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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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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How would an execution by impalement be carried out at a modern US prison? [closed]
Let's suppose that a crazy murderer demands the right to be executed by longitudinal impalement. He wins the court cases over it, and the judges - after all, he is the one who wants it. The judges say ...
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Is it possible to change the philosophical orientation of judicial matters in small social structures? [closed]
I have a question about social structures in modern times.
Why is it that people tend to build the strictest rules in small groups like forums and social media communities, even though in reality ...
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What legal ramifications would befall by turning ones' self into a new species? [closed]
The government came to take his research. So... he dumped all of it to the internet. Blogs, social media, email, torrents, deep web, forums, etc. Included are the instructions for, using readily-...
user46277
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In the US, how closely are people who die in a fire investigated? [closed]
Let's say a house burns down and there's a body in the house. The body is badly damaged but roughly matches the sole inhabitant of the house. How much effort is typically required to ensure the body ...
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What if we cancelled property inheritance? [closed]
Say there was a rise of a social democratic group inside the US Democratic party in 1990' that would in a matter of 5 years convince over 70 % of Americans that we should cancel inheritance, so that ...
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In a world where everything you do is recorded, should there be judgments? [closed]
This world has the following characteristics:
Futurist world where death is already cured and our bodies are full of nanomachines that improve us.
These nanomachines record everything we do. Ex. ...
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What is the probability of two people having two identical scars? [closed]
What is the probability of two people having the same scar on their body in the same spot and the same shape and the same backstory (drunk driver in a chevy '78) Could the scar be a viable form of ...
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How can I ensure that I don't miss something important to the functioning of society when building a government and set of statutes for my world?
So, I'm working on building a state (kingdom to be more precise) as part of my world, and as part of that exercise I want there to be some contact between characters in said world and the legal system,...
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Criminal law and backward time travel
Alright, this might sound pretty convoluted, but I would truly value an expert eye to help me with a very theoretical situation.
I've been working on a science fiction novel where the whole world ...
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Legal consequences of duplicated and "resurrected" people in a Temporal shift [closed]
A plane goes trough some kind of atmospheric disturbance and ends up badly damaged, crashing after trying an emergency landing. Of 200 passengers onboard, only 80 survive, some of them badly injured (...
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A nation wants to add intelligent undead like vampires as legal citizens. What laws have to change?
The setting for my RPG has one large empire of humans that wants to
establish a colony on a moon much like our own moon. No atmosphere, no
food, no heat, no problem: The empire has a hundred ...
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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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Halloween: How can werewolf work in US?
Among those scary monsters visiting us every year, some must have been accustomed to us after several visits. If they wish to stay in US after the Halloween and work as foreigner from the Otherworld, ...
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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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1 in 10,000 people no longer need to sleep. Would different laws need to apply to them? [closed]
Tomorrow, 0.01% of the world's population will wake up and no longer need to sleep. (Some of these Awakened people may then be incapable of sleeping any more, but that's incidental). To give a rough ...
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How would criminal justice works today if humans evolved hive mind? [closed]
Say the early humans not only invented tools but they also evolved swarm intelligence, think of the behavior in shoal of fish and swarms of bees.
Now fast forward to the present day, there is a ...
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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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Why would the government ban mind uploading when humans are biologically immortal? [closed]
The year is 2317 C.E.
Assume all existing humans were bitten by radioactive "water-bears" or tardigrades. Ignore statistics and disregard murphy's law. Every human can live forever, unless due to ...
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Can my character build an atom bomb? [duplicate]
This person is kinda of a show-off. He wants to build a nuclear weapon simply to impress everyone because he's a smartass.
He means no harm, fissile and explosive components are replaced with inert ...
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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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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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Magic of the Three Gods (Fire, Lightning, Ice)
Triangle of 10 Elements (magic system)
In my fantasy world, Takeover Creania, I have three gods that control the elements and thus its lush magical power:
Seraphina - elder sister, goddess of the ...
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Helping organic farms [closed]
What kind of laws & regulations would be advantageous to family operated organic farms and detrimental to industrial farms?
Assume those could be legislated by democratic government in the ...
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Freelance detectives
Bad guys will do bad things, no matter how far in the future we go to. Even with space travel and other lifeforms to live alongside humanity, crime will rear its ugly head no anywhere, anytime. So ...
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Plausible? Industrial Technology is forbidden, rulers are not allowed to use magic, and court mages are responsible for keeping magic in check
I'm in the midst of worldbuilding a science fantasy story where once, many of its inhabitants were capable of using magic including the kings who ruled over it with harmony. Eventually, an industrial ...
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What would be the effects of a system where children of uneducated parents won't be allowed to study? [closed]
In my educational system, there is one simple rule: you can't attain an education level higher than that of your parents. If they have A levels, you get A levels. If they have a high school diploma, ...
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Panhandle property history
I am drawing a map of a fictional city (currently set in year 1900). All the technology is based on the real world. My map includes property boundaries. In certain cases, a property is behind another, ...
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Murder against Murder [closed]
My Kepler Bb people are very anti-murder.
What I am proposing is that murderers get murdered but not with a typical murder weapon.
There are 3 types of murder that they are concerned with. Those are ...
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Which legal procedures should be used to protect legitimacy of sortitition based deliberative democracy?
"sortition based deliberative democracy" - I'm not certain how exactly such a system should be called in English. I mean a political system in which instead of making a general election or referendum, ...
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Child custody in world where 3 partners required for reproduction [closed]
Imagine a world with intelligent beings [intelligence equal to human beings]. In general things are like here on Earth, except there are 3 partners required for reproduction [e.g. one sex with the ...
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Should we give sentient NPCS human rights? [closed]
I am a game master in the most advanced virtual reality MMORPG. In this virtual lands NPCs are sentient beings: they reproduce, feel emotions and behave identical to humans. That's great, isn't it? Oh,...
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How do i regulate fake avatars in my VR-MMORPG? [closed]
I am the developer of Feudal souls, a fantasy open world VR-game with 2 million of players. My game is very big. Players constructed small towns in the first year and killed only 1 boss.
Now is the ...
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Would North Korean aircraft be able to fly international routes? [closed]
Theoretically if North Korea could produce safe passenger aircraft could it be certified to fly on international routes?
I don't care about the program cost or the required engineering effort, that ...
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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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If a country house in England (1950) could not pay government death duties and is going to be demolished, what happens to the debt? [closed]
This grand English country house is going to be demolished. The owner owes death duties and debts. During the wars most of the valuable art etc were sold off to raise funds. It was also requisitioned ...
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Wanted for questioning by FBI - gets on cruise ship into international waters [closed]
I have a character that has not committed a crime, but is wanted by the Feds for questioning and whose mental capacity is in question (ability to make decisions for herself). If she can get on the ...
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New laws for clone marriage? [closed]
After the evil Cynndor aliens destroyed our ability to naturally reproduce, scientists perfected cloning techniques. But for some scientific reason, you can only reproduce with a clone of yourself of ...
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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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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 to justify a "prime directive" law? [closed]
I am attempting to develop a coherent argument for a "prime directive," or law that respects the right to self-determination of less advanced civilizations. In Star Trek the Prime Directive is ...
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Jurisdiction over strange events in the continental US
I'm writing a story in the genre of Heroes, The 4400 etc in which a group of apparently random civilians, mostly US citizens, are subjected to some alien influence and gain strange powers, whereupon ...
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Would it be plausible for Corporatist Federation to allow its members to go to war?
Let's say that somewhere in Wildspace, there is a Corporatocracy.
This Corporatocracy is ruled by a what is essentially a parliament, with membership restricted to those Corporate-Nations above a set ...
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Sensible regulations on sentient AI with citizenship rights
In the science fiction universe I'm working on, I've had it written that sentient AI have citizen's rights. I've been developing this setting for nearly a decade. Trying to refine the older parts now ...
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Could US president start and expect to survive a global nuclear war?
Consider the following, modern-day scenario:
A relative madman is elected as US president
The US president can irreversibly launch nuclear weapons under 60 minutes without oversight by congress, ...
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World building: Thralls, Slaves and how to keep them from running away
Due to low numbers of humans, the death penalty is forbidden and impractical as it would bring mankind to the brink of extinction.
All prison sentences are now changed to various forms of thralldom ...
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Is working for foreign dictator illegal? [closed]
I have a fighter jet designer who leads a project for a Pentagon competition. The company invests a lot of private funds which makes the project do or die. The designer is obsessed with the project ...
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How to punish elected politicians in a more effective way?
How do we punish elected politicians in a more effective way?
(Or at best, how do we avoid voters being willing to punish the whole political class in general?)
To briefly explain what I mean:
...
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Sacrifing a province to let frustrated/utopian/uniformed citizens to test their brilliant ideas
This idea is based on a problem that I see in real life, that a group of citizens who are... Oopsie... who I perceive as frustrated/utopian/uninformed want to try a really brilliant idea, and as it is ...
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How to justify the presence of angels on earth when god doesn't pass judgement until after death
While I did draw inspiration from Christianity, this is not about the actual Christian religion. I just use the term "angel" because it helps to understand. In reality, those angels are more like "...
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