Act 6 (Honours)
| Act 6 (Honours) | |
| Proposed | 20 September 2008 |
| Imperial Consent given on | 20 September 2008 |
| Imperial Consent given at | Parliament Hall, Wrythe |
| Imperial Consent given by | HRH Emperor Terry I |
| Amended by | • Act 34 (Revised Titles) • Act 36 (6th Revision to Existing Laws) • Act 41 (Additional Honours) • Act 47 (The Imperial Family) • Act 56 (Orders of Chivalry) • Act 118 (Revised Medals) • Act 126 (17th Revision to Existing Laws) |
Act 6 (Honours) of the Parliament of Austenasia was an Act of Parliament passed on 20 September 2008 and repealed on 22 September 2011. This Act established a basic predecessor to the current Austenasian honours system.
Act 6 was passed within several hours of Austenasia declaring independence alongside five other Acts - Act 2 (Food and Trade), Act 3 (Subjects), Act 4 (Taxes), Act 5 (Utilities) and Act 7 (Emergency Services). These were all given Imperial Consent by Emperor Terry I at the same time, but became law over the period of a few hours due to the then requirement of the Emperor reading out new laws to the assembled population of Wrythe; to prevent the Imperial Family from getting bored, the Acts were not read out uninterruptedly but with breaks between each, and so took several hours for all of them to become law.
Act 6 established medals and knighthoods as two forms of honour bestowable by the Monarch. Five medals and five grades of knighthood were established, with a recipient holding the highest grade of knighthood bestowed but able to hold more than one medal. Laws 6, 7 and 8 clarified that the recipient of a knighthood would hold the rank of knight, holders of the two highest grades of knighthood could bear the style sir or dame, and that other recipients of honours could bear the relevant post-nominal letters after their name. Law 9 gave the Prime Minister and the House of Representatives (then known as "Cabinet") the power to veto the granting of an honour should they unanimously oppose it, but this power has not to date ever been used.
Act 6 has been amended several times. Act 34 (Revised Titles) corrected a formatting error of Act 6 - recipients of a medal would have had to have actually used "Forename Surname" as their name due to those words having not been italicised in the part of Act 6 which established how recipients of medals are to be addressed. Law 2 of Act 36 (6th Revision to Existing Laws) removed a provision allowing the Monarch to be granted honours by the government. Act 41 (Additional Honours) named the five grades of knighthood established by Act 6 the Austenasian Order, and created the Order of the Bullmastiff as a second order - individuals could now have two knighthoods, one from each. It also created the Environmental Star as a sixth medal.
Act 47 (The Imperial Family) "rebranded" the family of the Monarch from royal to imperial. As such, some honours were renamed - the Royal Star and Royal Austenasian Red Cross medals and the Royal Knight of Austenasia knighthood all had the word "Royal" in their named replaced by the word "Imperial" by Law 2 of said Act. Act 56 (Orders of Chivalry) amended Law 6 of Act 6 so that only those recipients of knighthoods which entitled them to the usage of the style Sir/Dame could call themselves knights. Act 118 (Revised Medals) changed the ranking of the medals, and Act 126 (17th Revision to Existing Laws) abolished entirely the medals created by Act 6.
As with all Acts of Parliament passed before the implementation of the Austenasian Constitution of 2011, Act 6 was repealed on 22 September 2011. However, the Second Imperial Decree of HIM Emperor Declan (passed the day before Act 2 was repealed) retained the structure of the honours system as it was before the implementation of the 2011 Constitution, meaning that the unamended parts of Act 6 - the Monarch being able to grant honours, the structure of the Austenasian Order, the principle that one cannot hold more than one grade of knighthood from the same order, and the (as of yet) unused power of the legislature to veto the bestowing of honours - remain in force, although they could be overturned by an Act of Parliament or a subsequent Imperial Decree.