Archival Gorsedh Act (Mercia)

Archival Gorsedh Act
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To create a Gorsedh, run by an appointed Brehon, which shall have as its primary responsibility the archival of important information relating to the government’s operation, including all legislation, resources created by the Ministry of Education, and any other resources deemed important to either the functioning of the Mercian Government or for historical purposes
Territorial extent	Mercia at large
Date commenced	14th August
Introduced by	Earl Horatio Eden (Wibertsherne)
Status: Current legislation

The Archival Gorsedh Act primarily creates the Archival Gorsedh, an agency of the Mercian government directly responsible for the archival of legislation, documentation created by the Ministry of Education and other documents of cultural significance.

Drafted and presented by Earl Horatio Eden, the Leader of the Opposition and parliamentary leader of the National Liberal Party, it was designed to supplant the Mercian Archive Act with a more "robust piece of legislation".

Legislation

Chapter One

Chapter 1(1) repeals the Mercian Archive Act. It requires the State Culture Gorsedh to transfer all of its files to the newly created Archival Gorsedh.

Chapter 1(2) makes the Brehon (the chair of the Gorsedh) of the Archival Gorsedh appointed by the Minister of Sports, Culture and Media Relations.

Chapter Two

Chapter 2(3) reiterates Chapter 1(2), requiring the Minister of Sports, Culture and Media Relations to appoint the Brehon of the Archival Gorsedh.

Chapter 2(4) gives the Brehon the power to appoint Councillors to the Gorsedh at their own recognizance, though subsequently grants the Minister of Sports, Culture and Media Relations the power to override these decisions.

Chapter 2(5) requires that the Brehon be appointed within two weeks of the passage of the Act (by the 28th of August, in other words).

Chapter Three

Chapter 3(6) sets out the archival responsibilities of the new Gorsedh.

It gives them the authority and responsibility to archive:

• "All legislation considered by the Parliament of Mercia, whether passed or failed";
• "Summaries of all Parliamentary meetings held after the appointment of the Archival Brehon";
• "Results of elections and by-elections";
• "Information regarding the various governments of Mercia, past and present";
• "All resources created and maintained by the Ministry of Education";
• "All files deemed to be of historical pertinence to the development of the Mercian nation";
• "The result of all national referenda held after the appointment of the Archival Brehon".

Chapter 3(7) further requires the Gorsedh to compile a catalogue of all files so archived for the easy access of Mercian citizens.

Chapter 3(8) gives the First Minister the power to deem certain archived files sensitive from a national security standpoint, and thus prevent citizens without security clearance from accessing them.

Chapter 3(9), in pursuance of the Copyright Act, makes all files archived by the Gorsedh public domain "unless explicitly licensed otherwise".

Chapter 3(10), in pursuance of the Rights of the Subject Act, requires that all files that might infringe upon the "home" or "correspondence" of a Mercian citizen be cleared by the citizen in question. Public discussions are not covered by this provision.

Chapter Four

Chapter 4(11) segregates Acts of Parliament archived by the Gorsedh into two categories: passed and failed.

Chapter 4(12) orders the above categorized Acts by date.