Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems

[patchwork]

Ashen Stars had an interesting one, although it probably couldn't be handled by a pre-internet civilization, a compromise between the wildly differing political ideas of humans and balla. A bicameral legislature in which the lower chamber is elected by popular vote and the upper, however they try to dress it up, is Reddit. It consists of the people whose published works have the most upvotes, rechecked and compiled every year or so.

The balla are projecting empaths, which makes a large group of balla degenerate into a hysterical lynch mob all too easily when one of them gets scared or angry and a cascade effect happens; controlling the madness of crowds is the primary subject of their political thought and human-style democracy horrifies them.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Actually, one of the few things they do seem to get used for is oil spills: collect the spill in booms, bring in a small boat with a big pump on it, then fill dracones with watery oil and get them towed away rather than trying to bring a great big tanker on-site. Of course, at that point you're starting with an oil spill…

ObModeratelyOnTopic: floating oil is clearly flotsam.

It is also an example of how law evolves. A new thing or new example of an old thing comes along and a law is made for it.

[jason taylor]

One story I read somewhere was that a Cadi ordered a noble flogged for disorderly behavior in the bazaar and the Emir was so concerned for his trade and presumably his sales tax, that he backed up the Cadi.

Does giving such trust to a local marketwarden constitute something of the kind of thing the OP is looking for?

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

ObModeratelyOnTopic: floating oil is clearly flotsam.

The key distinction isn't whether or not something floats, but the intent of putting it overboard. A supertanker stuck on a reef or in danger of foundering might pump out some oil to lighten its burden. But that's intentional, and a classic example of jetsam.

Flotsam is unintentionally put overboard, so that would cover most oil tanker accidents. (Same oil, same flotation, different circumstance.)

[David Johnston2]

A unicameral legislature made up of representatives of the wealthy families but a popularly elected Supreme Court.

[Johnny1A.2]

Rule by duel: A hereditary aristocracy, but with a twist: any commoner can challenge any noble at any time to a formal duel, to the death, and if the challenger wins he wins the title and estate and other entail of the defeated noble. Or the noble can yield without a fight, simply handing over the estate.

But it has to be a formal, public duel, with formal rules and specified weapons, or other equivalent challenge, just killing a noble is prosecuted as murder and the heir inherits as usual.

Probably unstable, but definitely would be interesting while it lasted...

[Methariel]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

Rule by duel: A hereditary aristocracy, but with a twist: any commoner can challenge any noble at any time to a formal duel, to the death, and if the challenger wins he wins the title and estate and other entail of the defeated noble. Or the noble can yield without a fight, simply handing over the estate.

But it has to be a formal, public duel, with formal rules and specified weapons, or other equivalent challenge, just killing a noble is prosecuted as murder and the heir inherits as usual.

Probably unstable, but definitely would be interesting while it lasted...

That kind of system would probably lead to the aristocracy teaching their offspring in various one-on-one fighting styles from an early age on, just to make sure the title and estate stay with the family. And the aristocracy would very probably implement laws against commoners possessing weapons and also receiving formal training with them. There'd very probably be an exception for times of war, since you don't want your noble scions to lose their life on the field of battle when there's so much of the commoners' blood around to spill.

Also, the weapons allowed to be wielded in a duel very much would be straight weapons, and not tools, so no axes, flails, or knives/daggers. This way, you limit the prospects of Jack the Lumberjack, who happens to be very skilled with his axe, to raise above his station even further. The same goes, of course, for the wiry farmer's daughter Jacqueline, who's so skilled with a knife that you can't even guess at what she just did with it.

All in all, something similar to the European Middle Ages or the Edo period in Japan would probably be the result, resulting in far less social mobility than maybe was expected when the law was laid down.


M.

[dcarson]

In one of his books H. Beam Piper had a planet where killing a politician was punished by death. However the charge wasn't murder it was political irresponsibility. If you could convince a jury they had it coming you got off.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

Rule by duel: A hereditary aristocracy, but with a twist: any commoner can challenge any noble at any time to a formal duel, to the death, and if the challenger wins he wins the title and estate and other entail of the defeated noble. Or the noble can yield without a fight, simply handing over the estate.

But it has to be a formal, public duel, with formal rules and specified weapons, or other equivalent challenge, just killing a noble is prosecuted as murder and the heir inherits as usual.

Probably unstable, but definitely would be interesting while it lasted...

In Viking times, holmgangs often did have the estate as part of the wager. What that mainly did was multiply the amount of troublesome berserkers.

[jason taylor]

One I dreamed about(yes it really did come to me in my sleep-amazing what comes to mind like that)was that each noble family goes through a ritual which would scandalize the population which makes the nobility mutually blackmailable. Sort of rule by Mexican Standoff.

I doubt that would actually produce a good sort of system. I just put it down because it was to good a narrative idea to forget.