Regents and the Law

[Kent Lerch]

Sebastiaan recently wrote:
"I was wondering with a LN Warrior as regent with most of the Law
Holdings in reins, what do you use for laws? Do you make a set before
play, or make some up during play, or never bother at all? Also with
a CG merchant with the Law prof. should I make a list of laws
appriopriate for me to know? What is your experience with laws?"

I would not bother making up a list of laws. Go out and buy a historical code of
laws; there are usually cheap editions for history and legal history students
which have the advantage of being more detailed than anything your players will
ever come up with. The Holy Roman Empire for instance used the Constitutio
Criminalis Carolina of 1532 (which was thus also in force in the Netherlands,
might be of interest to Sebastiaan), which is ideal for campaign use (we've been
using it in our campaigns for the last fifteen years). The CCC gives you neat
ideas on how the late medieval society dealt with crimes, meted out punishments
and conducted trials. It has its use especially in a fantasy world, as it gives
you ideas how to handle magical offenses (on which topic you will not get very
much help from modern penal codes). The CCC dealt with witchcraft as a capital
offense. Using magic as such was not a crime, but the use of magic in order to
harm somebody else was considered witchcraft and punishable by death on the
stake. So all unscrupulous mages in your domains should better watch out ... The
historical text also give you insights on how to conduct trials, on the use of
torture and the various types of punishments (imprisonment was virtually unknown
as punishment; dungeons were used to hold criminals for trial and debtors which
were not willing to pay; the usual punishments were corporal punishment).
Penal law will be the law you need most of the time; don't bother with civil and
commercial law and just assume it is very similar to modern use (most of the
medieval civil and commercial law was based on Roman law which has influenced
the majority of modern legal systems, even common law). The main difference is
actually not in substance but in procedure.
A look at feudal law might be quite interesting for all GMs and regents though:
here I recommend Marc Blochs masterpiece The Feudal Society for an excellent
description of the medieval society and the rules which governed it. Another
good source might be Bakers Introduction to English Legal History, which gives a
good overview of feudal law, civil law and penal law in England.
Hope this helps for a start
Kent

[148530@student.fbk.EUR.N]

Kent Lerch wrote:
> I would not bother making up a list of laws. Go out and buy a historical code of
> laws; there are usually cheap editions for history and legal history students
> which have the advantage of being more detailed than anything your players will
> ever come up with. The Holy Roman Empire for instance used the Constitutio
> Criminalis Carolina of 1532
snip
> A look at feudal law might be quite interesting for all GMs and regents though:
> here I recommend Marc Blochs masterpiece The Feudal Society for an excellent
> description of the medieval society and the rules which governed it. Another
> good source might be Bakers Introduction to English Legal History, which gives a
> good overview of feudal law, civil law and penal law in England.


Thanx a lot, I can surely use some of these, and I have a moderately
strong feeling one of my players has the CCC, since she is an
addicted law sutedent (addicted to law I mean, but hey which law
student isn't?).
Seb

************************************************** ***************
Sebastiaan G.P. Berendse
148530@student.fbk.eur.nl

There is a world just around the corner of your mind
where reality is an intruder and dreams come true.
You may escape into it at will, you need no secret password,
magic wand or Alladins Lamp, all you need is your own imagination...
************************************************** *******************