Laws and Crimes of the Empire

Law and Crime

The notion of any sort of criminal prosecution in the North is laughable. Justice exists only insomuch as individuals are willing to dispense some measure of justice by their own hand. More frequently, justice is carried out by mobs, vigilantes, mercenaries, or vengeance-obsessed swordsmen. Some find this freedom from needless litigation as a blessing, especially if one’s chosen profession is criminal in nature. In the Empire, though, crime is not tolerated in any fashion. The smallest transgressions are punished by exorbitant fines (based on the Station of the individual) and very brief incarcerations (never longer than three months). Anything more severe is considered grounds for being exiled. Anyone transgressing beyond a certain point is considered a danger to society and is removed. Once a person steps outside the realm of orthodoxy, it is reasoned, they have ceased participating in society and thus cannot be allowed to reap its benefits. Since the Empire has outlawed execution for ten thousand years, exile is the only means of removing subversive individuals from society. Justicars are judge and jury for all infractions of law, meting out sentence once they feel they have adequate evidence for conviction. Families are permitted to argue on behalf of their members during exile proceedings because of the shadow it casts over an entire family line.

The following acts are grounds for bringing exile proceedings against an individual. Justicars have huge leeway in prosecuting these crimes, interpreting the charges in any way they feel fit. However, the Justicar must prove that the act has, in some way, transgressed against the Doctrine of Unity. Justicars must prove that one of these charges is the appropriate one for prosecution, but as is shown below, each charge is administered in a very broad fashion.

Treason

The charge of treason can be levied against anyone who harms the security of the Empire, conspires with exiles, speaks against the Doctrine of Unity, or otherwise conflicts with the social enterprise known as the Empire of Perfect Unity. This was the charge that eventually saw Fu Sun exiled from the August Deliberative and into the arms of brutal slavers, for being the only member speaking out against the Empire’s agricultural plan. It is also the charge levied against unlicensed practitioners of the Thirteen Harmonious Changes. Again, Justicars are given tremendous leeway in bringing this charge against citizens. Soldiers who flee from battle, intellectuals who question the Ancestors’ wisdom, and craftsmen who cut corners have all been exiled under this crime.

Family Crimes

The charge of ‘crimes against the family’ are any who subvert the Imperial mode of family norms. This charge is generally levied against adulterers, but extremely unruly children and women who refuse the advances of their husbands are also caught up by this crime. As with all Imperial law, Justicars may interpret it as they feel appropriate. Thus have people been exiled for such seemingly insignificant crimes as writing love poetry that seems to be about someone other than their appointed spouse, allowing one’s eyes to linger too long on a friend’s wife, or skipping monastic school a second time in a row.

Violence

Violence is the essence of disharmony. In the presence of bloodletting, there can be no Unity, Perfect or otherwise. Needless to say this crime applies to all assaults, murders, extortions, and similar acts. This is often an easily proven infraction of the law, but has been successfully prosecuted against small punch-ups, very loud arguing, and the making of violent threats. The Empire really has no tolerance for a lack of courtesy, to say nothing of actual violence. Wong Fei, the Philosopher, spends a great deal of time explaining why violence is unacceptable and it is this wisdom that inspired the First Emperor to ban capital punishment (but not before having slain thousands unifying the Empire). However, despite the prohibition against violence, many Bureaucrats, Stone Lions, and Justicars spend their days training in the Scholar Sword. Such a technique exists primarily as a means of defense, they reason, and therefore is not training for any sort of murder or wounding.

Selfishness

Selfishness is in fact considered grounds for exile, assuming the harm against society can be proven sufficiently to banish the accused for all time. Theft, lying, falsifying records, or withholding needed commodities are all grounds for bringing this charge. Unlike other charges, however, this one is given far greater scrutiny, for it is often brought against another party as a means of carrying out a grudge. Oftentimes, a party considers themselves injured and seeks to gain redress by exiling whoever they perceive as having wronged them. In their minds, the target of this charge is certainly guilty of selfishly harming others for their own personal gain. Such specious charges are nearly universally thrown out.