Title 6 of the AIN Code

Title 6 of the AIN Code (abbreviated 6 A.I.N.C.) is the sixth official title of the Code of Laws of the Alliance of Independent Nations. It contains all current laws concerning regulations that affect member countries.

Section 1: Gross Domestic Products Per Capita
1. All AIN member states shall measure their gross domestic product (“GDP”) according to purchasing power parity (“PPP”) for the purposes of official, international comparisons. All official measurements of GDP, both total and per capita, shall be reported in wiki articles and other official union documents in terms of PPP and measured in international dollars.

2. Except as provided in paragraphs 5 and 6, a member state’s per capita GDP shall not exceed the upper limit for its geographical region, as follows:
 * a. $52,000 for North America,
 * b. $19,000 for Latin America,
 * c. $28,000 for the South Atlantic,
 * d. $37,500 for Veratlantea,
 * e. $46,000 for Western Europe,
 * f. $22,000 for Eastern Europe,
 * g. $55,000 for Scandinavia,
 * h. $15,000 for North Africa,
 * i. $4,500 for Continental Africa,
 * j. $5,500 for Coastal Africa,
 * k. $6,000 for the African Coastal Islands,
 * l. $11,000 for Southern Africa,
 * m. $32,000 for the Middle East,
 * n. $23,000 for Former Soviet Asia,
 * o. $16,000 for Central Asia,
 * p. $12,000 for Southeast Asia,
 * q. $41,000 for Far East Asia,
 * r. $16,000 for the Indian Ocean,
 * s. $43,000 for Oceania,
 * t. $11,000 for Polynesia/Melanesia, and
 * u. $16,000 for the Eastern Pacific.

3. A map of the world depicting the above regions with their respective GDP per capita caps shall be maintained in the “GDPpc Rules” thread on the AIN forums, and said thread shall be kept up to date with the regulations contained in this section.

4. The Director of Economics shall be tasked with updating the above caps once per year to reflect the latest available economic and population data for all real-world countries, and presenting the updated caps to the Senate for its approval no later than 30 June each year.

5. Nations which are too large to be considered “microstates” (as defined in paragraph 6) may be exempt from the above caps under the following circumstances:
 * a. Any country which can provide a highly detailed, realistic and well-organized write-up of its economy is exempt from its regional cap up to 200%.
 * b. Caribbean tourist states are exempt from the Latin American cap up to $28,500; or 150% of the current Latin American cap if other than $19,000.
 * c. Any member state or applicant that is demonstrably based on a real-life nation or national subdivision is allowed an exemption from its regional cap, up to the GDPpc of the real-life nation or subdivision on which it is based. Countries seeking this exemption must occupy a majority of the same territory as the real-life nation or subdivision on which it is based.
 * d. Any country whose economy is dominated by the petrochemical industry is exempt from its regional cap up to 250%.

6. Nations which meet the criteria for “microstate” status may qualify for one of the following exemptions from their regional GDP cap:
 * a. All microstates with a population below 3,500,000 (8,000,000 in the Far East Asia region) and which have at least four strong economic stimuli are exempt up to 230% of the regional GDP cap.
 * b. All microstates whose population is below 400,000 and which have at least four strong economic stimuli are exempt up to $95,000.

7. A member state shall be considered a “microstate” if it meets all of the following three criteria:
 * a. At least four strong economic stimuli and balance of trade must be present.
 * b. The nation may not be fully self-sufficient: it must rely on the imports of at least one significant resource.
 * c. The area of the nation may not exceed 17,500 km2 (6,750 mi2).

8. Each of the following shall be considered one (1) strong economic stimulus for the purposes of the preceding paragraph:
 * a. The nation may not be in an unorthodox wealth area (like Central Africa or Antarctica).
 * b. The nation must have at least one major seaport handling at least 1.4 twenty-foot equivalent units per citizen annually.
 * c. The nation must have at least one major international airport handling at least 5 million civilian passengers per year.
 * d. The nation must have a developed infrastructure system including interstate highways and a metro system in at least one urban center.
 * e. The nation’s HDI must be at least 0.800.
 * f. The nation’s national government must spend at least 1.5% of its GDP on the education and technology sectors annually.
 * g. The nation must have at least one high-demand industry such as oil, natural gas, manufacturing, tourism, etc.

Section 2: Major National Changes
1. If a member of the Alliance wishes to make substantial retroactive changes to their member state, all such substantial changes shall be presented, in their entirety, to the Senate for consideration and approval. As with all other legislation, proposals containing such changes must receive majority approval from at least 12 members (or the quorum for Senate votes, if it is other than 12) to be accepted.

2. Changes shall be deemed substantial if they include any of the following:
 * a. Increase or decrease in national population by at least 5% of its value at application or since the last approved change, allowing for reasonable natural growth/decline rates, and/or changes due to unusual events (e.g. war, disaster, refugee migrations etc.)
 * b. Increase or decrease in national area by at least 10% of its value at application or since the last approved change, whether through redrawing borders, coastlines, or both
 * c. Changes in national land borders that would add at least 20% of any real-life country or top-level national subdivision thereof (e.g. state, province, territory) to the member state
 * d. Increase in GDP per capita above the regional cap (all such changes will still be subject to section 1 of this Title)
 * e. Relocation of the member state, or any part thereof, at least 40 kilometers (25 miles) in any direction
 * f. Fundamental changes to national government type and structure (e.g. switching from republic to monarchy or vice versa, or from a democratically-elected government to an autocratic/totalitarian one or vice versa, etc.)
 * g. Addition of any colonies that remain under national control in the present day (but not of colonies given independence in the past)
 * h. Addition to the nation's territory of any number of real-world locations of major fame or importance, as defined in clause 3(b) below

3. A member proposing substantial retroactive changes, as defined above, to their nation shall include with said changes valid and compelling arguments supporting each proposed change. Other Alliance members shall determine for themselves whether the arguments presented are valid and compelling, and they shall vote accordingly.
 * a. All substantial changes that fall under clause 2(h) above shall be supported with in-game pictures showing the member's re-creation(s) of all major real-world locations proposed for addition to their nation.
 * b. For the purposes of this section, “locations of major fame or importance” shall be defined as locations which either (i) are very well-known worldwide, such that persons living on different continents know of their existence; or (ii) are in some way highly important to the real-world country in which they are located (or both).

4. If a member wishes to make unsubstantial retroactive changes to their nation, i.e. changes not meeting any of the criteria in paragraph 2, they shall announce all planned unsubstantial changes in a new thread in their nation’s CJ forum seven (7) days prior to adopting said changes, so that other members may be made aware of said changes. The approval of other members shall not be required for the adoption of such unsubstantial changes.

5. Member states shall not be retroactively altered in any way, substantial or unsubstantial, until at least two (2) months have passed since the last changes were approved.

Section 3: Technology and Time-Shifting
1.No member state may possess any technologies which either do not currently exist in real life or are unlikely to be developed within the next ten (10) years.

2.All member states must be set in the current real-life year, and all roleplay within and between member states which is set in the present must take place in the current year. Time-shifting is prohibited.

Section 4: Restrictions on Roleplay
1. All roleplay between member states and nations which are not members of the Alliance, whether real or fictional, is strictly prohibited, except for roleplay between member states and NPCs.
 * a. Member states may mention events and states existing in the real world in their respective media and CJ topics, provided that such mentions do not include any roleplayed response by the non-member state's government or private citizens.

2. No current or future member state may be a member of the European Union.
 * a. No member state may be granted an exemption to the above restriction.

3. Member states may be part of the United Nations and any sub-group(s) thereof, provided that they do not roleplay their UN membership. Membership in the UN may therefore only be stated.

Section 5: AIN Wiki
1. The Alliance of Independent Nations Wiki (henceforth “AIN Wiki” or “wiki”) is the repository of all official information pertaining to the AIN, its government, and its member states. All information contained therein which pertains specifically to one or more member state (or to any person or entity therein) shall be treated as canon for the purposes of roleplay and conformity to the other sections of this Title.

2. The Wiki Committee is a committee of the Executive Council, and is tasked with the following:
 * a. Managing the content of the AIN Wiki,
 * b. Keeping said content up to date,
 * c. Reviewing new requests for wiki accounts and acting on them as appropriate for each request,
 * d. Taking such actions as are deemed necessary to encourage members of the Alliance to write new wiki content pertaining to their respective countries, and
 * e. Creating and maintaining lists and templates on such topics as are deemed useful to the Alliance, using data which has already been published on the wiki.

3. All members of the Wiki Committee shall have admin and bureaucrat user rights on the wiki and shall include:
 * a. The President of the Alliance (or a designated representative thereof, at his discretion) as its chair,
 * b. The Director of Economics,
 * c. The AINSI Commissioner, and
 * d. No fewer than two (2) other members of the Alliance, the exact number to be determined by the three ex officio members on the basis of need and the union’s total membership.

4. As a committee of the Executive Council, the Wiki Committee is bound by all of the regulations contained in 4 A.I.N.C. §7, and its appointed members shall be appointed according to said regulations.

5. It shall be the responsibility of the AINSI Commissioner (assisted by other members of the Wiki Committee, at his discretion) to collect all data pertaining to member states and the persons and entities therein, for the purposes of comparison, updating lists and templates on the wiki, and ensuring that all data meet the union’s commonly-accepted standards of realism.
 * a. The committee members may determine a schedule for the collection of data if they consider it appropriate for making said collection more manageable.
 * b. If the committee members find any data to be unrealistic in some way, the AINSI Commissioner shall contact the Alliance member who published said data to negotiate a suitable correction, and shall publish corrections only with the written consent of said member.

6. Committee members may create wiki articles (or sections thereof, infoboxes, etc.) on general topics pertaining to a member state using publicly available data, provided that the Alliance member in charge of said member state either gives his written consent to do so, or does not respond to a request for consent within 28 days of its being sent.

Section 6: Exclusion Zones
1. Exclusion zones consist of areas of land and water which no applicant to the Alliance may claim for their country.
 * a. Exclusion zones are established for the following reasons: (i) to protect existing member states' history, culture, and realism; (ii) to protect real-life nations that have lost significant area from losing anymore area; and (iii) to protect real-life countries that play a significant role in many AIN member's history.

2. The following exclusion zones are recognized by the Alliance:
 * a. Countries that may no longer be reduced in size include: the United States, Canada, Brazil, Gabon, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
 * b. Regions of water which are protected by exclusion zones include: the Northeastern Pacific near the West Coast of North America and the member states located nearby, part of the Western Atlantic near South America, the areas of the Indian, Southern, and Pacific Oceans around Illium, Jarraban, Australia, New Duveland, New Zealand, and Torainn, extending eastward to the territorial waters of Neu Westfalen; and the coastal waters of Far East Asia.

3. The following areas within the above exclusion zones may be available for applicants, provided that the applying nation's history does not alter those of the surrounding nations:
 * a. Land areas which may be exempt from their respective exclusions include Western Australia and Hokkaido Prefecture.
 * b. Water areas which may be exempt include the waters above the submerged Zealandia continent to the southeast of New Zealand.

4. The Senate may grant further exemptions under strict guidelines to be agreed upon by the member states involved in the discussion, so as to avoid affecting the history of any existing member state.

5. A map depicting all recognized exclusion zones shall be posted and maintained in the Union Library.

Source
AIN Code Title 6 (Sections 1-5)

Exclusion Zones Act (Section 6)