Questions tagged [law]
For questions related to the sets of rules set in place by organizations to govern the behaviour of the people.
312 questions
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How to justify a ban on exclusivist religions? [closed]
Certain religions are known for fervent persecution of other faiths and/or non-standard lifestyles. In a satirical reversal, the target society is going to persecute such religions with the same ...
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What kind of regulation do dangerous space sports get?
The universe in question is one in which the Solar System has been colonized thanks to the perfection of a nuclear fusion reactor that doubles as a high-thrust and high-efficiency hydrogen engine. ...
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How would a government lay claim over a Space Colony that it never founded? What legal arguments could they make to cite it’s always been theirs? [closed]
I’ve read some books with a premise of leaving an increasingly centralized and decadent Earth for the stars before it heads a turn for the extra worse
Part of their premise is Earth Governments ...
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What would break equality? A virus made millions of people live to 120 healthy years, but not all, could they still be "equal" under the law? [closed]
I was prompted to create a story that forces us to abandon the principle—that ostensible principle we advance, at least—of equality under the law. It's a benchmark which has served our needs for the ...
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How could an AGI have legal protections in an our current society? [closed]
First: assume society is as it is today, British common law
Many “stories” try to package AI as citizens (DATA of Star Trek, Sonny of I Robot). They manipulate society to make AI fit with some certain ...
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Non-persons in a world of machine and biologically integrated intelligences
People who "... do not have more than 65% of their brain function provided by natural human neural tissue" according to a new, pernicious and poorly thought-out law "shall cease to be ...
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US citizen, with a clean record, needs license for armored car with 3 inch cannon [closed]
I’m writing a sci-fi story with the protagonist being a superhero/ flying brick. He’s the only super in the world and as a result, many governments, NGO’s, cartels (etc.), and powerful individuals ...
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Would the use of sulfuric acid "piranha" weapons be considered chemical weapons, and thus, War Crimes?
In an alternative reality, people where capable of taking information from the future, and thus, they decided to not only to replicate future technology for the betterment of manking, but also future ...
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What laws of war would pertain to this futuristic situation, hundreds of years from now?
I was thinking of a story I wanted to write, but I had a legal question.
It involves a war story, and a group of around 12 soldiers. Members of a regular armed force, with the authority of the head of ...
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What are good reasons to create a city/nation in which a government wouldn't let you leave [closed]
I am building a city that the main character will be prohibited to leave from and yet their intentions of entering the city are to save the world form an extra-planer threat. So they have to go in. ...
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How does a government that uses undead labor avoid perverse incentives?
The setting I'm working on is in terms of tech levels and society best comparable to early 20th century Earth. But with several big differences. One being the existence necromancy and mad science that ...
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Scooped up for military research: How realistic is it in this day and age?
Being 'scooped up' for military research - or being a creation of military research - has been a common trope of movies and TV for many years. However, in most western nations, if not most nations ...
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Why would a society persecute people who are antisocial misanthropes (sociopaths, psychopaths, narcissists, and sadists)? [closed]
An alternate-historical story is set in a third-world country in 1977 of the Gregorian calendar (the year George Lucas' masterpiece, Star Wars, was released). The country is a Costa Rica pastiche (...
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What are the legal implications of murdering a necromancer? [closed]
Someone has just poisoned a Necromancer in a modern society like ours (just with mages around since a few decades). The Necromancer's body died, but he had spells in place that automatically turn his ...
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Trojan horse for protecting against Roman inquisition [closed]
I'm imagining a world set in Medici Florence. As actual history plays out, despite the Medicis' growing power, the start of the Roman Inquisition still necessitated some concessions. For instance, ...
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If every action a human does is tracked, would serious crimes be greatly reduced?
Background
Humans originate from the Skytree, a tower operated by an impartial AI. On birth, they are sent to their assigned communities, or Communes, where they live out the rest of their lives. ...
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Why would all drugs be legalised? [closed]
In my world, there is a species from the Homo genus named Homo magicus. They are my wizards (or sorcerers, if you want).
Traditionally, magical humans/wizards/sorcerers are an EXTREMELY religious race:...
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What practices would keep ruling aristocrats young?
This world has a society with fairly modern technology (late 20th century or later) with a natural, reasonably healthy life span of 70+ years for people barring accidents, homicides, suicides, or a ...
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Is excavating alien technology legal? [closed]
I know that there are diffrent laws regarding excavating resources on other planets and asteroids,but they are far from being precise. Many conflicts arise when nations want to make one law that ...
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A.I. can make Video, Photographs, and Audio perfectly out of text prompt. How screwed is our legal system? [closed]
In the near-future (circa 2030), publicly available open-source A.I. can create any Picture, moving picture, or audio track imaginable from a text prompt. It takes a lot of computing resources (but ...
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How would the world governments define a super person?
DC, Marvel, X-men...etc style people, or things, exist. Great.
Now the existence of those people would definitely change laws and many legal practices. And of course the governments of the world would ...
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Am I culpable for negligence if my spell allowed visitors to meet their own demise? [closed]
Imagine there is a big Island the size of New York city populated with dragons of all shapes and sizes, I put up a spell around the island to prevent the dragon's escape but visitors can pass through ...
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Is it "Force Majeure" if I invited the god of storm and he kills people? [closed]
Suppose I'm in charge of the opening of a new safari somewhere in the United States. The particular venue is chosen because it is not near to any known epicenter, fault line, volcano and the last ...
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In a society based around moral relativism, how would the courts or government in general work? [closed]
In one of my worldbuilds, there is a very popular and atheistic philosophy that is based around absolute moral relativism and total opposition to religion. But, I'm struggling to come up with ways a ...
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How to distinguish between immoveable spell and ownership spell?
Suppose I have 2 different type of spells namely immoveable spell and ownership spell, assuming the requirements and magical costs for both are similar I need help to distinguish between the two.
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Government assisted suicide process, can it work and what should be the steps? [closed]
Imagine a country similar to the USA but one that is not completely opposed to suicide. This country believes there can occasionally be situations where death can be preferable to living in pain (be ...
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How does the Law handle temporary curing of sociopathy?
I know that sociopathy isn't technically in the DSM any more, but what I mean by the term is an individual devoid of a conscience. They don't feel guilt no matter what they do and as such so long as ...
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What is the most altruistic economic system? [closed]
I'm trying to write about a world with an altruistic society, and want an economy that facilitates that most of the time. I'm looking for an answer that improves public goods, retains some level of ...
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The Secretary General of the UN is dead. Who acts in his place?
António Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN, and many other UN employees were killed when Jormungandr, the Snakebot of Doom steamrolled New York city in January 2017.
Now, in early February 2017,...
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What is the worst crimes/misdeeds to be called a villainess? [closed]
I’m trying to make my character be perceived as a villainess, but I don’t really know what kind of atrocities she would do to be called one. I thought about it a lot, she has a line that she can’t ...
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How would you legally design a permanent curse of private investigation against a ransomware operator's family?
The problems of one character from 2060 go back a long way.
In 2022, a ransomware gang infiltrated the computer systems of a local power company, threatening a widespread blackout unless a ...
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What are the Legal Responsibilities of a Police Officer with this Runaway Child?
So per this question- a month before the Police Officer meets the Runaway Child 'magic' suddenly appears in a 90s era Earth. Roughly 1 in 10,000 people start demonstrably using 'magic' and they can be ...
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Despite scientific advancements that can eliminate all birth defects, why would incest still be a taboo?
First and foremost: do we all agree that the main reason that incest or inbreeding is bad is because it leads to the passing down of recessive genes and these birth defects can severely impact the ...
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If magic can manipulate memories for inmates on death row, why hasn't capital punishment been abolished?
This is set in the modern day but in a parallel universe. As usual we have a food crisis and climate changes, etc.
Imagine a serial killer was finally arrested and sentenced to death, as the country ...
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How to modernize military in a short time
Related to this. MC is trying to build a modern nation out from an ancient one, and he also needs a modern military. A modern military is not just about equipment, it is also about having modern ...
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What would this character potentially be charged with in this situation? [closed]
In my sci fi short story I'm working on, a company called Generation sometime in the future, develops a viral based treatment for a new kind of cancer that has arisen in young children. Around fifteen ...
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How do werewolves cope with integration into human society with tough ban on transformation? [closed]
In my world werewolves are humans but would transform into part man part wolf when they stares at round and shiny object such as a full moon, the humans knew about it and even extended their welcome ...
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Can the use of lightning weapons be considered a war-crime? [closed]
Note: Just assume that there is also a Geneva convetion in this scenario because it is basically our earth in a few years in the future.
So, I just found of this news that the US had developed an ...
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Is it realistic and legal for someone who lives remotely in the UK to have a private mobile repeater?
Edit: Question has been edited due to confusion and details have been clarified on why they need a mobile signal.
I'm currently writing a short story and have the idea that someone that lives in a ...
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What issues could multiple lanes of travel in the air pose in a city?
In the world I am working on, society is made up of multiple species of equally intelligent/sapient humanoid insects that operate extremely similar to humans. Cities contain many different species of ...
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Hypothetical religion [closed]
If some society had religion that didn't believe in eternal damnation with a maximum sentence in hell being 15 billion years and then all people, even the worst people go to heaven, could this ...
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Regulation of body hopping / mind copying / mind manipulation
Scenario: in the not-so-distant future, someone(s) crack the code to the human mind. Essentially, humanity now has the power to treat the human mind as computer files - copy, delete, modify - all in ...
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Give proof or pay [closed]
In this kingdom the king really loves freedom of speech, thus he decided that dissonesty is a capital crime and sin.
When saying something, everyone involved must be cited by name and with date and ...
user88823
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How to enforce magic healing only with consent?
In fantasy worlds, healers can just speak some magic words and people even at a distance are healed without their consent, and necromancers can just bring the dead back to life. If someone raised my ...
user88577
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How can the wealthy prevent the illegal propagation of their genetic code?
The human genome has been completely mastered and understood by the end of this century, which has led to a service industry revolving around genetic codes. Gene editing to prevent diseases are now ...
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Legal implications of unproven magical powers [closed]
In this world, roughly 1% of people have actual supernatural ability (a combination of magical, deific, witchcraft, whatever). Their abilities range from the spectacular (pyromancy, flying, ...
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Navy tribunal after public attack [closed]
I'm not sure if this should be posted here, on writing, or somewhere else. But I am curious as to the procedure the navy (maybe like the US navy or even the British Royal Navy) would take after a ...
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How could publicly accessible information proving that a public figure is corrupt go undetected for at least a year?
How could publicly accessible information proving that a public figure is corrupt go undetected for at least a year?
Assume that the public figure is a moderately noteworthy politician (equivalent to ...
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How will resurrection affect inheritance law? [closed]
In our world, but in the future, humans have just discovered a technology that will resurrect any person for which a sample of DNA can be obtained. Now, for the first time, some people have been ...
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Magica Oscillation
A mysterious asteroid flew across a time rift, entered the Earth's upper atmosphere, and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Its sudden appearance updates the physical fundamental constants.
Now there is ...
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