League of Independent Nations

The League of Independent Nations, also known as the LIN, is an intermicronational organization founded on 5 January 2019. The LIN is classified as a developmental intermicronational organization, as it is dedicated to taking in new Micronations and assisting in their growth through mutual cooperation and a series of nation building initiatives and direct guidance to build the strongest, most serious nations possible. Any nation can apply for membership here.

History
The LIN was first formed on 5 January, 2019 as a response to the August Uprising. All member communication took place on the official LIN proboards forum. On 14 April, 2019, the Arundel Convention was ratified and became the official charter of the LIN. As membership grew, new LIN programs began to form.

One of the first purposes of the League was to organize territorial claims so to avoid overlaps, and, therefore, conflicts. The Arundel Convention ensured that any member nation may claim its independent territories, and all other member nations are bound to respect these claims. Another goal of the League was to create an environment where all member nations recognize one another other's sovereignty and independence.

By becoming signatory to the Arundel Convention, a new nation automatically gained the recognition of all older nations. On the proboards forum, the League also provided virtual areas where all nations may establish diplomatic relations with one another, regardless of physical limitations. Similarly, the nations gain the opportunity to participate in events such as the intermicronational Olympian Games (not affiliated with the Olympic Games), and even to participate in the Council for Intermicronational Freedom Enforcement. Additionally, all member nations had the ability to use and exchange Yron coins, for the purpose of intermicronational trade.

The Yron does not replace the nation's currency, it only acts as a standard to exchange with other nations. However Yron coins could serve as virtual currency for the nations that had none. A marketplace was available for the purpose of trade. Finally, nations were able to operate their own dedicated subforums on the League proboards forum. This helped increase their exposure, and facilitate citizen growth.

Towards the end of 2019, an event took place that came to be known as the "Promatia Incident" where the League became involved in a conflict with the Promatia project.

Promatia requested to become a member of the League. However a month later it was found that Promatia was organizing a coup within a non-member nation, in an attempt to merge that nation into theirs. Concerned, several nations of the League formed a temporary committee to investigate, as Promatia's behaviour was detrimental to the values enforced in the League. Promatia reacted by leaving the League. After which Promatia proceeded to leave "micronationalism", only to return a few months later, to resume their attempts of merging other nations into theirs. Consequently, the League and the Promatia project became vehement opponents in their corner of the micronational community.

At the start of the new decade, the nations of the League agreed that they would not be seeking recognition from the United Nations. It was found that the UN was the author of several controversial policies, policies that conflicted with the freedoms valued by the majority of the League's members. Instead, they agreed that the League itself would set out to become a new platform for emerging nations across the world. The League had the advantage that, unlike the UN, none of its member nations are at war with one another; instead of which its members were actually supporting one another and growing stronger, despite being completely independent.

In January 2020, Alaurentia and the Kingdom of Stratton extended an invitation to Taiwan to join the League. Taiwan replied that it would keep the proposal under consideration. Having established contact with Taiwan was a great honor for the overwhelming majority of the nations of the League.

The Republic of Neilston developed a program to raise awareness on dyspraxia, and therefore reduce the discrimination and ignorance on that developmental coordination disorder.

Several nations of the League intended to work together to write a book, and there were talks about a news outlet in which every member nation would be able to share their news in a convenient fashion.

On 20 February, 2020, the LIN proboards forum mysteriously vanished from the internet and all LIN activity came to an abrupt halt. Confused and concerned, many LIN members took to email and reddit, attempting to communicate with their allies and find out what was going on. It was discovered that the LIN Chairman, Taninim Long, had simultaneously dissolved his nation, Alaurentia, and the LIN, and had left the micronational community. Shortly after, Desslok V. Nafage of the Nexan Republic reformed the LIN, created a new proboards forum and invited the now former LIN members to join. Under Desslok the League reformed under the Libertas Convention, which sought to replace the Arundel Convention but continue to serve its purpose.

The new LIN carried with it revival of old projects as well as new projects, with one of them being the rebirth of the YRON currency. The scopes remained relatively the same, granting mutual recognition, defense, assistance, and now with it a platform for new projects to emerge. The New LIN took a hand in personally helping nations develop, taking in any Micronation that fell within parameters of the Convention, with the intent to help them improve and provide guidance.

Around the start of June, 2020, the proboards forum was replaced with a discord server, as many member nations were becoming increasingly active on the discord platform.

On 9 September, 2020, a member nation motioned to make the League more democratic, through the formation of a league parliamentary assembly. After support from the chairmen and the members, the Assembly Bill was drafted. It served to form the parliamentary assembly and establish guidelines for how it would operate and its scope of powers. It was passed through a simple majority vote. The Assembly Bill also called for the creation of a new administrative position in the LIN, known as the Mediator General, who is tasked with presiding over the assembly sessions and keeping detailed records of proceedings for a six-month term. An election for the position was held and Tyler Mullins of the Free Nation of New Athens was elected. Shortly after, a regular schedule for assembly sessions was developed. Assembly sessions would take place every other week and those present would propose and discuss new legislation, new applicants, and LIN policy.

With the main goal of the LIN being to assist members in growing their nations through mutual cooperation, new programs were created to help serve this goal. Some of these programs include internet privacy help, constitution help, wiki help, design help, and space research sharing.

Structure
The LIN structure consists of the Chairmen and the Assembly of member nations.

The Head Chairman
The Head Chairman is the highest-ranked official of the LIN. The Head Chairman shall make executive decisions along with the other 4 Chairmen. This Head Chairman shall make a solemn vow to uphold League values and the cause of upholding liberty, freedom, and fairness in the League of Independent Nations. The position of Head Chairman is elected every 2 years, with terms beginning on March 12.

This Head Chairman shall have the following powers given:


 * Dictate Trade - Cut off trade deals or exchanges with outside micronations and organizations should hostilities arise. These trade deals are done in the form of embargos and rescinding trade deals with member states that may conflict with the League’s convention.
 * Declare Rivalry - Organizations or micronations that act in active hostilities against the League may be marked as hostiles by the Head Chairmen. The Head Chairmen can also work with other organizations or micronations to collaborate and improve the state of the organization or micronation in the name of goodwill and advancement.
 * Declare a State of Emergency - If the League is in distress, then the League may enact certain powers to the Head Chairman until such an emergency is no longer a threat to the League and its member nations. Powers such as closing membership for periods of time.
 * Veto Proposals - The Head Chairman has the executive power to veto proposals from the Assembly.
 * Membership on the Inter-Micronational Court.

The International Court
The LIN has a Court that oversees new applicants into the LIN. They have the power to approve or disapprove of any nation seeking to join, this is to enforce the micronational standard of preventing simulationists, rogue states, terrorist groups, or any unfit entities from joining the LIN and keeping the coalition free of potential anti LIN nations from slipping through the application process.

Chairmen of the Court have the power to Approve or disapprove new nations entry into the LIN, by voting yay or nay to their applications, the Head Chairman also votes with them, The Court can also review cases of nations that may be involved in practices that may be anti - LIN by principal, a good example of this was Promatia during the investigation in the old LIN.

The League Assembly.
All member states become part of the assembly, which is the legislature for different member states to convene, They have the power to propose changes and reforms to the LIN, as well as work together with the other branches to roll out projects and initiatives that work to improve the micronational community.

The Assembly is divided into two diets, one consisting of heads of state of various nations, and the other of chosen representatives to speak on behalf of the LIN member states when needed, Both houses are equal in power and work together for the betterment of the community.

Departments
On 4 April, 2021, the Departments Act of 2021 was ratified by the assembly. It created the following departments, each comprised of a committee and overseen by the department secretary: Each Department may pass bills related to the Department’s functions through a committee vote, without the vote of the entire Assembly. Departmental legislature passed by the department’s committee can be removed from use if the LIN Assembly objects, meaning >50% of participating members are in objection.

Programs
With the main goal of the LIN being to assist members in growing their nations through mutual cooperation, LIN programs were created to help serve this goal. Some of these programs include:


 * Internet privacy help
 * Constitution help
 * Wiki help
 * Language learning
 * Design help
 * Space research sharing.

Member Nations
Note: The date joined for many members may not be entirely accurate, as records of the true date of their joining was lost upon the deletion of the original LIN proboards forum. As a result, the date joined is noted as the date the member nation joined the reformed LIN.

System for Applying
The application form can be found here: https://forms.gle/FHoCrUtVvk8jeGtK9

Requirements
Under the Revitalized Membership Act, 2020, the requirements for provisional membership are as follows:

1. The applicant must complete the official LIN application form (this form).

2. The applicant must have, at least, a first draft of a constitution.

3. The applicant must not be presently in conflict with, or presently enforcing sanctions on, any full or provisional member of the LIN.

Failure to meet all of the above requirements will more than likely result in your application being denied.

Provisional Membership
All nations applying to join the LIN are required to participate in a provisional member period before being promoted to full membership. Once all of these requirements are met, the provisional member nation is immediately promoted to full membership.

The requirements to elevate from provisional member to full member are as follows:


 * A minimum of 2 months as a provisional member.


 * A completed and ratified constitution.


 * Becoming signatory to the Libertas Convention using the official Libertas Convention signing forum.


 * Participating in a minimum of 2 assembly sessions.

The restrictions placed on provisional members include:


 * Provisional members are ineligible to run for an elected position or serve on the court.


 * Potentially limited access to certain LIN programs and projects.


 * If a provisional member nation has not attended 4 consecutive assembly sessions, a motion to open a simple-majority vote to revoke their provisional membership status can be proposed during an assembly session. If the motion and the vote pass, the nation will no longer hold any form of membership status within the LIN but can re-apply to the LIN at any time.