Procedural Laws

Law

The High Council may by majority vote at a meeting where Quorum has been achieved and a sitting council declared, change any law in the city with immediate effect. In the event that an even number of votes are cast to change a law and not change a law, the nays shall have it and the law shall remain unchanged. The changed law shall then be presented to the Administrator for approval. The Administrator shall only have the right to dismiss the changes and keep the law unchanged, or allow the changes to be written into law. Laws when updated shall be presented to the Cylinder of Knowledge for public inspection within twenty ahn.

Due Process

The laws of the city are written to promote harmony and strength, they shall be enforced by the Prefects and Guardsmen of the city, or where such Guardsmen are unavailable, by the Warrior caste. Those seeking relief under the law shall present evidence and allegations of criminal activity to a Prefect of the city. Those accused of crimes shall have an arrest warrant issued that they may be presented before a Prefect of the city to answer such allegation. All free men and women, charged with a crime, are entitled to a hearing before a Prefect and to present evidence of innocence. Both the accuser and the accused may call upon the services of a single lawyer to assist them with their case. All accused are considered innocent until proven guilty, the final determination being made by the Prefect assigned to the case.

Case Law

Each and every ruling make a Prefect of the city shall be recorded and delivered to the Cylinder of Knowledge within two days that a complete record of all law dispensed in the city be maintained for future study. All sessions of the High Council shall so be recorded. Legal rulings by an Administrator and decrees by an Ubar also shall be so recorded. Subsequent legal actions may draw upon this case law to show precedence or lack thereof.

Praetor

The Prefects of the city shall be the principle defenders of the law. All shall be subject to the rule of the Praetor who may assume direct responsibility for any case in the city as his discretion. The Praetor shall be drawn from the caste of Scribes. The Praetor serves at the pleasure of the High Council, but the council shall not directly interfere in the proceedings of any case and shall respect whatever judgment is delivered.

Appeal

Citizens accused of crimes for which the penalty is execution or banishment may appeal their cases to the High Council.

Detention

Both those accused of crimes may be held by the Guardsmen at the discretion of the Prefect, Praetor, High Council or Administrator, pending the investigation of the facts of the case and the preparation of a trial. Those so held shall not be held for a period longer than three hands without the express approval of the Administrator.

Habeas Corpus

The Administrator and the High Council is at all times entitled to have an account, why the liberty of any of the free citizens is restrained, wherever that restraint may be inflicted. The Praetor shall furnish such information within two hands.

Autrefois Convict

No free man or woman may be convicted of the same crime twice, unless such alleged crime is a subsequent offense.

Autrefois Acquit

No free man or woman may be tried for the same crime twice, where such alleged crime is not a subsequent, without a petition being submitted, by the Praetor, to and approved by the Administrator, where such cases are shown by a preponderance of evidence to have substantial new evidence likely to yield a different decision that was the case in the first trial.

Convictions in Absentia

Any person summoned before a Prefect or the High Council who refuses may be brought bound by Guardsmen. Any person who cannot be found by the Guardsmen may be tried and convicted in absentia.

Pardons

The Administrator may pardon any convict of any crime.

Release

The Administrator may demand any free person held in detention may be immediately released.

Posthumous Pardons

Those convicted of crimes where the sentence was death may, upon the will of the Administrator, be pardoned posthumously, that their name and that of their family be free of shame.

Reduction of Sentence

The Administrator may upon his pleasure reduce any sentence passed by any Prefect or the Praetor. Reduction of sentence does not absolve the convict of their crime.

Perjury

It is a crime to present false witness and testimony before a Prefect, the Administrator or the High Council. Such cases are punishable by execution or banishment.

Execution

For those convicted of serious crimes, the city retains the punishment of execution, where the convict shall be chained to the boards near the wharfs, that their shame be manifest to all those visiting the city and passing by on the River Olni. Once so chained, the convicts shall remain there until they are pronounced dead by a Physician of the city. Their bodies shall then be discarded into the river that there shame be washed away from the city. Upon the discretion of the Prefect, the condemned may instead be impaled upon a stake until they are declared dead by a Physician of the city.

Banishment

The High Council alone reserves the right to banish any citizen found to have dishonored the Home Stone. Banishment shall occur in the chamber of the High Council by the public refusal of bread, salt and fire. The Cylinder of Knowledge shall maintain a permanent record of all such banished citizens. Banished citizens shall be re-admitted to the city only if they are granted permission by the Administrator to partake in a new citizenship ceremony.

Work Chains

Free men of the city convicted of crimes and sentences to imprisonment may, as the discretion of the Praetor, be sold to work chains for the period of their sentence. Monies collected from the proprietors of work chains shall be deposited with the city treasury. Work chains operating in the vicinity are guaranteed neutrality provided they are not actively working on fortifications to the benefit of an enemy of the city.

Capture Rights

Any free man who brings forth a woman not of the city nor property of one of the city, and not resident within the city, suitably bound and stripped, shall be granted capture rights upon her and the right to enslave her. Should the captured female refuse to submit she may be slain without fear of prosecution.

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