Membership in the Koinonia Commune is acquired through voluntary application, verification of identity, and the confirmed Bitcoin transfer of the accommodation fee corresponding to the applicant's household size. Admission is subject to review by the Steward during the Readiness Phase. Upon the Commune's establishment, admission during Readiness Phase requires a two-thirds majority vote of the sitting Assembly. No person shall be denied admission on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, or disability.

The following rights are inviolable. They may not be suspended, overridden, or abridged by any person, committee, elected officer, or emergency decree. They exist anterior to and independent of governance:

• Right of Personal Inviolability. No Member shall be seized, confined, punished, dispossessed of their dwelling, or subjected to physical harm except by due process under Article VI of this Constitution. No search of a Member's dwelling shall be conducted without a warrant issued by the sitting Justice Panel upon demonstrated cause.
• Right of Conscience and Belief. Every Member shall hold, practice, and express any religious, philosophical, or spiritual belief without interference. The Commune shall make no law establishing or prohibiting any faith. No Member shall be compelled to attend or abstain from any religious observance.
• Right of Expression and Petition. Every Member may speak, write, and communicate freely on all matters. Every Member may petition the Assembly, the Council, or any officer for redress of grievance, and such petitions must receive a formal written response within fourteen days.
• Right of Equal Suffrage. Every adult Member of the Commune holds one vote — and only one vote — in all democratic proceedings, without exception. No amount of contribution, no elected or appointed position, no seniority of membership shall entitle any person to more than one vote.
• Right of Due Process. No Member shall be tried, convicted, or punished by any process other than the one established in Article VI. No bill of attainder — that is, no declaration of guilt without trial — shall ever be issued. No ex post facto law shall be applied to any Member.
• Right of Labour and Livelihood. Every Member has the right to engage in lawful labour, to practise their trade, to benefit from the fruits of their work, and to share in the common agricultural and productive outputs of the Commune according to the rules established by the Assembly.
• Right of Privacy. Every Member holds a fundamental right to private correspondence, private belief, and private association. No Member's personal communications shall be monitored, recorded, or disclosed without consent or lawful warrant.
• Right of Exit. No Member shall be compelled to remain in the Commune against their will. Any Member may depart freely at any time. Upon voluntary departure, their dwelling shall revert to the Commune's trust. Terms of any financial restitution are governed by the Residency Agreement entered at admission.

The General Assembly consists of all Members of the Commune who have attained the age of sixteen years. The Assembly shall convene no less than once each month during the Readiness Phase, and no less than once each week during Action and Aftermath Phases. Special sessions may be called by petition of ten or more Members.

The Assembly holds the following exclusive legislative powers:

• To establish and amend the rules governing agricultural production, food distribution, labour obligations, and shared resource allocation.
• To elect and remove, by majority vote, the members of all standing Committees during the Aftermath Phase.
• To ratify or reject any significant decision by the Council during the Action Phase by a two-thirds majority.
• To amend this Constitution in accordance with the procedure set forth in Article IX.
• To establish, dissolve, or restructure standing Committees as the needs of the community require.
• To levy and manage the internal resources of the Commune, including shared labour, food, water, energy, and medical allocations.
• To hear and adjudicate disputes between Members in minor matters, with appeal available to the Justice Panel.
• To grant or revoke Honorary Membership to persons outside the Commune by a two-thirds majority.

Routine decisions of the Assembly require a simple majority of Members present, provided that a quorum of one-third of all adult Members is in attendance. Constitutional amendments, the removal of elected officers, and decisions of exceptional consequence — including matters of security, admission, and expulsion — require a two-thirds majority of all adult Members, regardless of attendance.

The Council shall consist of the following six officers, all of whom are elected by the Assembly and may be removed by the Assembly:

• The Steward — Chief executive officer of the Commune. Presides over the Council and the Assembly. Holds final decision-making authority during the Readiness and Action Phases, subject to the constraints of this Constitution. Elected to a term of three years.
• The Security Overseer — Responsible for the defence, perimeter management, emergency response, and the execution of the Disaster Engagement Plan. Coordinates all security personnel and protocols.
• The Sustainability Overseer — Responsible for the management of agricultural systems, water resources, renewable energy infrastructure, ecological balance, and long-term land stewardship.
• The Medical Overseer — Responsible for the health and wellbeing of all Members, oversight of the medical facility, disease prevention, and psychological support services.
• The Cultural Ambassador — Responsible for the organisation of communal life, cultural events, interfaith dialogue, educational programming, and the preservation of the Commune's collective memory and identity.
• The Technology Innovator — Responsible for all technological systems including the intranet, communications infrastructure, renewable energy monitoring, and the introduction of appropriate new technologies.

All Council officers, save the Steward during the Readiness Phase, are elected by the General Assembly through a secret ballot. No Council officer may hold two offices simultaneously. Terms and term limits are governed differently across governance phases, in recognition that a small community rebuilding after civilisational disruption requires flexibility rather than mechanical rotation:

During Readiness Phase: The Steward holds executive authority by founding mandate and serves without a fixed term. All other Council officers are appointed by the Steward from willing and capable members of the Commune's founding circle, subject to ratification by the Assembly. These appointments carry no term limit, as the community may not yet have the population or stability to sustain frequent elections.

During Action Phase: All sitting officers retain their posts for the duration of the declared crisis, regardless of how long it extends. Elections are suspended. Removal remains possible only by the process set forth in §3 below. This provision ensures continuity of command precisely when it is most critical.

During Aftermath Phase — Early Stabilisation Period (Years 1–3): The Commune is likely to be fragile, its population small, its systems stressed, and its social bonds still forming. In this period, the Assembly shall hold elections for all Council offices at intervals it determines by simple majority — with a minimum interval of one year and a maximum of three. There are no hard term limits during Early Stabilisation. An officer may stand for re-election indefinitely, subject to the ongoing confidence of the Assembly. The Assembly may call a confidence vote on any officer at any time by petition of one-fifth of adult Members; a simple majority removes the officer and triggers a by-election within thirty days.

During Aftermath Phase — Settled Period (Year 4 onward): Once the Assembly declares, by a two-thirds majority, that the Commune has entered a period of settled stability — meaning food sovereignty is achieved, security is stable, and membership exceeds forty adults — standard term limits apply. Council officers serve two-year terms and may serve a maximum of three consecutive terms in the same office, after which they must sit out at least one full term before standing again. The Steward serves three-year terms with a maximum of two consecutive terms. These limits exist to prevent the entrenchment of power, not to force the removal of capable and trusted leaders before the community is ready to replace them.

The Assembly retains the authority, by a two-thirds majority at any time, to declare a return from Settled to Early Stabilisation status if circumstances — internal crisis, significant population loss, external threat — so demand. Governance structures must serve the community, not constrain it.

Any Council officer, including the Steward, may be removed by the Assembly through two distinct mechanisms, both available in all phases:

Cause-Based Removal. Upon demonstrated misconduct, negligence, abuse of authority, or material violation of this Constitution, the Justice Panel may initiate proceedings. The officer under consideration shall have the right to address the Assembly before any vote is taken. Removal requires a two-thirds vote of the full Assembly.

Confidence-Based Removal. In the Aftermath Phase, any officer may also be removed by a loss of confidence vote, without the requirement of specific misconduct. Such a vote is triggered by petition of one-fifth of adult Members. It requires a simple majority to remove during Early Stabilisation, and a two-thirds majority during the Settled Period — reflecting the greater disruption that a removal causes in a stable, functioning community. The officer retains the right to address the Assembly before the vote. Upon removal, a by-election shall be held within thirty days.

In no case may any officer be removed by any mechanism not described in this section, nor by executive decree, nor by the unilateral action of the Steward or any other officer.

No Council officer, and no combination of Council officers, may suspend the rights enumerated in Article II. No Council officer may unilaterally expel a Member, seize a Member's property, or impose punishment outside the process of Article VI. No emergency, however grave, suspends the operation of this Constitution.

During the period before a catastrophic activation event, the Commune is in a state of Readiness. In this phase, the Steward holds primary executive authority and coordinates the ongoing development and preparation of the Commune. The Assembly meets regularly in an advisory capacity. Major decisions — including admission of new Members, significant expenditures from the treasury, and changes to the Commune's physical infrastructure — require Assembly ratification by a simple majority.

When the Steward, in consultation with the Council, determines that a catastrophic world event has occurred or is imminent — and formally declares an Activation — the Commune enters the Action Phase. In this phase, the Steward retains primary decision-making authority, but all decisions of significant consequence must be deliberated with the full Council before execution. The Assembly retains the power to override any Council decision by a two-thirds majority, and this power cannot be suspended. The Action Phase endures until the Council unanimously agrees, subject to Assembly ratification, that the immediate crisis has passed.

When the Council and Assembly jointly determine, by two-thirds majority in each body, that the period of acute crisis has resolved and that the conditions for stable democratic self-governance have been restored, the Commune enters the Aftermath Phase. In this phase, full democratic governance is operative. The Assembly holds supreme legislative authority. The rights of Article II are enforced with full judicial independence.

The Aftermath Phase itself recognises two internal conditions — Early Stabilisation and Settled — as defined and governed in Article IV, §2. The transition between these conditions is determined by the Assembly alone. The intended permanent condition of the Commune, once resilience is fully established, is the Settled Period of the Aftermath Phase: a thriving, self-governing democracy with regular elections, rotating leadership, and independent justice.

The Justice Panel is composed of three Members elected by the Assembly to serve staggered terms of three years each. No member of the Justice Panel may simultaneously serve on the Council. The Justice Panel is fully independent of the Council and the Steward. It may not be dissolved, overruled, or interfered with by any executive authority.

In any formal proceeding before the Justice Panel, the following rights are guaranteed without exception:

• The right to be informed in writing of the specific charge or complaint, with sufficient notice to prepare a response — no less than five days before any hearing.
• The right to appear and speak in one's own defence before the Panel.
• The right to call witnesses and present evidence on one's own behalf.
• The right to have a fellow Member of one's choosing serve as counsel or advocate.
• The right to a written judgment stating the reasoning of the Panel.
• The right of appeal to a full Assembly vote, by petition, within ten days of any Panel judgment.

The Justice Panel may impose the following graduated sanctions upon finding against a Member: formal censure; temporary restriction of specific privileges; supervised labour obligation; in the most serious cases — including demonstrated violence against another Member, deliberate sabotage of communal infrastructure, or persistent refusal to abide by the judgments of this Constitution — expulsion from the Commune. Expulsion requires both a Justice Panel judgment and subsequent ratification by a two-thirds majority of the full Assembly.

No sanction of a cruel, degrading, or disproportionate nature shall be imposed upon any Member under any circumstance. Physical punishment is permanently and absolutely prohibited. Collective punishment — sanctions applied to a group for the actions of an individual — is permanently and absolutely prohibited.

Every Member holds an inviolable right to their personal possessions — clothing, tools, books, devices, and items brought into or lawfully acquired within the Commune. No personal property may be seized by any authority without just cause established through the process of Article VI and proportionate compensation or restitution. A Member's assigned dwelling is their home; it may not be entered, searched, or occupied by any other party without consent or lawful warrant.

Agricultural land, water infrastructure, energy systems, medical facilities, the academic centre, communal tools, shared vehicles, and all structures outside individual dwellings constitute the communal estate. These resources are held in trust by the Commune for the benefit of all Members, present and future. They may not be privatised, sold, or transferred outside the Commune except by a unanimous vote of the Assembly.

Every adult Member of the Commune bears a civic obligation to contribute to the collective maintenance and productivity of the community. The Assembly shall establish a fair and flexible labour schedule that accounts for each Member's capacities, responsibilities, and expertise. No Member shall be assigned labour that is degrading, disproportionate, or outside the scope of communal necessity. Labour disputes shall be resolved by the Justice Panel.

The essential outputs of communal production — food, water, medical care, energy, and shelter — shall be distributed to all Members according to need, not according to the size of their original contribution or the status of any position they hold. No Member and no Member's family shall go without food, water, medical care, or shelter so long as the Commune possesses the means to provide it.