Law and Punishment for a Lawful City-State

[GrayIguana]

I have a city-state in my campaign that I’m trying to flesh out a bit more. It is an extremely lawful state, Lawful Neutral to be exact. The city-state, Ankris is one of only a handful of human city states. The dominant race of the world is reptilian, and the main enemy of Ankris is a nation led by necromantic reptilians.

Minor Crimes
Level 1: These crimes include public laziness, assault on a foreigner, and minor theft. Punishments are usually 1 to 50gp.
Level 2: Crimes of this level include theft, damage of property, and assault on a slave. Punishments include fines from 51 to 100gp, restitution of damages, or Temporary Public Service.

High Crimes
Level 3: Crimes at this level include the unauthorized use of magic (especially arcane), obstructing cremation, murder of a slave or foreigner, assault on a citizen, rape, major theft, and neglect of official duties. Punishments include fine (up to 10x the value of items stolen or damaged, seizure of assets, public flogging, Mark of Justice, Indentured Servitude (usually term of military service).
Level 4: Crimes at this level include assault on an official, murder of a citizen, the use of necromantic magic or animating the dead, Impersonating an Ankran official, forgery, and oathbreaking. Punishments include permanent slavery

Heinous Crime
Level 5: Crimes of this level include murder of an Ankran official, treason, or a history of repeating crimes of the 3rd or 4th level. The punishment is death.

Here is some of my rational behind wh the laws were created as they are.
Arcane magic use is restricted as the government is highly theocratic. Arcane magic use is seen as a threat but also as a necessary tool. Arcane magic users are bound by an oath to only use their magic for the benefit of the empire (geas enforced), and they are highly monitored.

Necromancy is heavily prohibited. The main enemy of the empire is a Cult of Necromancy. This also explains the laws regarding cremation of the dead.

Being a slave is not great but it is the gateway to gaining citizenship for most foreigners. Being a foreigner give one less rights than even a slave.

Humans are a minority in this campaign so death is the last resort as a punishment. The empire would much rather have a slave working for the empire than a dead body. The empire is also very cautious about any laws that prohibit procreation.

Let me know your thoughts and if you have any suggestions. Thank you.

 

[fusangite]

A few suggestions:

1. The punishments need to be more irregular and situational. It's not normal for there to be such a standardized, coherent model.
(a) people should suffer different punishments (or none at all) based on their social rank, age and gender
(b) there should not be an undisputed central jurisdiction over the justice system; there should be different legal systems depending on the identity of the plaintiff, defendant and on the type of crime -- church courts and guild courts would be a good idea
(c) there should be no central list of all the laws and their punishments
(d) the judicial system should not be clearly separated from the other branches of government

 

[Hand of Evil]

There can be three types of law, civil, church, and guild.

Civil is the laws to define how people should act to each other and include things like stealing, murder, sex trade, and actions in public.

Church and guild law is something you don't see very much anymore but it deals with laws dealing with how people deal with religion and guilds. Things you will see here trade rules and pricing, rules about holidays and death, harvest, and so-on.

It could make things interesting to throw in a few strange laws based on those.

 

[GrayIguana]

I think I need to clarify some more things. I was trying to keep the original post to just the pertinent facts, but I guess that some more reasons why the law is set up this way would help.

The Empire is entirely theocratic. The government is run by the Temple of Law and it’s clergy. There is no separation of church law, guild law, or civil law because the religion rules everyday life. Priests are often the officials in power (most often). A sect of Lawful Neutral Paladins act as the enforcers of the law. If there is a separate set of laws I may consider one for the military where discipline is more rigorously enforced.

The empire was founded from a directive by the God of Law. One of the empire’s guiding principles is unity. They are (in their minds) the light of order in a sea of chaos. Thus one set of clearly defined laws rules the land. While the law protects everyone in the empire, citizenship is a coveted status as it offers the most protection without becoming a priest or going through extraordinary effort. And of course the scribes of the empire keep detailed records of minor laws and precedents to accommodate all “gray” areas, but I neither have the time or inclination to explore now. I’m more concern with how the major laws affect every day life and the settings flavor.

Humanity is definitely a minority. Reptilians outnumber humans by roughly 4 to 1 in the world population. The Empire wants to encourage the propogation of the human race, but so far has been undecided on creating laws to reflect this. (writer’s block)

The largest threat by far is a nation of necromancers. Infiltrators had regularly raided the dead of the empire for reanimation. The empire found itself battling it’s own dead at one time, thus elaborate rituals and laws are observed when someone dies. The body is guarded and cremated after rituals have ensured that the spirit has passed on. Thus the law regarding obstruction of cremation.

Well now I’m rambling and should go to bed. Thank you for the input so far.