Section I. Conferences

¶14

Added outright: each conference acts autonomously within its own powers, and legislation is not void merely for overlapping another conference’s.

2024 Discipline
¶14
On the ballot paper
¶13
Article
VI
Change
New

Added by the amendment; there is no prior text. Subsequent paragraphs renumber to make room for it.

What changed

The only paragraph the amendment adds. It states that General, regional, jurisdictional and annual conferences each have autonomy of action within constitutional limits, and then supplies a savings rule: where one conference’s legislation overlaps another’s powers, the overlap alone does not invalidate it. Only legislation whose “purpose and substance are beyond the authority of the enacting body” fails. With four tiers of conference now holding overlapping competences, this is what keeps ordinary overlap from becoming a constitutional question.

Before

Book of Discipline 2020/2024, ¶14

No prior text — this paragraph is added by the amendment.

After

Petition 21039, as ratified

The General Conference, regional conferences, jurisdictional conferences, and annual conferences shall have autonomy of action within the limits fixed by the Constitution, provided that any legislation enacted within the respective powers of a conference but overlapping with the powers of another shall not be rendered invalid, unless its purpose and substance are beyond the authority of the enacting body.