In an alternate world, newborn babies are immediately under the custody of the government and are set-up for adoption to qualified individuals. Biological parents are kept anonymous but can still qualify to adopt.

As of 2023, the CCP has more than 98 million members. To join the CCP, an applicant must go through an approval process. The approval process evaluates both loyalty to the party and technical or educational qualifications. CCP membership had become more educated, younger, and less blue-collar, with around 30 to 35 percent of Chinese entrepreneurs being or having been a party member.

For the purpose of the debate, convicts handed the death sentence (capital punishment) for the crimes they have committed are cybernetically modified to become servitors, instead of being actually put to death. The modifications significantly alter the convict's conscience and brain function, allowing the government supervisors to take total control over the convict's motor functions. The servitor is then compelled to undertake various menial jobs in society.

Larry Badron is a journalist that has been often criticized as creating false or misleading content, and has several discriminatory views. A few months ago, they published a story exposing corrupt practices of Congressman Mark Romano. In response, Romano called for a congressional hearing resulting in Badron's being detained on grounds of libel and fabricating fake news. 

The doctrine of qualified immunity protects state and local officials, including law enforcement officers, from individual liability unless the official violated a clearly established constitutional right. For example, in the US, qualified immunity protects police officers in cases of excessive use of force or brutality. 

Currently 19/27 European Union member states have adopted the Euro with Croatia being the most recent in 2023, others such as Denmark have linked their local currencies to the Euro. Monetary policy in the Eurozone is done by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) which consists of 6 board members elected by a qualified majority of the EU council and the heads of the national central banks (e.g., German Bundesbank, Banque de France, etc.).

"Green central banking" refers to central banks deliberately using their monetary policy instruments to incentivize climate-friendly market activities. For instance, targeted green lending programmes, targeted green bond purchase programmes, ""brown penalties"" (higher interest rates for pollution-intensive banks or businesses), lowering the financing rate for banks that offer collateral with a smaller carbon footprint, and mandatory disclosures of climate risks. For the purposes of the debate, green central banking would support climate-friendly policies at the expense of traditional monetary objectives such as targeting inflation rates, ensuring financial stability and market efficiency, as well as retaining neutrality of intervention.

"Parallel societies" refer to enclave-like communities, usually organized by immigrant or minority populations, that are largely separated from the majority of society. Parallel societies tend to be characterized with high rates of crime, poverty, and disenfranchisement, but have some self-sustaining attributes (e.g., local businesses, grocery stores, community activity). Reintegration policies are active attempts to assimilate the parallel society into the larger population, e.g., through housing relocation. Denmark is an example of a country engaging in reintegration policies, pledging to "eliminate all parallel societies" by 2030.

Gerry Ramon is the first transgender woman elected into congress of a generally conservative developing nation, as part of the ruling majority party. Throughout her term, she has forwarded bills supporting same-sex marriage and stronger punishments for gender discrimination. At the same time, she has expressed support for policies on capital punishment, limiting press freedom, and honouring previous dictatorial regimes. 

For the purposes of the debate, the Tarun Powersharing Model refers to a system where different key political roles in the executive and legislature would be divided up between different ethnic groups. For example, the President would be constitutionally required to be of ethnicity X whilst the Minister of Education would be of ethnicity Y. An example of this system is Lebanon were the President is required to be Maronite, the Prime Minister has to be Sunni, and the Speaker of Parliament has to be Shi'a.

Devolution is the transfer of power from a central government to subnational (e.g., state, regional, or local) authorities. These territories have the power to make legislation relevant to the area and thus granting them a higher level of autonomy; this includes areas such as healthcare, law enforcement, education, etc.

Introvert' Catholics believe that the Church should remain discrete from the modern, secular world, keeping as close to tradition as possible, and being actively-countercultural. 'Extrovert' Catholics see the Church as responding to the needs of the world, and are more tolerant of making doctrinal change to align with changing social values. Pope Francis is very much an 'extrovert'.

Job is a pious man who has no proof of God's existence or goodness, but believes all the same. As a test, God allows all of Job's children to die, all of his wealth to be lost, and his physical health to diminish. God does not offer a justification for the test, and Job is given no indication of what will happen if he continues to believe in or renounce God.

The "Somali pirate stock exchange" is a financial group operating from a small fishing town of Harardhere. In this system, Somali civilians may invest in one of 72 “maritime companies” (pirate crews) either in cash or other materials (e.g., rations, ammunition, weapons etc.). If the invested crew successfully ransoms or captures a ship, the investors are given a monetary share (as in an actual stock exchange). The pirate crews frequently engage in the stock exchange with civilians as a "community activity" before they plan every heist.

A culture voucher is a token that can be reimbursed for various cultural activities (e.g. theatre tickets,gallery entrance fees etc.) up to a fixed monetary value. At the point of the use, the state pays the relevant cost of the cultural activity for which the voucher was reimbursed. These tokens are currently issued in France, and are in the works in Germany.

For the purposes of the debate, the "lifespan trade" refers to the ability of individuals to buy and sell years of life. If an individual sells 5 years of life, their lifespan will be cut short by 5 years; if an individual buys 5 years of life, they will live for an additional 5 years. The lifespan trade does not affect the normal ageing process, and it is impossible to know the date of one's natural death.

For the purposes of this debate, you have obtained a small, portable device with two buttons: A “save” button and a “return” button. When you hit the “save” button, you are able to save the current time point, like in a video game. When you hit the “return” button, your life will return to the last time point you saved. The machine will not erase any of your memories. If you do not keep and use the device, it will eventually blow up on its own.

(i) Spaghetti Planet is a liberal democracy populated by human-like creatures. It has similar levels of technology and similar societal structures as Earth. When a citizen on Spaghetti Planet dies by suicide, their body turns into a special kind of spaghetti. If they die of other causes, their body will not turn into spaghetti. While citizens of Spaghetti Planet do not like the taste of this particular kind of spaghetti, it acts as a cancer vaccine for humans if consumed.

(ii) For the purposes of the debate, inter-planetary relations between Spaghetti Planet and Earth function the same as international relations between states on Earth (i.e., bilateral trade agreements and tariffs can exist, supply chains may operate, means to communicate and travel between the planets, etc.).

You are a self-proclaimed pacifist who has sworn to the principles of non-harming or non-violence for all living creatures, from the lowest insect to the most intelligent of humans. For the last few years, you have tended to a tree in your backyard that was left for you to care for by your grandparents. One day, you stumble upon a portal in the middle of the tree's trunk, opening to another world inhabited by the Bubbleheads, who resemble the sentience, intelligence, and societal structure of humans. The Bubblehead President thanks you for finding the Bubblehead world, and begs you to cut down the tree, resulting in the death of all Bubbleheads. When asked why they would make such a request, the President explains that in the Bubbleism religion followed by all Bubbleheads, the only way a Bubblehead can ascend to paradise is if the tree is finally cut down (and all Bubbleheads die). You know for sure the Bubbleheads all trust the Bubblehead President.

You are an athlete competing in the 2024 Olympics. You find out that most of your country's team is using performance-enhancing substances (i.e. is doping). Your coaches and team managers are unaware of the doping.

For the purposes of the debate, a "novice" is someone who has never broken as a speaker at a major tournament in any language category.

Team Spirit is an international esports organization founded in 2015. Their Dota 2 squad won The International 2021, the event in which the organisation received the largest single prize money payout in esports history at $18 million. In 2022, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Ukrainian Esports Federation (UESF) reportedly banned Team Spirit’s DOTA 2 players Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk and Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov for playing alongside Russian players on the same squad. These sanctions banned Yatoro and Mira from competing in any tournaments organized by the UESF and they were not be allowed to travel outside the country when martial law is in place. To circumvent this ban and a possibility of being drafted in the war, the entire team shifted their base of operations to Serbia in 2022. They subsequently won another iteration of The International in 2023, along with 2 other major tournaments (Riyadh Masters and Dreamleague season 21) in the same year.