Current Legal System

At the moment there is very little clarity in how arbitration and dispute resolution should generally take place in Aurora. Article II, Section C of the Charter states:

C) The Pantarch acts as the Judge of the Republic.

Article VIII. On Justice covers the rest:

A) The pearl(s) of any individual captured by a member of the Auroran Republic must be sent immediately to the Auroran Republic’s vault, or another vault internationally if it is deemed by the Pantarch unsafe to house in the Auroran Republic’s vault.

B) The Pantarch is to determine a sentence using all solid evidence, as well as the voice of the defendant, assuming the defendant is willing to give their voice.

C) When the sentence of an individual has been fulfilled, the individual must be released from their pearl or transferred to another nation that has made an official request and has legitimate claims.

D) Criminals may become citizens upon completion of their sentence (as long as the conditions of citizenship are also met).

E) Sentences are to be released publicly.

Context

Historically on 1.0 and early 2.0 Aurora, and its predecessor the Agoran Federation, had prided itself on having a robust and unique legal system. With the Blood Wars and subsequent departure of citizens to the then newly dug Hexagon, many of our long-term judges and legally inclined individuals simply stopped playing. This created a void in what was otherwise a rich legal history.

With the drafting of the first iteration of the Charter in October of 2014, Ogel and I aimed for simplicity over complicated legal doctrine in order to win over Doymand's support for e-governance (the vault was a multi-thousand diamond investment which the town really had no moral claim to due to complete abandonment by literally everyone but Doymand).

The respect for that investment came in the form of a recognized role in the government as the Kaiser, a very "titlistic" role with not a single ability to do anything to the democratically elected government's day-to-day operations. In return, regulation and oversight of the vault's operations was left to Doymand to oversee and handle.

This reluctant compromise also had another intended benefit -- it didn't over-boggle the city with what I call an abundance of titles for the sake of titles. In early 2.0 we had a council, and on that council each seat was a secretary. Individuals would run for seats such as the Sec. of Education to simply to vote in the legislative process, but not to fulfill their roles as the actual secretary of their office.

This mixing of executive and legislative roles, as well as having historical precedent for having less than 3 people living in the town at certain points, made us hesitant to have anything more than a Chancellor and Kaiser.

Fast forward to 3.0, Doymand's adjudication from the role of the Kaiser was suppose to be a fresh start. For the first time in a long time, we've had a steady player base. And unlike on 2.0, there was no historical precedent which bound us to needing a more-or-less autocratic role for part of our government.

Proposed Base for a Criminal Code

I believe an appropriate step for us to take in order to return to a well functioning judiciary is to adopt a criminal code. As a result, I am currently proposing this code which I have compiled from multiple sources as a base for a criminal code that Aurora should think about. There is a lot of room for improvement, so I welcome any and all suggestions.

But I also think it is worth noting that while this is a great first step, we should consider the weaknesses in having a judicial system with only 1 non-elected judge, and ways we can move towards having a judiciary with several standing judges, similar to MtA's, which can adjudicate cases with no conflicts of interest whenever possible.

TL:DR: We should adopt a criminal code, but we should also think about reforming the Pantarch and reinventing a judiciary more in line with what we have had historically.