Statement to be judged: "If a Proposer sends the Answer PM to the Secretary, then it should be considered that they have also submitted the Question in accordance with the Rules."

Judgment: FALSE.

Judge's reasons: Rule 264 states that "The Referendum on a Proposal is started thus: once the Proposal has been selected, its Proposer posts the Proposal and the Question (if any) and announces the start of voting" and also "No Question PM need be sent, nor need the Secretary announce the Question." The only way this could conceivably support the contention that a question need not be posted by the Proposer is if the "(if any)" were taken to be an indication that posting the question is optional, even if there is a question. However, this interpretation seems to be far more strained than the alternative, that the "(if any)" indicates that a referendum shall begin even if a question has been omitted.

Let us now proceed to rule 279. This states that "If a proposer fails to submit a Question as specified in Rule 264, they lose 10 Oranges, and no other Player's Oranges are affected." Given my analysis above, it appears clear that rule 264 does not specify that a Question may be submitted by sending only the Answer to the Secretary, and not indicating in any way within the post containing the Proposal that there is also a Question. This interpretation is strengthened by the fact that Rule 264 explicitly states conditions that do not have to be met for a Question to have been submitted ("No Question PM need be sent, nor need the Secretary announce the Question") but does not explicitly state that the Question need not be posted in the same post as the Proposal.

Accordingly, I judge on this 9th day of March, AD 2007, 56 Elizabeth II, that the statement "If a Proposer sends the Answer PM to the Secretary, then it should be considered that they have also submitted the Question in accordance with the Rules" is FALSE.

Challenges:

Judgment called by: deced

Judge: Victoria Waterfield

Judgment called at: 08/03/07 19:51 GMT

Judgment delivered at: 09/03/07 18:45 GMT