Pernese Law

Fletcher hrms darkly. "Well! Why is it important for Harpers to know law?
Why, for the average route Harper or the performance Harper, does law matter?
Because people expect us to know it. If we do, we can hopefully help some
people with deliberations about law. If we don't, we and the entire Craft
lose face in the eyes of some people. Ninety percent of this Craft is keeping
up appearances! So, we must have at least a superficial understanding of law,
which is the object of this lesson."
Jayla turns her full attention to Fletcher and nods in understanding.
Caramak lets Fletch roll. So this is how 'e does it...
Fletcher ponders for a moment or two. "Most of this lesson will deal with Hold
law, as it's the easiest to understand and also the most commonly called upon
to deal with. With ALL Matter of law, though, there are three preceps to be
followed. First: Hold, Hall, and Weyr are autonomous. This means that Hold
cannot influence Hold except through a Lord's Conclave, Weyr cannot influence
Weyr, etc. Next, the leader of an area has ABSOLUTE jurisdiction within an
area. What a Lord Holder says is LAW for his Hold, unless specifically
countermanded by the Lord's Conclave. Finally, Harpers are ONLY advisors for
law. We interpret it, give our opinions. We are NEVER to judge unless the
matter of law is in a Harper-area or the leader of the area specifically gives
a Harper jurisdiction for one individual case."
Fletcher looks over to Jayla. "Any questions or problems so far?"
Caramak feels in familiar territory, and settles himself more comfortably, ie,
in an even more sprawling position.
Jayla looks thoughtful. "So Harpers act basically as advisors only.."
Fletcher smiles and nods. "Yes, that's it. So, considering that, I could say
you know all there is to know about law and end the lesson. However, law gets
vaguely messy when there are situations which cross over these lines. As you
learned in the previous lesson, politics and law are intimately intertwined.
Something which may be LEGAL may not be POLITICAL for someone to do. Ah,
also, the chain or redress. Should an average Holder have a problem, who do
you think he should first contact?"
Jayla says, "I would say possibly the Steward or the Headman and if it were a
problem they couldn't handle, then they would refer it to you."
Fletcher smiles softly. "Close! Ideally, the first people they'd contact is
their local Holder. If he couldn't handle it, then the major Hold's Steward.
Then the Lord Holder. If the issue is regarding the actions of the Lord in a
major way, the Lord's Conclave might look at it, but that's somewhat doubtful
unless it's very drastic. Also, people may approach you as a Harper. You can
direct them anywhere in the chain of command, so long as you can explain WHY
you brought the man to that level! Make sense?"
Jayla nods "Yes, it does...one man can't solve all the problems of the Hold!"
Caramak winks. "Not even you, Fletch..."
Jayla grins at Caramak.
Fletcher chuckles and nods. "Very true! Now... There are issues within one's
Hold which are difficult to resolve. Indeed, Caramak! take, for example, two
Holders who have herds of herdbeasts. One man has about 35, the other has
about 65. During a particularly bad storm, the herdbeasts get all mixed up, a
few die, and in the end, no one knowswhich herdbeast belongs to whom. The two
Holders bring the issue to your attention. OThey both claim they had about 60
heads of herdbeasts...."
Caramak considers the problem Fletcher is posing, stroking the beard on his
chin in contemplation. This is a new one on him...
Jayla looks thoughtful for a minute. "If neither could prove how many they had
to start with, what choice would you have but to split them evenly."
Fletcher grins wryly. "Yes, but then you're short changing one of them and
giving more to one who didn't deserve it. That'll create an impression that
you're not at all fair! It might encourage people to actually engineer such
situations..."
Caramak nods. "Of course, the best situation would be to ask around, and find
out which one was telling the truth..."
Fletcher grins and nods to Caramak. "True, true. Everyone you ask doesn't
really know. Them herds just kept to themselves, they did."
Caramak says, "...And then punish the one who wasn't for attempting to steal
cattle from the toher."
Caramak sits back stroking his chin again.
Fletcher corrects, "Well, they tell you that Holder A had less herdbeasts, but
they couldn't say exactly how many."
Jayla nods at Caramak. "Yes, but answer was based on there being absolutely no
evidence! A Harper can't know everything! In this case, how would you split
them but evenly?"
Caramak says, "How rough an estimate can they give you?""
Fletcher says to Caramak, "Oh, Holder A had between 30 and 50, Holder B had
between 50 and 70."
Caramak considers, then nods, looking like he's come to some sort of
conclusion, for himself, anywya.
Fletcher smiles to Jayla. "Well, there's a better solution in my mind, anyway."
Jayla says, "In that case, you would be relying on hearsay evidence...suppose
Holder B was more popular with everyone than Holder A and everyone tried to
make it look like Holder B had more?"
Fletcher nods to Jayla. "So? Any solution before I let Caramak loose?"
Jayla says, "I still stand by original thought. Considering the lack of
evidence, I would still split them evenly."
Fletcher nods and looks to Caramak with a raised eyebrow.
Caramak nods..."Firstly, I would try to get the two men to agree on one of
their neighbors to use as a judge of herd size. Assuming this agreement is
possible, I would collect herds in approximately the sizes of the estimates of
the other neighbors, and ask this third party to judge which was about the
right sized herd for each man. Given that this man is agreed upon by both, he
should be fair, and have a fair guess, at least in that Holder A's herd would
be significantly smaller. Having established this, and having divided the
animals as they should be divided to the best of this rough estimate, I would
transfer some additional animals from the smaller to the larger herd as
punishment for Holder A's attempts at theft by legal fraud. This whole thing
hinges upon the third party witness, however."
Jayla smiles. "But what if there is no third party witness?"
Caramak says, "Then, if it were agreed by all that Holder A did indeed not have
60 head, as estimates fell from 30-50, I would consider the entire
neighborhood as third parties. Unless there were a wide-spread conspiracy to
gang up upon the holder in question, it is unlikely he actually had 60 beasts.
And givent that, I would do much the same thing, only I would probably be
more lenient on Holder A, since nothing could be proven, and no expert judge
could be found."
Fletcher looks between the two Harpers. "Hmmmm. An interesting solution,
Caramak. One I hadn't thought of before, certainly. Jayla, any comments?"
Jayla shakes her head stubbornly. "If you have evidence and witnesses, then
you have a basis to make a decision. But the question was, what to do if
there is /no/ way to prove who had how many herdbeasts to start with!!"
Jayla sits back a minute as she thinks of another point.
Caramak says, "There are the witnesses of neighbors...If it were a completely
isolated case, with no precedent, then who in their right mind COULD make a
decision?"
Fletcher giggles softly, but makes no comments.
Caramak raises an eyebrow to Fletch saying, no, I don't think you're in your
right mind, but we both knew that ;)
Jayla says, "However, one could inspect the places where the different herds
were kept. If there was a considerable difference in the areas and the food
kept to feed the beasts, then I could see deciding in favor of the Holder who
claimed to have the larger herd. "
Caramak nods. "And there are probably some records of each's tithing..."
Fletcher raises an even more intrigued eyebrow and giggles again. "Hee hee!
No one's ever thought this deeply into this problem," he says giddily, very
excited to see these thoughts.
Caramak shrugs. "We're just examining all the evidence..."
Jayla smiles. "Your lessons do tend to make one think, Lord Fletcher."
Fletcher grins broadly. "That's the idea! Yes, look at tithe records. I'd
never thought of that because one Holder could have had a particularly bad
calving season, etc. My decision on the matter was to divide it approximately
40/60, but take a 5 head fine from each Holder for not branding their
herdbeasts!"
Jayla says, "How could decide 40/60 without evidence?"
Fletcher ponders this. "Well, we know one Holder has more than the other.
And, really, it won't make much of a difference. Both men will have been
penalized equally by the fine, and they'll concentrate more on that than any
incorrect division of their herdbeasts. And everyone in the Holding will be
sure to brand their animals!"
Jayla shakes her head. "They would have been better off by having me divide
them evenly!"
Fletcher grins to Jayla. "But they would have been more bitter at it. One
would think he was getting away with something, the other would think he was
being penalized for no reason. Penalizing people for prospering is no good!
But penalizing them for doing something stupid?"
Jayla laughs. "I see I have a lot to learn."
Fletcher smirks softly. "Any thoughts, Caramak?"
Caramak considers. "Penalizing them for not branding is a good idea....But
also, penalizing one man for lying, if you feel you have the evidence, is, to
me, more important."
Fletcher nods to Caramak. "True. IF you have the evidence."
Caramak nods..."I think we've beaten that problem to death..."
Jayla frowns slightly, still not convinced.
Fletcher chuckles agreement. "Indeed! Now then... Caramak, care to pose your
famous law problem? I use it at the end of all of my classes."
Caramak winces. "My 'famous' law problem? Oh, the one about the guy from SBH
who ran to Fort?"
Fletcher smiles broadly!
Caramak hms. "Lessee. Haven't taught this in a while..." He hedges for a
moment as he tries to recall the specifics.
Caramak nods. "Ok. A man in South Boll commits a murder."
Caramak says, "He then runs from the Lord's guards all the way to Fort."
Caramak says, "There isn't a question of the man's guilt. But when he arrives
on Fort soil, the Boll guards are legally required to give up pursuit...Their
jurisdiction ends with South Boll's lands."
Caramak says, "So this man arrives in Fort, and the Lord of Fort is dutifully
informed. Now, what is the Lord of Fort /required by law/ to do?"
Jayla says, "Wouldn't he be required to turn the man over to the Boll guards?"
Caramak waits for a response from Jayla...
Caramak shakes his head..."No. His word is law withing Fort. If he had reason
not to, he could shelter the man."
Jayla says, "Okay, what is he /required/ to do then?"
Caramak shrugs. "Nothing. Now, unless he had an amazingly good reason, the
Conclave could easily pull him down for being an accessory after the fact to
murder...In which case he'd loose his Lordship...But while he remains Lord, he
has not obligation to do anything on the matter."
Fletcher raises an eyebrow and observes, "It's highly unlikely the Conclave
would take any action on this issue. Historically they haven't, and the
current Lords are certainly inclined to let individual Holds worry about their
own problems."
Caramak nods..."True. But you can't imagine how many scathing ballads I would
be cranking out if they DIDn't do something..."
Jayla nods and smiles. "So, South Boll would just consider themselves well rid
of the man, then."
Caramak nods to Jayla. "Possibly. This is not, however, the normal case. The
Lord of Fort is unlikely to want a killer loose in his population..."
Jayla says, "However, a Lord Holder truly interested in the safety of his
people would probably turn him over the guards, don't you think?"
Caramak nods. "Exactly."
Caramak raises an eyebrow..."Perhaps we should continue later...?"
Jayla grins and shakes her head. "No, I'm fine."
Fletcher smiles to them/ "I think we've come to a dead end. Do you have any
questions about the basics of law, Jayla?"
Jayla thinks for a minute. "Not that come to mind at the moment...but if I do,
I'll be sure and ask one of you two."