The whole Direct Democracy proposal is based on the natural rights of the Natural Person.
The history of
“The Natural Person” in conflict with “The Legal Person”
INTRODUCTION
The individual person in society has always had an adversarial relationship with “Government” - all throughout history - and still has today. Those persons who have been “Government” have always dominated all other persons who were “Not - Government”. This short paper examines the fundamental RIGHT that the individual person in society can wield today in the fight to correct that domination.
This view of the power of the individual in a society came from a reading of “Blackstone’s Commentaries”, and I am grateful to a Nanaimo resident for introducing me to Lord Blackstone. This English jurist of a couple of hundred years ago is one of the very few to have given us an insight into how the individual person should fit into the society into which he is born (for “he”, read also “she”, throughout).
I doubt that since his time anyone connected with legal matters has reached the wisdom displayed by this student of jurisprudence (jurisprudence concerns itself with the philosphy of law) - most legal professionals today limit themselves to the administration of our laws, or sometimes the subverting of them, but none have the stature of Blackstone.
This paper is not about philosophy. It shows how to finally reach the kind of society we all want - it deals with reality - today’s reality.
Overview
- The rights of the Natural Person in Society - There is only one source of rights on earth - Natural Persons.
- The rights of “Legal Persons” in society - Legal Persons have no rights. They hold only a permit granted by Natural Persons.
- The second best government system in the world today - the American system, and its unfortunate fatal flaw.
- The only correct definition of a constitution ever written.
- Does Canada have a constitution written by the “governed” ?
- How to put our affairs in order in BC.
- What did the American constitution lack ?
- Which is the most democratic government yet devised ?
- What are the four elements of the Swiss system ?
- Summary - BC has two models to choose from.
All persons are born into this world completely free agents. They have the same right as everyone else to survive - an inborn right given them by the Creator (there is no religious undertone to this paper - it is simply an accepted fact that we are created, and that the Creator gave each “creation” an equal right to survive). The newly created being is given free-will, and the right to do whatever is considered necessary for survival.
However, as the price to be paid for the benefits that come from living in a society, each created being gives up certain of those rights given us by the Creator - we relinquish the right to kill others for our own advantage, or to steal our neighbor’s food, and so on. But we retain all the other rights given us by the Creator on entry into this world. The point being made is, that those rights we retain are “rights given to us all equally by the Creator”, not rights allowed to us by a neighbor or by a government. These are our “Natural Rights”, given us as Natural Persons.
These natural rights given us by the Creator can not be taken away by other beings - no other mortal has the power to give or to take away what was given at first by the Creator. These Creator-given rights can not be liened - they are un-lienable - they are the unalienable rights mentioned in the American Declaration of Independence.
THE ORIGINS OF THE RIGHTS OF “LEGAL PERSONS” IN SOCIETY
However, those beings created by the Creator, that is, Natural Persons, can create another type of person - a Legal Person, and can agree to give that Legal Person certain “rights”. One simple example of a Legal Person is a business enterprise such as a partnership. A Legal Person is an entity created by Natural Persons, usually with a charter or under a constitution.
Natural Persons can give certain rights to the Legal Person, and can also take away those rights. For that reason the Legal Person’s “rights” are, in fact and in law, privileges not rights. Note carefully that rights given by Natural Persons can be taken away again by Natural Persons, but rights given by the Creator can not be taken away by Natural or by Legal Persons. Also note that Legal Persons have NO Creator-given rights.
One of the most important Legal Persons that has been created by Natural Persons in society is the Legal Person called a Government. But it is true to say that throughout the history of western civilization governments have seized power by force, regardless of the wishes of the Natural Persons.
Today’s governments still cling to the powers given them by those who seized power in the past. For instance, today the Canadian federal government retains the powers granted by the British government to the colony in 1867 and earlier, but the Canadian people have never given any rights to their government.
With one exception, all governments in the world today govern as they wish, outside the control of the country’s Natural Persons. All governments are really one-party governments, whether called a dictatorship or a democracy, and elections are the fairy tale used to justify the one-party four-year dictatorships.
Proof of this is that not one piece of legislation in any government in the world today can be stopped or altered by that country’s Natural Persons before election time. There are one or two minor exceptions. How can this happen ? Should it continue ? What other way is there ?
THE SECOND BEST GOVERNMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD TO DATE
With one exception which will be examined further on, the only government in the history of the world ever to recognise the right of its Natural Persons to control their government, was the American government that wrote the Declaration of Independence a couple of hundred years ago. Look with fresh eyes at the four references to the powers of Natural Persons in that magnificent Declaration:
It still says that the people of the Thirteen Colonies had a :-
1. “separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.”
and it says that :-
2. “all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, (and that amongst these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.)”
and that:
3. “Governments are instituted among Men to secure these Rights” - that is, the rights of the Natural Persons.
and that:-
4. “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
This is the point where the Declaration of Independence failed to provide its Natural Persons with the MECHANISM to control the Legal Person thus created. As a result, 200 years on, as forecast by one of the framers of the American constitution, the Natural Persons in the united states of America today have no more control over their “Legal Person Government” than the citizens of any other country. The Declaration is now mere words, and the American Natural Person wonders why his Constitution is trampled on every day. There is no Direct Democracy mechanism at the natioanl government level.
THE ONLY CORRECT DEFINITION OF A CONSTITUTION EVER WRITTEN
But the Americans still have the only accurate definition of a proper constitution to be found in any country. It is the only definition of a constitution that will ensure true democracy. It can be found in (the American) “Black’s Law Dictionary” (6th Ed) . Because a country’s Constitution is the supreme law of the land and controls every other law, it is vital to define a constitution correctly :- “A CONSTITUTION IS A CHARTER OF GOVERNMENT, DERIVING ITS WHOLE AUTHORITY FROM THE GOVERNED.”
Note “deriving its whole authority from the governed”. This means that the Creator gave original rights to Natural Persons, and Natural Persons agreed to give “some ” of those original rights to the Legal Person. It also means that Natural Persons can take back those rights from the Legal Person.
DOES CANADA HAVE A CONSTITUTION WRITTEN BY “THE GOVERNED” ?
Speaking of Canada’s so-called constitution, there exists no document that lays out which rules the people of Canada have agreed to live under, because the people have never been asked to vote on a proposed charter of government which derives its whole authority from the governed. The same applies to the provinces - none of the provinces rules with the consent of its Natural Persons.
Canada has no constitution. Britain has no constitution. Both countries are fed a fairy tale about an unwritten constitution, or something called tradition, and convention… For any of the Canadian provinces to be properly governed, the Natural Persons of that province must have consented to give up a written list of their rights. A government can get those rights from nowhere else. Still less can a “Legal Person Government” tell its “Natural Person Creators” which powers it claims over the Natural Persons. Even less can one Legal Person (government) together with another Legal Person (Supreme Court) tell all the Natural Persons what the rules are. All authority can ONLY come from the Natural Persons.
“A charter of government deriving its whole authority from the governed”.
HOW TO PUT OUR AFFAIRS ON A PROPER FOOTING IN BC
A majority of the persons in BC must vote to create a Legal Person that they are willing to obey. They must vote to approve a list of the “Rights of Natural Persons” that are to be transferred to this new Legal Person. The new Legal Person will have only those rights.
That list of rights can be amended at any time by the province’s Natural Persons - at any time, not at some time chosen by the new Legal Person, and it can be amended only by the Natural Persons, not by the new Legal Person, or by any other Legal Person.
All Legal Persons in BC should properly be the creation of the Natural Persons, and should properly receive only those “Creator-given rights” that the Natural Persons see fit to transfer from the whole body of Natural Persons to the new Legal Person. It is basic that no Legal Person can acquire or claim rights, other than from Natural Persons.
SO WHAT DID THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION LACK ?
If the constitution of the united states of America was founded on the Declaration of Independence, how did the Natural Persons in the us of A lose control of the Legal Person in Washington, DC ? What use is the finest constitution in the world if it can be ignored at will by the “Legal Person Government”, once created ? Why should BC bother to write a constitution ? The answer can be found in Europe.
WHICH IS THE MOST DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT YET DEVISED ?
The most advanced government ever formed in the world is in a country in Europe. Its people allow themselves to be governed by rules of their own choosing. The Natural Persons can and do amend their constitution when they feel like it, and no legislation proposed by the “Legal Person Government” becomes law without their consent. The Natural Persons in the country of Switzerland created their “Legal Person Government” and transferred to it only such rights as the majority decided, just as the Thirteen Colonies did in America. But the Swiss Natural Persons, unlike the Thirteen colonies, built in a simple mechanism to RETAIN CONTROL of the Legal Person they had created. Some of the individual states in the American Union built a partial measure of control into their constitutions (occasional referendums), but no American Natural Person retained any control over the “Legal Person Central Government”. A partial binding referendum system, as opposed to the comprehensive Swiss model, has proved itself to be unable to control what the people created. That should be a warning flag to British Columbians.
WHAT ARE THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF THE SWISS SYSTEM ?
The Swiss Natural Persons saved to themselves their Creator-given right to personally approve every law proposed by government.
The Swiss Natural Persons also saved to themselves their Creator-given right to personally approve every amendment to the constitution proposed by government, and their right to pass any amendment to the constitution that the government would not propose. That’s it. The last word on everything rests with the Natural Persons of Switzerland. The government does as it is told, or the people can act. This has worked like this for over 150 years, and the Swiss are still in control of their government. The international banking system can always “bribe” a few politicians in any country, but they haven’t apparently found a way to bribe an entire population yet. And most of the time the Swiss people exercise that control over their government without having to take any action.
SUMMARY - BC HAS TWO MODELS TO CHOOSE FROM.
So BC can learn from the world’s finest constitution yet, in America. And like the Swiss, the people of BC can retain control in BC after our Natural Persons give limited authority to a “Legal Person Government”, or in other words, after we write our BC constitution. If we learn anything from the failure of the American constitution, it will be that a *partial* referendum system will result in the failure of the BC constitution down the road. If we combine an updated constitution of Switzerland or the united states of America with the *comprehensive* and simple referendum system of Switzerland we will have the most advanced democracy in the world. And for only the second time in history, a government will be the servant of its people.
