Howdy MunroBurton,
Something to keep in mind is that the Executive Council or Assembly of Stars didn't object to Beowulf's announcement it was going to withdraw on legal grounds, but the sheer shock of ending its membership after roughly 700 years.
Which would put it's admission in the late 13th or early 14th century.
Although old textev states several founders had been independent star systems for over a thousand years, some new says the SL was founded in the ninth century PD, despite Beowulf apparently being a major contributor.
Getting back to the main point, the EC/AoS knew then and still knows that Beowulf's plebiscite is completely legal and correct according to the SL constitution, that is until the 3/4+ of the Executive Council get their new orders from the mandarins.
Furthermore, while I think the founders ensured they could easily quit, I don't think the OFS got fancy in the shell and protectorates, since they and their transtellar pardners were in control, and expected and intended to remain in control for forever, there was no way such clauses would ever be activated and they really didn't want to attract any attention by modifying them, it would make it pretty clear what they were really doing.
From the textev the four that had already sent their notices to Sol in July don't have SDF's like Beowulf, yet if the communications loop is at least 246 LY [30 days at 8,21 LY/day], the GA should be able to reach them far sooner than the SLN.
Time to go, I'll finish this when I'm not sogroggy.
L
munroburton wrote:cthia wrote:Indeed.
Sorry I missed this post munroburton. Actually, I recall mention of some exasperated League personality, forget who, who questioned the possible legality of it. I don't recall hearing anything else of it and was waiting with baited breath.
It simply seems much too easy to secede IMO. What prevents systems from taking advantage of the League—in some laughable alternate reality where the League is not so corrupt and many resources are allocated to a world only to see it secede when they deem they no longer need the League?
Reminds me of the many states that petitioned the Obama administration with delusions of seceding..
Apparently, no one had attempted to leave before. The closest was Erewhon, which cancelled its application to become a full member and instead joined the Manticoran Alliance.
Someone mentioned Japan and the League of Nations - well, would Japan have been so quick to leave if the League of Nations had direct control of two hundred battleships? Thanks to the Eridani Edict, the League did carry out half a dozen military operations early in its history.
As for the legality of secession, what if the Solarian League constitution has something similar to Article 50 from the EU's Lisbon Treaty?
http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-li ... le-50.html1. Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.
Beowulf's constitution is older than the League's. Beowulf was a League founding member. It certainly wasn't ever subject to whatever loopholes OFS used to take control of independent verge systems, make them protectorates and then eventually members. In other words, any legal objections raised by the Mandarins using those as a basis might simply be invalid, inapplicable and unenforceable.