Variants and sources of Legal Immunity in 2100?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by David L Pulver

Given the importance of transnationals I would not be surprised if there was a form of "corporate diplomatic immunity" that is granted in 2100 and recognized by many, though certainly not all, states for members of stateless transnational corporations that meet certain qualifiers, of which the Green Duncanite's Avatar (thanks to its wealth and its patron Biotech Euphrates) would likely be counted in. The primary reason for doing this is likely to ensure smooth relations in places such as Islandia and Luna, but they would benefit the Duncanites as well.

The legal framework of this would likely have been passed as part of some widespread international trade agreements; primary sanctions for violating it are thus likely to be economic rather than military, but would be embarassing enough to dissuade, say, China from casually arresting a leading Avatar Klusterkorp representative covered by these agreements who was on a diplomatic/corporate mission to New Shanghai or whatever.
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Oh, yes, this. I know that the meta-national hush-hush group of GRA has Legal Immunity as per Transhuman Mysteries. But those are more of an interpol analogue, so totally not for me.

OTOH, the WTO seems to be a very strong organisation in THS. I wonder if an 'important international observer of the WTO' from Biotech Euphrates* or the like could belong such an immunised group. As in, some system where there's a quota of special-privilege international observers that is linked to the contribution a company/group has made to the active information content of the world (and BTE made and sold quite a lot of intellectual property, it seems).

GM will be thinking your post over, too. In fact, I find it a bit weird that WTO wields such power in the setting**, and yet is mostly quickly skimmed over in the book text. I know that lowly WTO enforcers generally don't even have Legal Enforcement Powers on their own.

* == I'm pretty much set on playing a BTE character, unless there is some really good reason not to.
** == Come on, they're dictating governments of the (almost) whole world what copyright laws to legislate; how 'minor' is that?