permit from the Sector Moff's Department.
- Permits shall be granted upon passing a criminal record check and completion of a basic mining safety course.
- Those with mining permits shall be required to submit tax returns every quarter detailing their prospecting and mining activities.
- Mining permits may be issued to Governments, Corporations or Individuals.
- Even if a Corporate/Government mining permit is held, at least one Individual on each ship or station which conducts mining or prospecting must hold an Individual Mining permit.
2. 33.33% of the value of any resources found in deep space shall be surrendered to the Imperial Treasury.
3. Enclosed areas of natural wealth
- An "Enclosed area of natural wealth" may be declared by a Sector Governor which will mean that the area is off limits to all mining vessels, even if they own a Sector-issued mining permit.
- An "Enclosed area of natural wealth"'s mining or prospecting rights may be auctioned by the Sector Governor (if he so chooses) or conserved as an important resource for future use.
4. "Claims"
- A "Claim" must be declared by the placement of beacons around the resources if one wishes to acquire exclusive rights to said resource.
- Each beacon will be sold by the Sector Moff's Office of Resources and Mining for a price of 500,000 Imperial Credits to Governments, 250,000 Credits to Corporate Entities and 50,000 Credits to Individuals or Small Businesses (Turn over under 5,000,000 Credits per annum), those possessing a claim must hold a current mining permit or they forfeit their claim.
- A Claim Beacon signifies that any celestial body on which it is placed's resources are now to be considered the owner of the beacon, also any other celestial bodies within 10KM of this celestial body are to be considered part of the same "Claim"
- A Claim Beacon may also be used to signify ownership of resources such as gas clouds or nebulae, this being the case (and owing to the wide area of many gas clouds), a Claim Beacon in a gas cloud, asteroid field, nebulae or dust field will signify ownership of the resources within one astronomical unit.
- Within "Claims", Imperial Federal Law shall be supreme, however, to the extent that it does not clash with Imperial Law, the law applied within the claim is at the discretion of the Claim holder, be it Government, Corporation or Individual.
- Claims should not be used as an excuse for expansionism by worlds keen to encroach upon their neighbours, if it becomes clear that this is the case, the Federal or Sector Government may withdraw the mining permit of the claimer (voiding the claim) and/or require them to remove all of their personnel/equipment from the area.
- The Empire will remain the freeholder of any claim, however, the Claimer will be considered to own an unlimited lease on the area claimed, thus claims may be sold or bought by any who hold a mining permit.
Section 3 - Offences created under this act.
1. Failing to surrender profits to the Empire or concealing profits from the Empire.*
2. Entering an "enclosed area of natural wealth" with the intention of depriving it of resources*
3. Mining without a suitable permit.*
4. Selling mineral rights which rightly belong to the Emperor.*
5. Tampering with a beacon.*
*Inchoate offences shall be considered equivalent to the offences themselves for sentencing purposes.
The Imperial Justice Dept shall determine appropriate sentencing guidelines. The Sector Court and Governor shall have jurisdiction over these matters, unless the central authorities feel that the case needs to be decided on a Federal level, which would be approved or denied on the basis of an appeal to the Central Courts by the Plaintiff, Defendant or Judge.
Section 4 - "Lucky Strike" clause
If an individual, government or corporate entity discovers a resource during the course of other business or leisure discover any interstellar resource (such as an asteroid similar to the famous myth of the "platinum asteroid of Hoth") they will be entitled to the normal share 66.67% of the find so long as they are able to demonstrate to the Sector Moff's satisfaction that their primary intention was not resource collection or mining.
Section 5 - Security
1. All sensor data acquired during prospecting shall be copied (and not modified) and submitted with the quarterly mining reports to the government by the permit holder.
2. The Imperial and Sector Governments reserve the right to place agents undercover to examine permit holders for compliance with this legislation.
3. All mining operations with a staff of more than 500 employees must have at least one COMPNOR member aboard, to ensure the loyalty of the mining staff and see that sedition is not spoken of and to assure the rights of Imperial Citizens are being maintained.
Section 6 - Non-Imperial Worlds
1. The Imperial Government may declare areas of space off limits to new claims if they are part of a faction which is not part of the Galactic Empire.
2. Worlds and Organisations who are considered to be "outside of the Empire" under present law (Hutt Space, Tion Hegemony etc) may not have claims placed in their space as this represents claimers breaching their remit of mining Imperial interstellar resources and threatens Imperial foreign policy.
Section 7 - Grandfather Clause
1. Any existing publicly declared claims (made before the proposal of this legislation) or mining operations in interstellar space may continue to operate so long as they meet the correct Imperial Legislation which was in place at the time of their establishment, the Empire will donate beacons in these cases in order to bring them in line with Imperial Law.
- Operations existing under the Grandfather Clause must begin to pay the 33.33% Resources Tax included in this legislation.
- This is to be imposed at the discretion of the Sector Moff.
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
Message edited by Bernard_Oriel - Friday, 12 Oct 2012, 11:10 PM |
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| Senator_Cambrist | Date: Sunday, 19 Dec 2010, 2:29 AM | Message # 2 |
 Lieutenant general
Group: Users
Messages: 761
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| All quite reasonable, Senator Oriel. I am inclined to vote in favor of your measure, but I am curious as to how existing claims, such as they are, will be regarded once this measure is in effect. I am interested, in particular, in A.) claims that are "traditional," if you will, rather than legal, and B.) claims that are legal under existing laws that, in many cases, will be superseded by this law. Will these claims still be honored? The measure does state that "those possessing a claim must hold a current mining permit or they forfeit their claim," but it's not clear to me whether you intend for this to apply on an ex post facto basis. Aside from this, my only qualm with the legislation is a semantic one; as much as we would like the Galactic Empire to truly be a Galactic Empire, the reality is that there are, of course, regions of the galaxy that are a not a part of the Empire, and where the Empire makes no claim on resources. The Tion Hegemony, for instance, and the Hapes Consortium. I apologize if this seems a priggish point, but I would prefer that "interstellar space," for the purpose of this measure, be specified to exclude regions that are not a part of the Empire. Whether this is on a de jure or de facto basis, I would leave to your interpretation. And one final question. Would "governments," "corporate entities," and "individuals or small businesses," upon acquiring a permit and having a recognized claim, be permitted to sell the permit, and the claim, to a third party provided that all of the provisions of this and other Imperial laws are properly observed? It occurs to me that this may already be addressed in Section 3, Article 4 of your measure, but, forgive me, I want simply to be clear on this point.
Message edited by Senator_Cambrist - Sunday, 19 Dec 2010, 2:38 AM |
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Sunday, 19 Dec 2010, 5:34 AM | Message # 3 |
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Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 803
Status: Offline
| I have amended the act to include the matters raised by yourself, I have also clarified so far as I can the points which you raised regarding ownership.
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
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| Tremaine_Fowlkes | Date: Tuesday, 21 Dec 2010, 5:49 AM | Message # 4 |
 Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 881
Status: Offline
| Your bill, Senator Oriel, seems reasonable and I will vote in favor.
Tremaine Fowlkes
Senator of Telos IV
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| Senator_Cambrist | Date: Tuesday, 21 Dec 2010, 1:18 PM | Message # 5 |
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Lieutenant general
Group: Users
Messages: 761
Status: Offline
| Likewise, in favor. Thank you for addressing those points, Senator.
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| Crin_Star | Date: Tuesday, 21 Dec 2010, 9:44 PM | Message # 6 |
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Major general
Group: Users
Messages: 313
Status: Offline
| I feel the standard tax rate would serve better in these instances and as such vote against this measure.
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| Senator_Ordan | Date: Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010, 0:50 AM | Message # 7 |
 Lieutenant general
Group: Users
Messages: 633
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| Interesting to see Volus object when it has such a vested interest I feel. Does Volus believe that the status quo means it owns the mining rights outside it's system's territory. Certainly no current regulations would appear to have the same broad sweep, codifying mining rights is important, and there is little present federal legislation regarding them. For my part I have little issue with this legislation, and think it will stabilise the situation considerably, thereby leading to an increase in peaceful mining and an end to squabbling conflicts over interstellar resources. Frankly I must say that Senator Star's vote against this represents a vote against her own interests which does appear to be, as ever, for the simple purpose of voting against all of Senator Oriel's very sensible proposals by default. I vote in favour of this legislation.
Senator Hubert Ordan
__________________________
Senator of the Azure Sector
Foreign Minister of Anaxes
Captain-General of the Azure Interest Protection Squadron
Deputy Chairman of the Ethics Committee
Worshipful Master of the Most Loyal and Honourable Company of Blockadeers
Archtreasurer of the Vault of Pols Anaxes
Autocrat of Selgon
Owner of Azure Durasteel
Systems Admiral (Ret)
Order of the Canted Circle
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| LomenRyuun | Date: Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010, 7:04 AM | Message # 8 |
 Lieutenant general
Group: Users
Messages: 696
Status: Offline
| Quite reasonable. Druckenwell votes in favor.
Lomen Ryuun
Senator, Doldur Sector
Senator, Druckenwell
Representative, Monor II (10 BBY - 9 BBY)
Representative, Geridard
Representative, Boranall
Representative, Therenor Prime
Vice-chairman, Defense Committee (Temporarily suspended)
Controlling Shareholder - Druckenwell Arms Corporation
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| Crin_Star | Date: Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010, 11:51 AM | Message # 9 |
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Major general
Group: Users
Messages: 313
Status: Offline
| My position on this bill senator ordan, is that the standard imperial tax rate would be more than sufficient. While giving more to the imperial treasury is welcome, it should not be required. Especially with companies who have fine margins of profit and may not be able to afford such a tax hike on all of their findings.
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| Senator_Ordan | Date: Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010, 1:01 PM | Message # 10 |
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Lieutenant general
Group: Users
Messages: 633
Status: Offline
| So you're saying we should not surrender unto the Emperor a share of his own property when exploiting it? Very revealing Senator, let the record show Senator Star's opposition to this.
Senator Hubert Ordan
__________________________
Senator of the Azure Sector
Foreign Minister of Anaxes
Captain-General of the Azure Interest Protection Squadron
Deputy Chairman of the Ethics Committee
Worshipful Master of the Most Loyal and Honourable Company of Blockadeers
Archtreasurer of the Vault of Pols Anaxes
Autocrat of Selgon
Owner of Azure Durasteel
Systems Admiral (Ret)
Order of the Canted Circle
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| Crin_Star | Date: Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010, 2:36 PM | Message # 11 |
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Major general
Group: Users
Messages: 313
Status: Offline
| "Don't twist my words senator. I said the standard tax rate already in place is sufficient and more such as a full third may drive companies out of business. These are businesses which operate on slim margins of profit, having to invest a significant amount of capital to test and discover minerals before even moving in the large mining equipment. This testing and set up takes time and money when profits are not flowing in, and then to raise their taxes for doing all of this may drive several out of business and that is the reason for my opposition to this measure."
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| Ilanah_Thanatos | Date: Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010, 3:06 PM | Message # 12 |
 Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 891
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| Senator Oriel, I think that your proposal is very reasonable and well thought out. I also vote in favor.
Ilanah R. Thanatos
Senator of Chandrila
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| Senator_Ordan | Date: Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010, 5:06 PM | Message # 13 |
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Lieutenant general
Group: Users
Messages: 633
Status: Offline
| Azure Durasteel has no problem with this legislation. Neither does it's suppliers, the streamlined process will avoid the present chaotic system and cause massive efficiency savings and legal savings which far outweigh the 33% tariff.
Senator Hubert Ordan
__________________________
Senator of the Azure Sector
Foreign Minister of Anaxes
Captain-General of the Azure Interest Protection Squadron
Deputy Chairman of the Ethics Committee
Worshipful Master of the Most Loyal and Honourable Company of Blockadeers
Archtreasurer of the Vault of Pols Anaxes
Autocrat of Selgon
Owner of Azure Durasteel
Systems Admiral (Ret)
Order of the Canted Circle
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| Sate_Pestage | Date: Friday, 24 Dec 2010, 11:30 PM | Message # 14 |
 Lieutenant general
Group: Moderators
Messages: 639
Status: Offline
| The Ruling Council is pleased to see this measure pass with 86% in favor and 14% opposed. Senator Star's concern for Imperial industries is, of course, appreciated, but I find the arguments made in refutation of this to be persuasive.
Sate Pestage
Grand Vizier of the Empire
Assistant to Emperor Palpatine
Chair of the Imperial Senate
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