🎓Legal Council

This page explains the role and constitution of Legal Council, appointed by a Council Vote of the Open Council.

The role of the Legal Council is to advise the Open Constitution network on legally protecting the Foundation's activities.

Legal Council members are individuals of industry-wide reputation, having had persistent success in steering and contributing to humankind, with a major sustainable impact.

They are successful lawyers, civil rights activists, M&A lawyers, Intellectual Property lawyers, writers, filmmakers, musicians or artists.

The members of the Legal Council work with the following guidelines:

Meetings:

1. The Legal Council members shall meet the Executive Council on an ongoing basis: Generally recorded on a monthly basis through an electronic meeting with the Executive Council, either exclusively or through Open Convention.

1.2 When recorded through the member’s presence in the Foundation’s monthly Council meetings, or

1.3 When participating through the Independent Board's private mailing list on any Council vote, at least once a month.

Legal Council plays a central role in publishing, advancing and promoting the Foundation's advocacy of its guiding principles. Therefore, a vote of confidence may be scheduled to register the attendance of the Legal Council members.

2. The Legal Council members may choose to meet the Executive Council or other members through an electronic meeting, in addition to the monthly Council meetings, to contribute to their roles and responsibilities.

Legal Council also processes nominations and appointments of members to Legal CWC, an Independent CWC.

Legal Council members build strategic relationships on behalf of the Foundation's community, representing its citizen's rights in Industry bodies and networks, which are outside the purview of the Open Constitution Partner Program.

3. The Legal Council can convene an electronic meeting, inviting all the Open Council members or all the Foundation's members, to conduct an independent legal audit and review of the Foundation’s initiatives.

The meeting minutes from any convened “Legal Council meeting” shall be released to the Executive Council within 14 days of the meeting.

The Executive Council reserves the right to reject or release the meeting minutes and documented reviews of this council to the members of the Foundation.

Open Constitution Governance Framework:

4. The Open Constitution network runs itself with a decentralised open governance system. Each open governance decision shall be recorded on the Open Constitution ledger.

Legal Council works with all the Open Council bodies concerning the Foundation’s legal frameworks and representations.

The Executive Council ratifies the Legal Council’s Resolutions.

The Independent Board then ensures ratification of any amendments to this constitution, governance and steering of the Foundation, based on Executive Counsel’s public reports.

The chair of the Legal Council may also get elected to an Open Tribunal, registered on the Open Constitution Governance System for arbitrations between disputing members of the Foundation.

Consideration:

5. Appointment to this Legal Council is pro bono and voluntary. Appointments are generally made for an election period of at least 1 year and almost 3 years.

Appointment, Nomination, Removal and Resignation:

Appointment:

6.1 Nomination: The following members can officially nominate an existing member of the Foundation to the Legal Council:

6.1 a. An elected member of the Executive Council of the Advisory Council or the Legal Council.

6.1 b. A non-Council member can also request a nomination, in the form of a community proposal. The Nomination action shall be officially initiated by the only members mentioned in above 6.1 “a”.

6.2 Self-nomination by (an already elected) member of one of the bodies of the Open Council for his/her/their appointment to the Legal Council is not acceptable.

Self-nomination by an existing non-Council member of the Foundation, for his/her/their appointment to the Legal Council is not acceptable. Please read more. 6.3 Once the nomination is accepted by the Nominee, the Nominee or the member nominating the nominee, shall file supporting information such as the and nominee's literature, publications, demonstration of social activities on the Foundation's Membership Registry.

A Council Resolution "Vote IN" is then scheduled on the Council's mailing list.

Electoral Process for "Vote IN" is conditional to a quorum.

a. Quorum is achieved when a minimum of half of all the Open Council members, participate in the Council Resolution - "Vote IN". b. A decision is received in favour of the Council Resolution - "Vote IN", when the majority of all the participating members of the Open Council, vote "+1". E.g.: Let's say there are 21 Open Council members.

At least 11 members shall participate in the Council Resolution for the "Vote IN" to achieve a quorum. This is the qualifying state for the Council Resolution to be logged on the Open Constitution public ledger. For the appointment to be electorally approved, the "Vote IN" should receive at least half of the total votes(required for quorum), in favour of this Council Resolution. So, in this example, six (+1) votes of the participating 11 Council members will do the job.😒

6.4 Appointment to the Legal Council is published on the public-facing records of the Muellners Foundation.

Removal:

7.1 Members of the Executive Council of the Legal Council or the Advisory Council can only officially nominate the removal of a member from the Legal Council.

A non-Council member should not initiate a proposal for the removal of a Legal Council member.

Further, if a non-Council member has a dispute with a Legal Council member, they shall invoke the Foundation's Observation Council to enforce redressal of their dispute.

Legal Council members play a critical role in the Foundation's global advocacy for social good, technology-based governance, Intellectual property, data privacy and shaping public policy. They do so with their legal counsel and establish sound legal indemnification practices for the Foundation's community.

Legal Council represents the Muellners Foundation in public forums, outside the network of the Foundation's naturalised citizens(its constituents).

7.2 Open Council Resolution - “Vote OUT" is considered to be active on the Open Constitution system, once it is initiated on the Council’s private mailing list.

Electoral Process for "Vote OUT" is conditional to a quorum. a. Quorum is achieved when a minimum of half of all the Open Council members participate in the Council Resolution "Vote OUT". b. A decision is received in favour of the "Vote OUT", when the majority of all the participating members of the Open Council, vote "+1". E.g.the: Let's say there are 21 Open Council members.

At least 11 members shall participate in the Council Resolution for "Vote OUT" to achieve a quorum. This is the qualifying state for the Council Resolution to be locked on the Open Constitution public ledger. For the removal to be electorally approved for the next stage, the "Vote OUT" should receive at least half of the total votes(required for quorum), in favour of this Council Resolution. So, in this example, six (+1) votes of the participating 11 Council members will do the job.😒

A strong reason for violation of Muellners Foundation’s governing policies and directives must be provided by member(s) initiating the resolution, to support the Council resolution “Vote OUT”.

7.3 Community Referendum: The final removal of a member from the Legal Council is subject to a community referendum on the passed Council resolution “Vote OUT”, stated in 7.1 & 7.2 above.

Community Referendum is generally accessible by all members of the Muellners Foundation - both Council, its CWC members and non-Council members.

Quorum on the Community Referendum for the Council Resolution - "Vote Out" is achieved when 33% (more than 1/3rd) of all the voluntarily organised subscribed members participate. Of the minimum participating members, the Community Referendum stands as Decided when the majority of the quorum populace votes in favour of the stated Council resolution “Vote OUT”.

E.g.: Let's say there are 1000 Foundation members.

A minimum of 333 members are required to participate in the Community Referendum to achieve a quorum. The decision of the Community Referendum depends on a majority(167/333) in favour of, or against the subject of the Referendum. This is the qualifying state for the Referendum to get locked on the Open Constitution public ledger.

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8. A member may serve on more than one Open Council body. Each Council body membership reserves additional voting rights.

If a member happens to serve on two Open Council bodies, then this effectively means that two votes are counted for the same member for the Foundation’s Council-based decision proceedings, including but not limited to the governing protocols for the appointment of members or their removal to the Open Council.

Resignation:

9. A member's self-resignation from the Legal Council is a voluntary action. A member may resign from the Legal Council by stating the reasons for resignation. The announcement of resignation can be done via electronic email on the Council's mailing list.

Miscellaneous:

10. The Independent Board reserves the right to update the terms and conditions, and statutes from time to time, in compliance with the existing rules and regulations of the association, including reserving the right to terminate the appointment to this Council at any time, without notice and the due electoral process of removal, in the following scenario:

If the member is found convicted of criminal, civil and financial crimes, in any court of competent jurisdiction, across the world, where the Foundation has an active presence, either through a legal body representation or an affiliate network.

Read more on the guiding principles & diversity statement of the Foundation here.

Read more about the Foundation’s Code of Conduct here.

11. The statutes of the Foundation and terms and conditions governing its functioning can be found here. The Independent Board reserves the right to dissolve the whole Legal Council and initiate the constitution of a new Legal Council.

12. The Foundation members communicate via cryptographic electronic communications systems and technology tools. In connection with the electronic meetings convened by members of this council, the Foundation’s IT infrastructure shall be used.

If the meeting took place outside the Foundation’s communications infrastructure, then the meeting minutes must be brought back to the notice of the Executive Council.

Upon a successful nomination and having received a passed Council Resolution "Vote IN", a new Open Council member should file their supporting documents to the Open Constitution Membership Registry. A private link is generated by the Open Constitution system.

Custodian: Election Council