[jason taylor]

Avbryt Staat:

Often translated "divorce of the state". A legal practice in the Sword Worlds, the word means is the temporary forfeiture of state protection for defaulters of required services to the state such as conscription or taxes. It practice it means that proving default on the victims part is a de facto reduced or dismissed charge. How this is applied varies with jurisdictions; in many cases it is only lawful in civil courts. It is sometimes confused with Kjede og Galge or with Nithing (both of which are also confused with each other), but almost never applied to such an extreme though some jurisdictions reserve the theoretical right to do so. Usually Avbryt Staat can be removed by the payment of back taxes with interest and the defaulter restored to full protection.

The law is known in several places and may not have even originated in the Sword Worlds. It is widely accepted there however. Partly because it suits the Sword Worlder's grim idea of justice. Partly too because in the volatile politics of the Sword Worlds the claims of legitimacy are often doubted. But at the least no one doubt's even a usurper's right to refrain from exercising power if it has no treaty obligation to do so (which presumably is the case when the obligations of vassalage to the government are not met), and no one doubts the simple rule that people who cannot stand the heat should stay in the kitchen as the still used ancient Terran saying has it.