This is a reference note, not a record of proceedings. It concerns no pending matter. No determination under §2.16 has been made, sought, or contemplated, and the Clerk is aware of none in prospect.
The Office publishes procedural references so that the constitutional machinery is legible before it is needed rather than during. A reader who requires this note during an incapacity has been failed by the Office that should have published it beforehand.
A Consul is temporarily unable to exercise authority upon the Consul's own declaration or upon a determination by a majority of the Council of Ministers, with at least five participating. The determination is published to this System and acting authority vests immediately under the applicable succession provision.
The Council does not acquire executive authority by making the determination. Authority goes only where §2.16(1) already directs it.
The Consul may ordinarily end the incapacity by publishing a declaration that the incapacity has ended. Full authority returns 24 hours after publication.
The interval is a transition period, not an approval process. On a first incapacity no court, chamber, medical body, or Council vote is required for restoration.
Where incapacity is again determined on the same or substantially similar grounds within 90 days, the determination requires two-thirds of the deciding body.
Following a renewed determination, restoration requires majority approval of the deciding body. The renewed determination is effective for no more than six months; continuation requires a fresh two-thirds determination. The Constitution establishes no thirty-day period or legislative-extension procedure.
A renewed determination may remain effective for no more than six months. During that period authority may be restored by majority approval of the deciding body, and the Consul retains access to expedited independent judicial review.
Continuation beyond six months requires a fresh two-thirds determination. A legislative vote cannot extend the determination under this section.
A Consul may challenge any involuntary incapacity determination through expedited independent judicial review, limited to lawful invocation and inability to exercise the office. Political or policy disagreement alone is not incapacity.
Where fewer than five Council members are available, enough legislators to bring the deciding body to five are selected by lot. For a Civic Consul proceeding they are selected from the Senate; for a Legat Consul proceeding they are selected from the Assembly. The ordinary majority and heightened two-thirds thresholds then apply to that body.
A person upon whom acting executive authority would fall may decline by publishing a declination within 48 hours. Acting authority then passes by constitutional operation to the next person in the applicable succession order.
Failure to decline within 48 hours constitutes acceptance. The person last in the order of succession may not decline.
Incapacity suspends only the exercise of authority. The Consul remains the holder of the office; the term, compensation, benefits, and constitutional protections continue. Removal, resignation, death, or another constitutional succession event remains available according to the provisions governing that event.
Material acts under §2.16 are entered in the constitutional record: incapacity determinations and votes, restoration declarations and approvals, declinations, fresh determinations for continued incapacity, and judgments on expedited independent judicial review.
This note describes procedure. It does not construe §2.16, does not bind any body, and creates no obligation. Where this note and the constitutional text differ, the text governs and this note is in error.
Filed on the Clerk's own authority. No request preceded it.