Sources of law, authorities and citation

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Vilhelm Benkern
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Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Vilhelm Benkern »

Shireroth has many sources of law. As I have argued elsewhere, there are probably unwritten sources of law in addition to the fundamental, written rules, which has allowed a continuation of the polity even during the most desperate of times, such as the events preceding the Great Consolidation. In my view, we have a written constitutional document (i.e. the Charter) which governs the vast majority of governmental workings within a more flexible unwritten constitutional arrangement or situation which incorporates an indeterminate number of inviolate principles. A favourite of mine is the Erik Principle, that the Founder, or some other self-proclaimed authority, can validly seize power when things are going completely awry and the nation is nearing death.

I aim here to set out a non-exhaustive list of written sources of law in Shireroth in order of precedence and set out a proposed standard method of citation of legal authorities.

Sources of Law
The Charter (Ch)
Fundamental written constitutional document.
Cited as 'Ch.Article.Section.Subsection'
e.g. 'Ch.II.B.1.a' (the Kaiser may veto Legislation passed by the Landsraad).

Imperial Decrees (IDs)
Decrees made by the Kaiser. Will include some Treaties, depending on the constitutional position at the time.
Cited as 'ID.Chronological Number.[ASC Year of promulgation if available].Article.Section.Subsection'
e.g. 'ID.102' (the island of Mar Sara shall remain part of Amity and Miroth per Imperial Decree 102)

The Imperial Code of Law (ICOL)
The standing corpus of written law.
Cited as 'ICOL.Chapter.Section.Subsection.Paragraph'
e.g. 'ICOL.1.4.E.2' (for the purposes of Ministerial Ordinances, 'Imperial Decrees' include those made by reigning Stewards or a reigning Landsraad)

Acts of the Landsraad (LAs)
Individual Acts of the Landsraad effecting changes to the ICOL or otherwise.
Cited as 'LA.[Short Form Bill Name - optional].ASC Year of Passage.Chronological no passed that year.Section.Subsection.Paragraph'
e.g. 'LA.5594.1.2.4' or 'LA.Disestablishment and Reorganization Act.5594.1.2.4' (Mar Sara shall be reorganised as an Imperial Dominion - Distablishment and Reorganization Act, here)

Resolutions of the Landsraad (LRs)
Individual Resolutions of the Landsraad.
Cited as 'LR.[Short Form Resolution - optional].ASC Year of Passage.Chronological no passed that year.Paragraph'
e.g. 'LR.5462.2' or 'LR.Disestablishment and Reorganization Act.5462.2' (Imperial Decree 663 shall henceforth be unenforceable - Resolution to Cease Direct Rule over Lichbrook, here)

Treaties Ratified by the Landsraad (LTs)
Where Landsraad ratification was required before a treaty with a foreign power could be brought into effect, or where Landsraad ratification gave a treaty legal effect.
Cited as 'LT.[Short Treaty name - optional].ASC Year of Passage.Chronological no passed that year.Section.Subsection.Paragraph'
e.g. 'LT.4325.5.c' or 'LT.Treaty of General Membership to the MTO.4325.5' (Disputes within a nation about an MTO treaty or convention are dealt with by the concerning nations' internally established court)

Acts and Resoutions of the Adelsraad (ADs)
All motions that were passed by the now-defunct assembly of Dukes.
Cited as 'AD.ASC Year of Passage.Section.Subsection.Paragraph'
e.g. 'AD.4558' (Hyperborea/Raikoth may federate with any Duchy, or be granted a special status - per this resolution)

Subdivision Laws
Laws taking effect within Imperial States. Obviously through the years there have been dozens of variations, not least because subdivisions of Shireroth have varied from being mere fiefs to 'sovereign', but in the absence of any local system of citation, this basic system should be observed in Imperial courts.
Cited as 'Two- or three-letter subdivision indicator.Second-level subdivision indicator.Third-level subdivision indicator.Title.ASC year of promulgation.Section.Subsection.'
e.g. 'DYD.CMS.On Orders of Wonder.5207.8.a' (Knights of the Order of Excellence of the County of Mar Sara are entitled to wear the collar of that order and use the postnomial letters KOE - decree of Mar Sara within Duchy of Yardistan)
Current subdivision letters:
ELW = Elwynn
GLD = Goldshire
LCB = Lichbrook
IMD = Imperial Dominion

Past subdivision letters:
KIL = Kildare
DYD = Duchy of Yardistan
DMH = Duchy of Machinaria
DBS = Duchy of Brookshire
DGB = Duchy of Goldenbrook
BVP = Barony of Vorpmadal
DMU = Diregency of Musica
Ministerial Ordinances (MOs)
Under the new Ministerial Ordinance legislation.
Cited as 'MO.Ministry.Chronological number (to be provided under ICOL.IV.E.4).ASC year of promulgation.Section.Subsection.Paragraph.'
None yet made but hypothetical e.g. 'MO.MIL.1.6264.2.1.a' (All soldiers in active military service are to paint their bottoms blue every Gahgday for the glory of the Kaiser)
Ministry citations: INT, EX, MIL, CART, INF, TRD, etc.

Other Ministerial Acts (MAs)
Where Ministers have made other orders, regulations, awards etc., especially in the past.
Cited as 'MA.Ministry.ASC Year of promulgation.Chronological number promulgated that year if known.Title if known.Section.Subsection.Paragraph'
e.g. 'MA.TRD.5081.Bounty Policy and Rates.Routine Bounties' (New citizens shall be paid a one-off bounty of 200 erb if they post seven times over a seven-day period)

Judex/Arbiter Decisions and Orders (IJs)
Previous Arbiters have found previous decisions of the Judex persuasive in the interpretation of written laws.
Cited as 'IJ.ASC Date.Judex Ref.Case name/parties.Judgment paragraph if numbered'
e.g. 'IJ.3415.T1-A.Rahikkala v Landsraad' ("The current Procedures of the Landsraad states that each Duchy's vote is decided by the amount of Erb that duchy holds at any given time. This could lead to one Duchy have more voting power than all other Duchies together, and does today lead to small differences in the voting power of the duchies. This is in direct violation of the principle of duchy equality set down in the Imperial Charter. Therefore... the following sections of the Procedures of the Landsraad are... declared null and void...")

Any others?
Vilhelm Benkern DEOMI, Member of the Order of the Dragon, Silver Swan, Red Dragon
Dirigent of Musica, Count of Mar Sara
In Aryasht Prapta Vrteti, former Prince of Aryasht; Zaila Vrteti, Norfolknath
In Elwynn Benjamin Sebasokrator Timothy Quentin Kern, Duke of Raikoth
In Khalypsil Representative of the Wisdom

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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Heath Belledin »

This reminds me of my plan to consolidate the laws of the Imperial Republic into at least two codes (Civil, Criminal, do I need others?).
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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Vilhelm Benkern »

You may have noticed that I think like a common lawyer, so better to ask Ric or Malliki about civilian pretensions at comprehensiveness... :wink:
Vilhelm Benkern DEOMI, Member of the Order of the Dragon, Silver Swan, Red Dragon
Dirigent of Musica, Count of Mar Sara
In Aryasht Prapta Vrteti, former Prince of Aryasht; Zaila Vrteti, Norfolknath
In Elwynn Benjamin Sebasokrator Timothy Quentin Kern, Duke of Raikoth
In Khalypsil Representative of the Wisdom

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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Noor bint Daniyal »

Speaking of common/civil law annoyances. I remember being a lawyer for the Elwynnese State against Ardashir in the congress bombing trial, and the advocate for Ardashir said that I couldn't use hearsay as evidence. And I was: whaaat, why would that be? And it's only recently that I realise that hearsay has always been admissible in Swedish courts, but never in English? God damn it.

Swedish law has no separate court system for civil law. If Carl is an asshole to me, kicks me on the ground, and the police arrests him. He'll be charged with assault. In the trial there will be three parties. Carl as the charged ("åtalad", not "accused"), the prosecutor ("åklagare", lit. the on-complainer, ie, he/she who complains on someone), and me as owner of the case ("målsägare"). If the court finds Carl guilty, which would be pretty obvious, given that Benkern filmed it all, the prosecutor moves for the criminal sanctions (prison?), my agent would move for the civil-law stuff of it all (i want moneeeeey), and Carl's advocate would try to mitigate evertthing.

However, we have a separate court system for administrative law. Which is pretty neat. Because that court system has no fees whatsoever. So if I am upset with how the authorities decided on my tax, I can appeal it first to the authority's board of appeal, and then to a court, and then further on if necessary until the Supreme Administrative Court, woo. (it had a niftier name a few years ago, "the Court of Governing", but people thought that was too ominous and the court got a more boring name.

Anecdote aside: it alls looks good. Malliki and I (well mostly Malliki) devised the citation stuff for the Imperial Judex (IJ). Everything meant something. I think T stood for trial or tort, or something... Malliki could back up and explain. But the point was that it should be all-encompassing, so we can adapt that system to Benkern's system if we just change dashes to dots? No need to state JU for Judex if the IJ code is already there.
Noor as-Salaam
NOOR AS-SALAAM BINT DANIYAL UMRA SULEIMAN AYREON-KALIRION IBN AL-MAJEED AL-OSMAN BIN SATHRATI AF ETTLINGUM FREYU UMM ZAHIR AL-DIN OF WAFFEL-PAINE
Queen of Goldshire, the Elian Lands, Leng, Elwynn, Amokolia and Uppland

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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Heath Belledin »

IIRC Shireroth is a common-law country, but I wouldn't mind a separate administrative stream à la France.
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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Heath Belledin »

Actually, it'd probably be prudent to also compile a Code of Imperial Regulations for all the secondary legislation created by the ministries. In that vein, would Imperial Decrees go in there or?
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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Verion »

Customs, like the custom that you cannot just ban a longstanding community member because of a petty feud.
1.Titus Morvayne, Prefect of Shirekeep, Count of the Skyla Islands
2.Eki Aholibamah Verion, Queen in the North
3. Ludovic Verion, Lord of Blackstone and Governor-General of the Iron Company
4. Jeremy Harwinsson Archer, super sleuth

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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Heath Belledin »

uh... ok.
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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Vilhelm Benkern »

Verion wrote:Customs, like the custom that you cannot just ban a longstanding community member because of a petty feud.
The substance of the original post was about written sources of law. As indicated in my introduction, I believe there are other constitutional principles that are unwritten (my Erik Principle). I agree that there are also other, lesser unwritten norms. Though I disagree with that there is a rule that community members cannot be banned, banning in the form of the Imperial Smackdown, exile imposed by the Kaiser, is an ancient tradition. It has been used in a more restrained way in recent years, but I agree with Ryan's analysis here that this is mainly because of dwindling citizenship numbers and lack of new blood. Remember that for many years there was a 'Dual Cit' ban meaning Shireroth had to be one's sole citizenship, and 'Tri Cit' rule meaning that you could only be a citizen of up to three micronations including Shireroth (which initially prevented me from joining).
Vilhelm Benkern DEOMI, Member of the Order of the Dragon, Silver Swan, Red Dragon
Dirigent of Musica, Count of Mar Sara
In Aryasht Prapta Vrteti, former Prince of Aryasht; Zaila Vrteti, Norfolknath
In Elwynn Benjamin Sebasokrator Timothy Quentin Kern, Duke of Raikoth
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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Continuator »

Reading those links reminds me that Jake is a whiny libertarian bastard...

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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Vilhelm Benkern »

Noor, thanks for your comments on the Swedish model. Very interesting merged system of civil and criminal, which better reflects the reality of what a 'wrong' is. A wrong potentially has a civic dimension, the criminal aspect, and the personal dimension, the harm caused to one individual or a group. And you are sort of doubling things up if you have two entirely separate courses of justice for each. That said, our procedures are very different for criminal and civil matters. In particular, the burden of proof is much greater for criminal matters ('beyond a reasonable doubt' versus civil 'on the balance of probabilities').
Noor bint Daniyal wrote:Anecdote aside: it alls looks good. Malliki and I (well mostly Malliki) devised the citation stuff for the Imperial Judex (IJ). Everything meant something. I think T stood for trial or tort, or something... Malliki could back up and explain. But the point was that it should be all-encompassing, so we can adapt that system to Benkern's system if we just change dashes to dots? No need to state JU for Judex if the IJ code is already there.
Thanks for that explanation, I have replaced the references there with the ones you and Malliki already devised. I'll expand on this if we get more info on the T (etc.) system of citation.
Vilhelm Benkern DEOMI, Member of the Order of the Dragon, Silver Swan, Red Dragon
Dirigent of Musica, Count of Mar Sara
In Aryasht Prapta Vrteti, former Prince of Aryasht; Zaila Vrteti, Norfolknath
In Elwynn Benjamin Sebasokrator Timothy Quentin Kern, Duke of Raikoth
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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Noor bint Daniyal »

Kaiser Hjalmar Redquill wrote: Now... back to the topic. This is an incredibly insightful post on Shirithian law, Benkern, thank you. I have been talking to Carl in his capacity as Imperial Inquisitor to see if we can get a code of civil law and code of criminal law up and running but certainly it is quite a daunting task. Perhaps you would be interested in helping out with the effort, at least help us get the ball rolling?

I found Ric's post on the Swedish model to be quite interesting, I was not aware there was a system in Sweden like this. I see the value in having the civil and criminal codes, and then placing all the Ministerial Ordinances and other rules made by the Imperial Government within their legal purview of regulatory rule-making in a separate administrative code.
So what we have now is deportation law, asylum law, contract law... and some recognition of foreign civil law in our laws (Natopia, maybe Alex/Stor too, but I forget). What we'd need is a way for imperial law to recognize deeds of civil law in the states. Civil law is an imperial matter under the current Charter, but civil law works differently in the various states. The challenge we face is to combine the states' civil legislation with the imperial mandate, and to establish a system of mutual jurisdictional recognition between the various jurisdictions here in Shireroth.
Noor as-Salaam
NOOR AS-SALAAM BINT DANIYAL UMRA SULEIMAN AYREON-KALIRION IBN AL-MAJEED AL-OSMAN BIN SATHRATI AF ETTLINGUM FREYU UMM ZAHIR AL-DIN OF WAFFEL-PAINE
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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Kaiser Hjalmar Redquill »

Noor bint Daniyal wrote:
Kaiser Hjalmar Redquill wrote: Now... back to the topic. This is an incredibly insightful post on Shirithian law, Benkern, thank you. I have been talking to Carl in his capacity as Imperial Inquisitor to see if we can get a code of civil law and code of criminal law up and running but certainly it is quite a daunting task. Perhaps you would be interested in helping out with the effort, at least help us get the ball rolling?

I found Ric's post on the Swedish model to be quite interesting, I was not aware there was a system in Sweden like this. I see the value in having the civil and criminal codes, and then placing all the Ministerial Ordinances and other rules made by the Imperial Government within their legal purview of regulatory rule-making in a separate administrative code.
So what we have now is deportation law, asylum law, contract law... and some recognition of foreign civil law in our laws (Natopia, maybe Alex/Stor too, but I forget). What we'd need is a way for imperial law to recognize deeds of civil law in the states. Civil law is an imperial matter under the current Charter, but civil law works differently in the various states. The challenge we face is to combine the states' civil legislation with the imperial mandate, and to establish a system of mutual jurisdictional recognition between the various jurisdictions here in Shireroth.
Point taken. How would that work? The Charter clearly outlines what areas of policy are left to the States and which stay in the federal level. Would local matters simply be relegated to local codes and federal matters left to the federal code? I'm not exactly sure how this can be approached.
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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Noor bint Daniyal »

One option would be to have a Landsraad law delegating powers of local civil law (when not conflicting to imperial law on certain stuff) to the states, make a new law on how states must recognize all civil documents throughout the states. This would mean negotiations among the states as to what is reasonable, and include exceptions... How would you give a death certificate to a lich? :D

It can be as simple as though:

"A marriage/will/deed/etc contracted/written in one of the states is valid throughout the imperial republic, provided that it meets the following criteria..."
Noor as-Salaam
NOOR AS-SALAAM BINT DANIYAL UMRA SULEIMAN AYREON-KALIRION IBN AL-MAJEED AL-OSMAN BIN SATHRATI AF ETTLINGUM FREYU UMM ZAHIR AL-DIN OF WAFFEL-PAINE
Queen of Goldshire, the Elian Lands, Leng, Elwynn, Amokolia and Uppland

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Re: Sources of law, authorities and citation

Post by Heath Belledin »

Which would be civil code fodder, of course. :book:
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