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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Cyberpunk dystopia mixed with Roaring Twenties
I was looking at the cyperpunk genre, and I noticed that for dystopian futures, they always tend to do big, bad corporations controlling most of everything, with a mostly corrupt police force, and ...
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6
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4
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283
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Could an omniscient creature replace judges in trials?
In my world, an Omniscient creature exists.
We don't know how it got here, or if it was created, but it's real, and it's been "willing" to help humans for a long time now. However, every thing we ...
- 109
4
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10
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658
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How does privacy work if govt can access every camera throughout the city?
The 22nd century C.E. introduces a new concept of "smart city" in which everything is automated and requires little or no human intervention. For example, the daily household chores such as washing ...
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70
votes
14
answers
11k
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Help! Our merchants keep turning into villains!
To My Trusted Advisors;
It has now been six months since the founding of Puzzleville around the entrance to the magic-filled Labyrinth of Wonders. As expected, adventurers from around the world have ...
- 25.2k
111
votes
18
answers
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Truth Stone: Effects on the justice system, and criminal world
The setting is the medieval ages, vaguely European. No magic exists except what is explicitly stated in the question. The judicial system is similar to historic examples, with the head-of-state ...
- 17.5k
11
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9
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1k
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What would the ethical and legal concerns of Suicide Booths be? [closed]
In a fictional, alternate-reality Earth world, where euthanasia is a human right, as well as the choice to abort your own life (suicide), there are cheap, painless, widely accessible, publicly ...
- 211
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7
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Why do governments not permanently restrain super villains?
The argument for superheroes to capture villains alive is that superheroes are already illegally operating as vigilantes and compensating for muggle law enforcement is all they are morally obligated. ...
- 7,370
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4
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How would corporations look like if the conglomerates are banned? [closed]
I want to have a setting where legal system allows stocks to be owned only by the individuals. Meaning Joe could own stocks at Acme corporation, but LexCorp can't own stocks in Acme corporation. If ...
- 546
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3
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Would mask law helps prevent racial and cultural conflicts in the medieval times?
Say the Plantagenet kings of England in the medieval times are really tired of bloodshed and come up with a plan... pass down the mask law: every men and women must put on a plain mask, which must ...
- 48.1k
42
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13
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Why do governments not execute or otherwise permanently contain super villains?
The argument for superheroes to capture villains alive is that superheroes are already illegally operating as vigilantes and compensating for muggle law enforcement is all they are morally obligated. ...
- 7,370
19
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15
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Forcing everyone to speak the same language
Let's say that I own a planet and I have the chance to set up rules before any human can move in. I want to make a law that would welcome anyone to the planet as long as they only speak the decided ...
- 393
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4
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How to select citizen justices?
I'm creating a legal system without supreme court.
Instead I want citizens who are ready to spend something like 40 hours a year learning about an area [agriculture, energy, transportation, finance ...
- 245
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3
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253
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What would be the effects on the courts if Jury Nullification becomes common? [closed]
Jury nullification occurs when a jury returns a verdict of "Not
Guilty" despite its belief that the defendant is guilty of the
violation charged. The jury in effect nullifies a law that it
...
- 17
1
vote
4
answers
307
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An ID for Nobody [closed]
There's a person.
This individual doesn't have and ID, or a birth certificate, nor any document of any kind. They are not recorded as ever being citizen of any country. They possess knowledge and ...
- 6,685
4
votes
6
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278
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How to allow to imprison enemies of state, while still have opposition at large?
RL problem: Guantanamo. And that later Americans learnt that trying to imprison such people is so complicated from legal perspective that it is much less fuzz to just use drone. Later, the procedure ...
- 10.1k
13
votes
4
answers
3k
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Who owns genes? [closed]
I'm building a world where humans reproduce by machine, not by sex. Two or more individuals submit their DNA together to a breeding company. This company has pods that take multiple people's DNA, ...
- 277
2
votes
4
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222
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War on candies (or on other threats to modern, affluent people)
I need some societal ills/threats that nowadays are being treated as mostly neglected, but in a near future one could imagine a proper moral panic and attempts to eradicate it (regulate, properly ...
- 10.1k
-3
votes
1
answer
134
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The problem of Rights of Synthetics [closed]
The basis:
In the future there exists what I call "HuComs" Or Humanoid Computers(, like Chobits if you've seen it).
The usual HuCom is called a PersoCom, or Personal Computer. These are owned by a ...
- 6,618
7
votes
5
answers
907
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How would family relationships change if legal system uses collective punishment? [closed]
I have a legal system that uses blood relatives as legal unit.
For example Joe owes 120K in unpaid parking fees.
The court auctions his property but that only fetches 20K. Under the same jurisdiction ...
- 183
10
votes
6
answers
903
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How to govern marriage and family law for system recognizng polyamory or short term relationships?
Setting:
Partially rebuilt post apo world, normal sex ratio
Technology: comparable to early XXIst century
Affluence: first world equivalent
Mixed economy, semi-authoritarian system, low level of ...
- 10.1k
3
votes
1
answer
190
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How to design a sort of semi-innocuous penal district?
Setting: Partially rebuilt post apocalyptic world
Technology: Comparable to early 21st century
Affluence: First-world equivalent
Capital city with a few million people
Extra info concerning ...
- 10.1k
35
votes
21
answers
11k
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Why would the Federation ban escape pods that come with manual override?
The year is 2216 C.E., humanity develops an economic solution to travel to the Alpha Centauri A, our closest star system, in a matter of decades. Despite mankind's technological prowess our species is ...
- 48.1k
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2
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What would happen if the justice system is replaced with a zero sum game? [closed]
I'm writing about an augmented reality simulation world mirroring ours. In this reality the criminal justice system is based on the results of a coin toss. If a robbery victim files a police report, ...
- 48.1k
30
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18
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Why would the government ban flamethrowers in a zombie apocalypse?
Suppose there are several cases of zombie outbreaks across the globe during World War One, it was believed that the Central Powers* unleashed a deadly fungal disease into the world, hoping to create ...
- 48.1k
3
votes
2
answers
340
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Immigration in pre-industrial culture
The setting is not earth, but a fantasy world whose technical and cultural advancement parallel that of Europe and North America circa 1790-1820. In this era, what sort of immigration laws and ...
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58
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10
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What is valid evidence in a world with perfect CGI technology?
There are already real-world problems with analyzing whether particular graphic evidence is "photo-shopped" or genuine. In sci-fi technologically advanced future, realistic and perfect computer ...
- 2,347
1
vote
3
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Human versus robot/AI politicians
If the government were run by robots instead of politicians, and these robots had to reach out to the masses for every single decision they made, wouldn't the world be a better place because robots ...
- 125
2
votes
2
answers
205
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How would society change if all limitations on contracts were removed? [closed]
All modern legal systems impose limitations on what kind of contracts people can enter into. For example, if two people sign a contract saying that one of them becomes the other's slave for life, that ...
- 29
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votes
3
answers
721
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Say I accidentally release an AI [closed]
What would be the most likely thing to happen to someone if that person accidentally lets a "strong" AI upload itself to the Internet? I don't mean what would the public's opinion this guy be, I'm ...
- 2,193
1
vote
5
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If a conscious machine were to kill someone, who would be responsible? [closed]
Say someone built a machine, that was perfectly human in mind. It got angry and killed someone. Is the person who created the machine, nothing, or somehow the machine at fault in U.S. law?
- 121
4
votes
3
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371
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Dragons and Aviation Bureaucracy, the spin-off: what about piloted, non-sentient beings?
A year ago or so, a series of questions has been posted about dragons and aviation bureaucracy, with the following 4 questions:
Dragons and aviation bureaucracy
Dragons and aviation bureaucracy, the ...
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4
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0
answers
173
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What would be the main reason to avoid providing confidential data to the police by a company? [closed]
First of all: hello everybody. This is my first time posting here, and i want to apologize in advance for my bad english, as it's not my native language. I've been following this page for quite some ...
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4
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2
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How would a culture develop if it had to cover its hands at all time [closed]
There is a culture has decided that hands must be covered or hidden at all times. Perhaps they see the hands as vulgar or private, in the same way we see sexual organs. In general, they hide them ...
- 313
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3
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257
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New Global System to lower the murder rate on Earth [closed]
I have thought of a new system to lower the murder rate on earth. This new Law is enforced and authorized for every human who is 25 years age that has been found guilty by trial for the murder or ...
- 243
4
votes
2
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2k
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GPLv4: All our code are belong to Micro$oft. How much damage is done? [closed]
Let's say that Microsoft or some other company somehow takes over the FSF (I haven't filled in the details of this take over yet. We'll just say that they filled their food with mind control nanites ...
- 13.2k
2
votes
1
answer
183
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The Possibility Life Patents?
Genetic engineering has come a long ways now form it's humble beginnings with Dolly to artificial organs, it's only a matter of time before we are making brand new animals to use for circuses, sports ...
- 56.3k
1
vote
1
answer
220
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Police have to fight with words instead of fists. How does this affect society? [closed]
In Noviolenstan, police are required to enforce the law with their words, not their fists or any other violent means. If you don't pay your speeding tickets, a police officer will come and explain why ...
- 13.2k
10
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6
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1k
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What sort of legal and penal system might a space colony develop?
I'm using this question about likely forms of government for a space colony.
What sort of legal and penal system might develop on such a colony?
This is a pretty broad question, so assume the ...
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3
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How to prevent counterfeit donuts in a doughnut currency society?
A crazy politician (named Tronald Dump) is elected as leader of a country. Being crazy, he changes to the national currency to be donuts with the following conversion:
Doughnut Hole = 1d
Glazed ...
1
vote
1
answer
484
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Implications of Perfect CGI
In this scenario a piece of alien technology crashes on earth spilling nanomachines which permeate the earth, becoming ubiquitous. These nanobots can interface with digital technology and people's ...
- 2,793
2
votes
1
answer
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If we could form a human brainet how would/could it be defined under the current (US) law?
Assuming that a brainet composed of various individuals can be thought of legally in terms similar to a "corporation" or other legal entity (though it IS NOT such an entity for argument's sake), what ...
- 2,906
4
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2
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400
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Humans can now spit acid. How does culture change? [closed]
Lets pretend for a moment that this isn't completely stupid. How do or don't the collective governing bodies of the world respond?
Humans are completely normal except for this ability
Limited by the ...
31
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10
answers
6k
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Humans can now fly. What new laws are created?
Let's pretend for a moment that, right now, everybody on Earth was given the ability of flight. What new legislation would have to be passed to regulate this ability?
Physical restrictions on the ...
- 739
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How to catch those beating red light in space?
In the year 2155 C.E. humans colonized the solar system and eventually settled on the ninth planet, interplanetary travel is very common and the authority wants to monitor every space vessel for ...
- 48.1k
11
votes
7
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771
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Could a democracy where a program runs the nation and we vote on pull requests work?
Welcome to Computistan! Would you like to begin learn about our immigration services?
Great, what would you like to learn about today?
I will explain our Government. In Computistan all government ...
- 13.2k
10
votes
5
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2k
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What do you do with people who do not sign the social contract?
Related: What if the social contract was literal?
Backstory (Optional)
In Levithania it is recognized that, until 18, a child has no rights of themselves, being owned by the parents. Parents have a ...
- 13.2k
44
votes
16
answers
6k
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Could the law be implemented as a computer program?
The laws would be defined in code written in a programming language. Maybe it would be in two parts, the actual rules and then a library that could run them (like how a form validation library is ...
- 549
5
votes
2
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423
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The teleporters stopped deleting the old copies. What happens? [duplicate]
Similar to I duplicate the U.S. President. What happens?, but much much worse.
Okay, so teleporters have become common. How it works is you step into a police box, dial in a location, and then it ...
- 13.2k
9
votes
5
answers
1k
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Abolishing slavery [closed]
I have a series of weakly interconnected magical realms, in which there is limited movement between the realms. The technology in these realms varies from the medieval to the early 1800s. There is ...
- 67k
19
votes
5
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813
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How would lawmakers try to use and abuse a system with magically-enforced laws?
John is walking in the park one day, ranting to himself about stupid drivers not obeying the speed limit and roaring down his street and the stupid police not doing anything about it, when he comes ...
- 20k