LEX IMPERIALIS

[Draeris 3124]

 

LEX IMPERIALIS

AB AUCTORIBUS B. LEVMONT

22^nd of Owyn’s Light, anno Domini 1735

 

 

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For Centuries, the Empire has cherished its classic laws as the means of preserving law & order in the realm. But as society and the Empire evolved beyond simplistic methods of governance, with ever expanding bureaucracies and civilized Imperial Subjects; the expectations of desires of law have changed. Therefore, His Highness the Lord-Protector has chosen to apply Bohemian law instead of Classic law.

 

Bohemian law, etymologically stemming from the author and Solicitor-General BOHEMUS LEVMONT, applies a different structure than Classic laws.  Whereas Classic laws are specific and have pre-determined punishments for pre-specified acts, Bohemonian law gives an open end to sentencing and allows for the judicial apparatus to consider all facts of a case. It merely gives the limits of the punishment and the scope of the crime, but it doesn't force the judiciary to comply to a preset sentencing. The law becomes more fluid and able to encompass more situations, guaranteeing justice to more citizens who might find themselves in legal situations of a complex nature.

 

 

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GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LAW

 

I. THE STOLISTES PRINCIPLE;

“A binding contract exists by an expressed offer that is taken up upon by an expressed acceptance of said offer”. 

 

II. THE VISCONTI PRINCIPLE;

“All soil, and the structures and elements upon it, are under Imperial ownership, unless specified otherwise by referenceable documents from the Imperial government”. 

 

 III. THE MARCHAND PRINCIPLE;

“A human with uncontested physical ownership of a good, legal tender or produce, with an absent pretext of criminality, is assumed to be the rightful legal owner.”

 

IV. THE RUYTER PRINCIPLE;

“The gravity of a crime can exceed the amount of justice the conventional punishments could bring, and therefore might require the execution of the criminal”.

 

V. THE LEUMONT PRINCIPLE;

“Everything established within the physical, administrative and diplomatic dimension that is not in accordance to the rule of law; is considered to have never existed.”

 

CLASSIFICATIONS OF CRIMES

 

CLASS V Violent infringement;

Fines up to 125.000卅

Imprisonment up to 100 years

Removals up to the limbs, eyes and/or tongue.

 

CLASS E Economic infringement;

Fines up to 25.000卅

Imprisonment up to 25 years

Removals up to the tongue or eyes

 

CLASS P Property infringement

Fines up to 200.000卅

Imprisonment up to 50  years

Removal up to the lower jaw, limbs or reproductive organs.

 

CLASS I Infringement of Imperium

Fines up to 400.000卅

Imprisonment up to 100 years

Removal up to the head, limbs or reproductive organs.

 

CLASS D Domestic infringement

Punishments subject to domestic laws of Imperial subjects.

 

CHAPTER I. 

CRIMINAL LAW - CRIMINALIS LEGEM

CLASS V LEX

 

I.Every human has the right to a properly livable life.

 

II.Murder, deliberately acting to achieve the result of death for another person, is illegal.

II.I. Murder without the intent to achieve the result of death, but which has occured due to the circumstances that the perpretrator created, is manslaughter.

 

III.Violence, acting to cause harm upon another person with differing degrees of lethality, but not death, is illegal.

 

IV.Causing injury, acting to inflict a singular wound, is illegal.

IV.I. Tournaments or consensual acts of inflictment are not illegal.

IV.II. Causing injury unintentionally, but as a consequence of a verbal conflict or a series of unpremeditated acts, is classified as battery.

 

V.Mutilation, the causing of injury with the specific purpose of altering the victim’s appearance or senses, is illegal.

V.I. If an injury has affected the victim’s appearance or senses, but mutilation could not be proven as the motive behind the causing of injury, the perpetrator will have caused an injury, and would not have mutilated.

 

VI.Kidnapping, acting to confine, restrict or restrain a person after or through an abduction against one’s will, is illegal.

V.I. Imperial functionaries abducting and confining citizens under lawful mandate, are not kidnapping.

VI.II. A Kidnapping that lasts longer than a saints week, is considered to be slavery.

VI.III. A victim of kidnapping can legally commit violence and/or cause injury to his or her captor.

 

VII.Slavery, acting to permanently confine, restrict or restrain a person after or through an abduction or purchase against one’s will, is illegal.

VII.I. A slave in name or de facto cannot lose his or her rights under Imperial law.

VII.II. A slave can legally commit murder and violence against his captor.

 

VIII.Theft, the act of illegally acquiring one’s property, is illegal.

VIII.I. Theft of items deemed to be of large quantity, or if the occurrence of the theft is considered often or commited on a large scale, is classified as Grand Theft.

 

IX.Robbery, the act of doing theft facilitated by either the threat or the use of violence upon a person, is illegal.

 

X.Burglary, the act of trespassing with the intention of committing a non-violent crime, is illegal.

X.I. Trespassing with the intention of committing a violent crime is classified as a robbery. 

 

XI.Extortion, the act of threatening any of the above for the sake of obtaining material or political benefit, is illegal.

XI.II. Threatening to release incriminating information if a human does not comply to certain demands, is considered blackmail, which is classified as extortion. 

 

XII.Creating an expectation for a person that he or she is to experience any of the above, is illegal.

 

XIII.Doing all of the above through proxy, is illegal.

XIII.I. If a party is to be determined to be the aforementioned proxy, either through voluntary confession or through discovery, the criminal-through-proxy and the target must also be known.

XIII.II. The proxy and the criminal-through-proxy are both equally criminal. 

 

XIV.Organizing with more than two people to either commit a crime through proxy, or in an organized collective fashion, is considered a conspiracy to do harm.

XIV.I. A conspiracy to do harm can be a part of, but is not the same, as a conspiracy against the state.

 

XV.Facilitating, not stopping, ignoring or not alerting the authorities of upcoming crimes makes you an accomplice to the crime.

XV.I. An accomplice is as equally criminal as the perpetrator. 

 

XVI.Sedition, the act of inciting disorderly conduct against Imperial functionaries or the Empire and hurting its majesty, is illegal. 

XVI.I. Insulting the Empire and its functionaries, while not inciting disorderly conduct, is still considered to be an incentive for others to act disorderly, and is therefore considered sedition.

XVI.II. Critique’s on a legal basis or which commonly would be considered normal for the citizenry to express is not considered sedition.

 

XVII.Blasphemy, the act of insulting God and its representation within the human realm, is considered equally criminal to insulting the majesty of the Imperial Crown, but not equal in weight of the crime.

XVII.I. Worshipping false idols is equal to blasphemy.

 

XVIII.Heresy, the act of professing heterodox teachings condemned by the Church, is illegal.

 

XIX.Tax evasion, the act of not abiding by a legally binding contract that obliged you to pay tax, is considered a criminal offense.

 

CHAPTER II. 

CONTRACT LAW - CONTRACTUS LEGEM

CLASS E LEX

 

I.A binding contract exists by an expressed offer that is taken up upon by an expressed acceptance of said offer.

I.I. A verbal offer without immediate verbal acceptance will result in the      diminishment of the verbal offer.

I.II. A written offer that has reached the other party, will expire within 36 Saint’s Hours if an expressed acceptance has not, either verbally or in script, reached the offering party. 

 

II.If a binding contract exists, it must be honoured. 

II.I. Contracts that would be considered unreasonable by the norm that the general populace abides by, are considered to have never existed.

II.II. A contract is honoured by fulfilling the agreements that stem from it.

II.III. Contracts can also be honoured through other means, if the party that is to receive has given explicit recognition of it as a legitimate means. 

II.IV. If both parties are to receive, and wish to honour the contract through other means, a new contract is made as the previous one is diminished.

II.V. A binding can be about any type of transaction, service or creation.

 

III.If a contract is not honoured, the party at fault has committed a CLASS E crime.

III.I. A party is only at fault if the agreed upon has not been realized after the ultimate deadline in the contract.

III.II. A party is only at fault if the other party has not infringed upon the possibility to honour the contract.

III.III. A party is only at fault if its failure to honour the contract is not due to Imperial intervention, death or war.

III.IV. If a contract has no set deadline, a reasonable period of time would be the automatic deadline.

III.V. A reasonable period of time would be two saint days for transactions, seven saint days for logistical obligations and two saint weeks for construction. 

III.VI. If none of the above apply, a saint week is a reasonable period of time.

 

IV.The party whose state is infringed upon by the other party’s inability or refusal to not honour the contract, must immediately take either corresponding action with the infringing party or judicial action through The Imperial Crown, right after the infringement has taken place, for the infringement to be considered a CLASS E crime in later procedures. 

 

V.The Imperial Crown is also subject to the contractus legem of the Empire. 

 

VI.Taxation is a binding contract between the Imperial Throne and its subjects, which is established by birth, in which Article I. does not apply.

VI.I. Taxation can also be a binding contract between a legal entity and a person, or a person and a person, or a person wielding letters patent and a person.

 

CHAPTER III. 

PROPERTY LAW - POSSESSIO LEGEM

CLASS P LEX

 

I.Every human has the right to possess what rightfully belongs to him.

 

II.Ownership is the strongest law.

II.I. Ownership can only be diluted through Imperial intervention or voluntary concessions regarding the ownership of the owned. 

II.II. One cannot own humans.

 

III.All soil, and the structures and elements upon it, are under Imperial ownership, unless specified otherwise by referenceable documents from the Imperial government. 

III.I. a document becomes referenceable either through universal publishing or an inscribed series of numbers, letters or symbols to differentiate between government documents.

III.II. The right to alter the soil and the structures and elements upon it can be delegated to people within the Imperial Government or to citizens.

 

IV.Obstructing one’s ability to properly and fully enjoy his or her ownership is illegal.

 

V.Annexing one’s property without a binding contract specifying said annexation, is illegal.

V.I. Annexation with the intent of illegally owning it, is classified as theft.

 

VI.Destruction, the act of negatively altering one’s owned property or item, is illegal.

VI.I. If an act of destruction is specifically defined by law, it is characterized by that specific definition and not destruction.

 

VII.Arson is classified as an act of destruction through fire.

 

VIII.Damaging of property is classified as an act of destruction that is insufficiently destructive to either render the property dysfunctional, or to tarnish it to such an extent that only minor repairs are necessary.

 

IX.Trespassing, the act of undermining territorial integrity of one’s owned property, is illegal. 

 

X.Property obtained through peerage cannot be sold or dispensed with except by explicit action of the Imperial Crown.

 

CHAPTER IV. 

IMPERIAL LAW - IMPERIALIS LEGEM

CLASS I LEX

 

I.Treason, the act of conspiring against the state, is illegal

 

II.Conspiracy, the act of collectivizing efforts to undermine the interests of the state, is considered equal to treason.

 

III.Disruption, the act of applying injury against order, is illegal.

III.I. Deviancy, the act of consistently acting indecent, overly sensual or applying norms that are considered improper into a political or social setting, is considered disruption.

III.II. Vigilantism, the act of enforcing law outside of your authority, or acting as if one carries authority that is outside of the jurisdiction of the perpetrator, is considered disruption.

III.III. Identity-manipulation, the act of either concealing one’s identity or pretending to be someone else, is considered disruption. 

III.III. Pretending to be a functionary of the empire is not a disruption, but treason. 

III.IV. Perjury, expressing or registering wrong information or lying to state functionaries, is disruption.

III.V. Fraud, the act of intentionally or negligently failing to abide by the terms of a written or verbal contract, misleads regarding information or circumstances or provide insufficient consideration for its completion, is disruption.

III.VI. Obstruction of justice, the act of absconding or interference with the duties and procedures of functionaries tasked with the execution of justice, is disruption.

 

IV.Bribery, the act of persuading another to act dishonestly or otherwise, with the promise of obtaining material benefit, is considered a disruption of its own kind.

IV.I. The briber and the bribed are equally criminal.

 

V.A human that is of adult capacity is expected to be a proper citizen.

V.I. Of adult capacity is defined as above the age of majority, being sixteen.

 

CHAPTER V. 

DOMESTIC SPECIAL  LAW - DOMESTICIS PECULIARI LEGEM

CLASS D LEX

 

At this moment, no legal codicies of Imperial subjects have been integrated into the legal framework.

 

CHAPTER VI. 

JURISPRUDENCE - IURISPRUDENTIA

 

At this moment,  there have been no precedent-setting legal procedures that are relevant to the effects, definitions or commencements of the laws within this legal codex.

 

CHAPTER VII. 

IMPERIAL CONTRACTS, DOCTRINES & SPECIAL LEGISLATION

 

As jurisprudence, doctrines and edicts alter the substance of this legal codex and remain subject to constant change; one might find legislation under this category already integrated into the legal codex or rendered ineffective due to a precedent, if not found here.

 

The Council of State Establishment Edict, 1732

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/185617-the-council-of-state-establishment-edict-1732/

 

The Courtly Requirements Edicts, 1732 

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/185619-the-courtly-requirement-edicts-1732/

 

The Capital Enforcement Privilege Edict, 1733

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/185820-the-capital-enforcement-privilege-act/