Editing Sark (section)

===Chief Pleas===
{{redirect|Chief Pleas}}
[[File:Sark July 2011 50.jpg|thumb|Meeting place for Chief Pleas and the Court of the Seneschal]]
[[File:Sark Chief Pleas Seal.svg|thumb|Seal of the Chief Pleas]]
Chief Pleas ({{langx|fr|Chefs Plaids}}; [[Sercquiais]]: ''{{lang|nrf|Cheurs Pliaids}}'') is the parliament of Sark. It consists of eighteen members (''{{lang|nrf|conseillers}}''), elected for a period of office of four years. In addition, the Seigneur and a speaker (who is elected by the {{lang|nrf|conseillers}}) are counted as members; but they have no right to vote. The periods of office are shifted, with the period of half the {{lang|nrf|conseillers}} starting in the middle of the periods of the other half. Thus, every second year, nine {{lang|nrf|conseillers}} are elected for the coming four years. The elections are held on the basis of a single multi-member Sark-wide constituency, with the nine candidates receiving most votes being elected. The ''{{lang|nrf|[[Prévôt]]}}'', the ''{{lang|nrf|[[Greffier]]}}'' and the treasurer also attend but are not members; the treasurer may address Chief Pleas on matters of taxation and finance.

However, if there are not more willing candidates than the numbers of positions to fill (including any casual vacancies), then all candidates are declared elected, without any actual election necessary. This happened both in the [[2014 Sark general election|2014]] and the [[2016 Sark general election|2016 elections]] to the Chief Pleas. The last elections were held on [[2024 Sark general election|11 December 2024.]]

Until 2008, the Chief Pleas consisted of the tenants, and twelve deputies of the people as the only representation of the majority, an office introduced in 1922. The Seigneur and the [[Seneschal]] (who presided) were also members of Chief Pleas.

Since 2000, Chief Pleas was working on its own reform, responding to internal and international pressures. On 8 March 2006 by a vote of 25–15 Chief Pleas voted for a new legislature of the Seigneur, the Seneschal, fourteen elected landowners and fourteen elected non-landowners.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sark.info/downloads/government/0603minutes.pdf |title=Minutes Extraordinary meeting of the Chief Pleas held on the 8th day of March, 2006 |page=8 |quote=Proposition 1 |access-date=21 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015022425/http://www.sark.info/downloads/government/0603minutes.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2007 |url-status=dead  |website=sark.info }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://guernseypress.com/news/2006/03/09/sark-set-to-fight-uk-over-tenants/ |title=Sark set to fight UK over tenants |access-date=21 March 2015|website=[[Guernsey Press]]|date=9 March 2006 }}</ref> But it was made plain by the British [[Lord Chancellor]] [[Jack Straw]] that this option was not on the table.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/guernsey/7193632.stm |work=BBC News |title=Deputy's hope for election reform |date=17 January 2008}}</ref>

Offered two options for reform involving an elected legislature, one fully elected, one with a number of seats reserved for elected tenants, 56% of the inhabitants expressed a preference for a totally elected legislature.<ref name="Sark Website Opinion Polls">{{cite web|url=http://www.sark.info/downloads/government/0609ers_opinionresults.pdf |title=Island of Sark – Test of opinion on composition of the Chief Pleas |quote=for 28 Open Seats...234&nbsp;... for 12 Seats for Deputies, 8 Seats for Tenants, 8 Open Seats...184 |date=7 September 2006 |access-date=5 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414141645/http://www.sark.info/downloads/government/0609ers_opinionresults.pdf |archive-date=14 April 2008 |url-status=dead  |website=sark.info }}</ref> Following the poll, Chief Pleas voted on 4 October 2006 to replace the twelve deputies and forty tenants in Chief Pleas by 28 ''{{lang|nrf|conseillers}}'' elected by universal adult suffrage.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sark.info/downloads/government/0610minutes.pdf |title=Minutes of the meeting held in the Assembly Room, Sark on 4 October 2006 |page=3 |access-date=21 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014205508/http://www.sark.info/downloads/government/0610minutes.pdf |archive-date=14 October 2007 |url-status=dead  |website=sark.info}}</ref> This decision was suspended in January 2007 when it was pointed out to Chief Pleas that the 56% versus 44% majority achieved in the opinion poll did not achieve the 60% majority required for the constitutional change.{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}} The decision was replaced by the proposal that Chief Pleas should consist of sixteen tenants and twelve ''{{lang|nrf|conseillers}}'' both elected by universal adult suffrage from 2008 to 2012 and that a binding referendum should then decide whether this composition should be kept or replaced by 28 ''{{lang|nrf|conseillers}}''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sark.info/downloads/government/0704minutes.pdf |title=Minutes of the Easter Meeting of Chief Pleas held in the Assembly Room, Sark on 11–12 April 2007 |pages=4, 7, 13 |access-date=21 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015022707/http://www.sark.info/downloads/government/0704minutes.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2007 |url-status=dead  |website=sark.info }}</ref> This proposal was rejected by the Privy Council and the 28 ''{{lang|nrf|conseiller}}'' option was reinstated in February 2008 and accepted by Privy Council in April 2008.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/guernsey/7339172.stm |title=Sark democracy plans are approved |work=[[BBC News Online]] |access-date=5 May 2008 |date=9 April 2008}}</ref>

In 2003, Chief Pleas voted to vary the long-standing [[ban (law)|ban]] on divorce in the island by extending to the Royal Court of Guernsey power to grant divorces.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dewe |first1=R. J. |title=The General Purposes & Finance Committee Report on Divorce |date=August 2002 |url=http://www.sark.info/static/government/old_website/static/0208div.htm |website=sark.info |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314010835/http://www.sark.info/static/government/old_website/static/0208div.htm |archive-date=14 March 2012}}</ref>

In 2017, due to a lack of candidates standing for elections, the number of {{lang|nrf|conseillers}} was reduced from 28 to 18, with nine elected every two years.

Bailiwick of Guernsey laws and United Kingdom Acts of Parliament can (the latter as in the case of all the other Channel Islands) be extended to Sark. Normally the consent of Chief Pleas is obtained for this, but the Supreme Court ruled in ''R v Secretary of State for Justice'' that it need not be.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2013-0155-judgment.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2013-0155-judgment.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=5 December 2018 |title=''R (on the application of Sir David Barclay and another) (Respondents) v Secretary of State for Justice and the Lord Chancellor and others (Appellants) and The Attorney General of Jersey and The States of Guernsey (Interveners)'' |website=The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom |date=22 October 2014 |quote=... in the eyes of the courts the UK Parliament did have a paramount power to legislate for the Islands on any matter, domestic or international, without their consent ...}}</ref><ref>{{cite BAILII |litigants=R v Secretary of State for Justice |court=UKSC |year=2014 |num=54 |parallelcite=[2014] 3 WLR 1142, [2015] 1 AC 276, [2014] WLR(D) 446 |date=22 October 2014}}</ref> Sark does not make its own criminal laws;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.guernseyroyalcourt.gg/article/3424/Parliament---The-Chief-Pleas |title=Parliament - The Chief Pleas |date=13 September 2011 |publisher=The Royal Court of Guernsey |website=www.guernseyroyalcourt.gg}}</ref> the responsibility for making criminal law was assigned to the States of Guernsey by Section 4(3) of the [[Reform (Sark) Law 2008]].<ref name="Reform law"/>