Questions tagged [law]
For questions related to the sets of rules set in place by organizations to govern the behaviour of the people.
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How does Santa protect himself from IP lawsuits?
As is well known, all of Santa's presents are manufactured by elves at the North Pole. However, a lot of presents are protected by various IP rights. Be it Adidas clothing, a DVD of the newest ...
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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 ...
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Can a casino system prove my (divine) luck as cheating?
I walked this morning and met a street fortune-teller. This old gypsy invited me to get my luck told, and she just blabbed those old nonsense phrases about how this day will be my lucky day and such. ...
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What questions should I ask myself when designing a legal system for a fantasy world?
QUESTION
In the real world, the history of law in pre-industrial states is as sprawling and complex as can be imagined, and includes all kinds of unique and fascinating systems, from the Code of ...
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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 ...
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How to enforce a Ban on Vegetarianism
Let's say that Vegetarianism is banned in my country and meat eating is mandatory. The technology is modern. Stuff like Tofu, Quorn and other things that can make vegetarianism more popular are banned ...
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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 ...
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Why zero tolerance on nudity in space?
Set in the immediate future, mankind visits Titan, moon of Saturn for the first time. A manned space station goes into orbit around the moon once every 4-5 hours. Actually there have been many people ...
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How would law enforcement be different if we could talk to the dead?
There are many application of being able to communicate with the dead but in the interests of scoping I'm interested in law enforcement and sentencing. The method would be scientifically proven ...
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Dragons and aviation bureaucracy
Once you do the handwaving needed to explain a modern-day world with flight-capable dragons in it, how would said dragons interact with the bureaucracy surrounding flying in the modern world? What ...
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Could you claim a space station as a country?
Following in the steps of the entrepreneur Elon Musk who created SpaceX (which creates rockets to get to space), an entrepreneur decides to build a space station for visitors.
But instead of just a ...
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Can I reduce the crime rate by penalizing criminals' children socially?
This is a social engineering method.
The government takes background checks very seriously. A person's moral standing is not only determined by the actions of the person themselves, but also by his/...
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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 ...
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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. ...
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A road system with no traffic rules - what sort of vehicle is best?
In Britopia there were the Leftists who believed motorists should drive on the left and the Rightists who believed they should drive on the Right. The vote split exactly down the middle and it was ...
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Using international waters to avoid legal punishment
I am playing with the idea of a lateral thinking puzzle based around abusing international waters to make an action 'legal'. For the sake of this question lets assume someone from the US is looking ...
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What is Santa's defense against an unlawful withholding of welfare charge?
Santa's1 been taken to court!
Kids in the United States have complained that they're getting too much coal and the class-action lawyers heard their cries for redress! Obedient to a summons from the ...
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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 ...
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Lying is illegal. How to make joking not an offence?
In the society I am building it is illegal for a government official to lie (this isn't a reaction to real world politics; I've been building this world for a while), while speaking/acting as ...
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How could a law exist that allows victims to be arrested for the crime against them?
The dwarven legal system is broken. So badly broken that, whether explicitly through legislation or accidentally via a loophoole, it is possible for the victim of a crime to charged, tried and ...
user7076
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Punishment in pacifist society
I'm building a race of plant-like creatures that are pacifists in a pre-industrial age world. Because they live hidden in forests, caves, etc. and often blend in with the natural flora, occasionally ...
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Reason why dimensional travelling would be restricted
Alternate dimensions/timelines are an important part of one of my settings, a modern fantasy. Magic is well known, and it is possible for objects to be enchanted by a powerful magic user to connect ...
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How could a private corporation take over the British government
I've been toying with how to word this question but I can't think of how to word it well.
Under current British law would it be possible to 'privatize' the government?
In my scenario I'm wanting a ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Prosecuting crime when the means used to commit it are far beyond current understanding
This is a rewrite of this question in an attempt to bring it back in topic and avoid the story based objections.
Imagine a world like ours but where a temporary portal could be constructed between ...
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What's the impact of a "cloning" teleporter?
Extending upon my prior question, could-a-viable-interstellar-civilization-form-with-this-technology.
From what I've read there's two basic ideas which describe how teleportation might work:
Destroy ...
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Regulating the usage of magic in the modern era
If magic were to manifest in the modern (present) age, how would first world governments attempt to classify and regulate its usage? To be more specific (and an example), if the USA created a ...
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Why would a country persecute people with autism?
A alternate-historical story is set in a third-world country some time in the 70s or 80s. The country operates similarly to any semi-developed country in central or south America. The countryside is ...
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How does a super-power salesman not get shut down for legal reasons?
I am in trouble: my boss, a multi-millionaire, has just come up with a scheme, but it has problems and he wants me to solve them.
The whole thing started when he saw this picture:
This gave him an ...
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We can change our leaders whenever we like. What happens?
In the U.S., we vote on who are leaders are about every 4 years. My question is, what if you have a representative government where this is increased? Specifically, you can change your vote anytime.
...
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How can I legally reduce religion in my world?
Religious rights are protected, and freedom to religion is secured, how can we reduce religion in a country without breaking religious rights laws.
Here are some examples:
Ban religious schools (...
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Magic and the Legal System
Alfred is on trial. He stands accused of murdering Frank. He was caught red handed with a knife that tested positive for Frank's blood. He was also seen dumping Frank's body into the river by Bob, ...
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Why would Patent Terms be extended to centuries?
I need technology patent terms to last centuries, thousands of years even (not necessarily millions though). Obviously I don't need the Patent Laws to change overnight. The Laws can take its time to ...
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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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How would deafening as punishment be carried out?
Blinding, amputation and other punitive mutilations have been used effectively in the past; however there are no accounts of deafening, e.g. removal of one's sense of sound, being carried out.
How ...
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A Society Built Around Theft?
Would it be possible for a stable society to be built around the concept of theft as a positive action, and thievery as a virtue, while still having theft be technically illegal, but having the ...
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What is a good reason for every spaceship to carry a weapon on board?
In the near future humanity has started mining on Mars. International (and interplanetary) treaties governing the use of lethal weapons in space dictate that anyone possessing such a weapon must carry ...
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What if parents didn't "own" their children?
Passage of the Childhood Ownership Act of 20X8
Bob has finally made it to a position of power as a rich white male in the First World after hundreds of lives as a powerless child. He has used his ...
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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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Marriage and divorce in the future [closed]
In the future, if medical technology is significantly advanced and humans live indefinitely, or at least for human lifespans have increased by tens or hundreds of years, how will marriage/divorce/...
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How could a society that emphasises spirit of a law over loopholes develop a legal system
Today you hear allot of people talking about loophole abuse and ways to meet the letter of a law without the spirit of it.
In truth as I understand it that isn't always the case, and common law ...
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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 ...
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Trial: If an animal has human or near-human intellect, how might a western legal system determine its personhood?
Suppose humans are living in conjunction with several intelligent and communicative species of animals, dogs and cats for example. These animals might be legally considered people; being held ...
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Protecting "rights" of androids that are not considered persons by law
Consider a society where the population includes a number of sentient androids, practically indistinguishable from humans in appearance. In practice, they are treated exactly like humans under most ...
user42460
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Can Global Disasters caused by Bearers (People with Terrible Luck) be Properly Contained?
The Bearer: Background
On Alternate Earth, studies and cases have shown that a small percentage of the population (10%) is responsible for 90% of the bad luck.
These people are targeted by bad luck, ...
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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 ...
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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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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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Simple Legal System
I've recently been reading a lot of utopian/dystopian fiction, and quite a few of them (e.g. Thomas More's Utopia) has this idea that people shouldn't be ruled over by laws that they can't understand. ...
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