henry wrote: ↑07 Nov 2018, 11:41
There still seems to be a lot of confusion about the role of the FIA in regulation creation and enforcement.
It may be worth comparing it to how other law based societies work. This is my comparison.
The FIA is the executive branch of government.
The FIA promotes and writes laws, but the lawmaking body is the the World Sporting Council. Until approved by the WSC anything the FIA writes or communicates is not a law, or regulation.
The laws are applied by the courts, for the discussion happening now there are two. The Stewards at any race event, who rule on the law during the event*. Outside of the event appeals may be made to the International Court of Appeals.
Just as in national systems the lawmakers and courts are paid for by the executive.
Just as in national systems the laws, approved by the WSC, may contain clauses that permit the executive branch, the FIA, vary or make law under certain circumstances. The most obvious example is in the case of Saety related issues.
The executive also pays for a police force. The police force execute technical duties, e.g. scrutineering, and procedural duties, e.g. flag deployment and monitoring, track limits etc. If they think someone has broken the law they report them to the stewards.
So no matter how much it appears that the FIA executive should be able to decide or not whether something is legal or not, they can’t. Only the WSC can say what the law is and only the courts can decide what it means.
*The event lasts from start of scrutineering to 30 minutes after the publication of provisional results.