Talk: Charter of the United Federation of Planets

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Screencap[]

Federation Charter — The charter from the VOY episode.

As i long suspected, the charter that appeared onscreen was copied (not quite word for word) from Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual.

FJ's Tech Manual

WE THE INTELLIGENT LIFE FORMS OF THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS DETERMINED

My interpretation of this image

WE THE LIFE-FORMS OF THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS DETERMINED

FJ's Tech Manual

TO SAVE SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS FROM THE SCOURGE OF INTRA-GALACTIC WAR WHICH HAS BROUGHT UNTOLD HORRO... etc, AND...

My interpretation of this image

TO SAVE SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS FROM THE SCOURGE OF WAR, AND... (the rest of the line from the book describing the horrors of intra galactic war was abridged in this image)

my eyes hurt now, but its fairly easy to make out portions that duplicate the book -- its where it differs that is hard to read. -- Captain Mike K. Bartel^talk 18:29, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Revert[]

I just reverted an edit by Psuedohuman so it could be discussed here first. The edit was the caption to the image of the founding ceremony. It currently reads "The founding ceremony of the alliance that would result in the Federation in 2161" but was changed to "The founding ceremony of the Federation in 2161". I just wanted to bring it up for discussion here first. I believe this was an alliance prior to the Federation. Troi's line from TATV seems to back this up aswell. --| TrekFan ^{Open a channel} 17:42, March 8, 2011 (UTC)

Removed[]

Another possibility is that the Federation Charter is a culturally significant founding document delineating the basic political principles of the Federation, while the Constitution is a more prosaic document concerned with testable and exact basic laws. An analogy could be made to the US - the Constitution and dependent statute are of domestic and international legal significance and the Declaration of Independence is not, but the latter (along with the UN Charter, a document whose prime mover was originally the US) is of more diplomatic importance than the domestic Constitution. As most Star Trek writers are from the United States, this would likely represent authorial intent on some level. Within this analogy, the above statement by Sisko is akin to a US official balking at the accession of a state with a local constitution forbidding free assembly or mandating a state religion. The analogy holds true for historical relevance as well; the signing of the Declaration of Independence was an event of extreme importance to later historians and great significance to its participants, but effected no legal change when signed, while the Constitution, in spite of radically reforming the US government, took weeks to write, years to ratify, and over a century to be amended to the point it produced the US government as now constituted. (Considering the still shaky interspecies relations at the time of the establishment of the Federation, it's unlikely its Constitution was adopted quickly either.)

Speculation and original research. - Archduk 3 06:54, July 28, 2011 (UTC)