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                      .                                                -Fx-    

The Judges are elected by all inhabitants of the Realm. Within fixed intervals *), two mortal candidates and one immortal candidate can become judges. The elections will be announced well in advance.

2.

Elected judges get the pre-title 'Judge' and can be recognized by that pre-title in the who-list.

3.

The Judges' main job is the enforcement of the Mortal Laws, in accordance with the policy, rule number VIII. Enforcement of the main policy rules Or taking actions against players endangering the integrity of the MUD is not within the competence of the Judges, as the Elders (Immortals above God-level) are in charge of these things (cf. policy preamble, Immortal Law rule no. II).

4.

In accordance with the MUDiquette, every player who feels being maltreated by others is entitled to call on the court by posting an accusation onto the Judges' Board (which can be found, for instance, in the Reading Room Area of the Temple of Midgaard or in the Court in Moonglow). Whenever severe policy breaches are reported, the Judges will relay the message to the Elders.

5.

In accordance with the Mortal Law rule number 3, the Judges are not to open a trial by themselves (without an accusation having been filed, that is). The law enforcement is an Elders' matter, hence it is their decision if a trial shall be opened. If there has been a decisiond in favour of a trial, the accused defendant will be advised to report for a public session. For the rules on public sessions, see Court Bylaw number 1.

6.

The only way of appealing to the court after a verdict has been found is the Godly Decision (see Mortal Law, rule number 1).

7.

If a defendant has valid reasons, a Judge can be excluded from a Court Session. Valid reasons might be that the Judge has been proven biased, according to his behaviour towards the defendant, or that the Judge has been proven inconsistent in decisions before, or if there is proof that the Judge has been bribed.

8.

It is preferable to settle cases before a trial is invoked.

Therefore, a Judge is entitled to mediate between the two parties. If, for instance, the accusing party offers a way to an accord, the Judge will present this proposal to the defendant, and the matter shall be settled between the two parties, with the Judge and another player as witness. To minimize the risk of one of the parties trying to lure the other into a trap, the accord procedure will be executed inside the Court building, within the PEACE-zone there (Discussion Room). Since this is no formal jurisdictional affair and meant to take work off the Court & the Elders, and save the parties of the strain of a trial, any of the three Judges is entitled to mediate in this way. Only in trials or formal legal decision-making, at least two judges should be involved - in case a reserve judge is needed, when someone refers to number 7. (the right to deny a judge). It is, however, not necessary to have more than one Judge present at trials.

9.

If a Judge is found guilty of breaching the policy or breaking the Mortal Law or MUDiquette severely, the following punishment shall be invoked on him/her:

• Loss of the rank of Judge
• Banishment from any election to honorary positions (Judge and Advisor)
• The (bloody) flag
• The (outlaw) flag, if the Judge is already flagged (bloody)

Furthermore, the Judge will stand trial and then have to face the punish- ment invoked on him/her by the court (in addition to the aforementioned measures!!).

1.

All cases are going to be handled in public trial sessions.

2.

In a public session, at least one of the three Judges has to be present, and take the rank of presiding the session.

If desired, the Judge can be backed up by two lay assessors, which may step up to the court, while in session, proclaim their interest and then have to be confirmed as worthy candidates by both prosecution and defense.

The defending party and the accuser have the right to deny a judge a position, if specific and valid reasons are stated.

3.

The defendant has the right to name a person of trust as trial attorney. In a public trial the defendant can use the right to remain silent and let the attorney represent him/her.

The prosecutor will be identical with the person who filed the accusation. In case that person feels inadequate to perform thus, (s)he has the right to name another denizen of the Realm as prosecutor for the trial in question.

4.

Both the prosecutor and the defending attorney can call and question witnesses. If the defendant chooses to represent him- or herself, (s)he will question the witnesses.

5.

The defending party has the right to deny the participation of a Judge under definite circumstances (see Court Code of Conduct, No. 7). If a Judge is denied, the only rank (s)he may take in the public session, is the rank of Observer (see number 2.).

6.

In public sessions, the audience has to behave orderly. If a Judge has to call for order more than three times in a session, the session will be declared adjourned, and the audience will be dismissed. The trial shall then continue non-publicly, until a verdict has been found.

7.

It is important to note, that a trial may be held in public, however, the appeal procedure 'Godly Decision' (see Mortal Law, No. 1) may NOT. The inhabitants of the Realm will be informed about the outcome of the Godly Decision, but are not entitled to watch, to keep from bloodlusty souls calling for show trials and show fights.

1.

The Court will only take action, if a formal accusal has been formulated.

2.

One of the Judges will issue a message on the public Judges' Board, that the accusal has been acknowledged, and the Court will see to a solution as soon as possible in the proper way (as described here).

3.

The Judges may do research concerning the case in question. However, the verdict will have to be found in the public trial. Any information gathered outside the courtroom is not to be taken into account as evidence.

3.1 In public trials, the hearing of both sides will be done during the public court session, by hearing the witnesses called to the court.
3.2 A Judge may not formulate an official opinion on a case without having heard both sides, and any kind of public spread of prejudice concerning a case will be counted as unruly behaviour on part of the Judge and can lead to the Judge being dismissed from the process of finding a decision.

4.

After having heard both sides and gathering background information, the Judge will call for a recess to formulate decision and verdict. In a case where lay assessors are involved, they have to reach a simple majority (2 votes over 1) to validate the verdict - If the opinions on verdicts and punishments of two of the three Judges (i.e. Judge and lay assessors) are in their sense (not in the actual wording!) equal, the verdict has been found. In cases where only one Judge bears the burden of deciding upon a case, the verdict will be found in private, carefully weighing evidence against evidence. In case the verdict seems totally wrong or unruly, considering the punishment, the defendant can still call for the Godly Decision. The verdict will then be posted to the Judge Board by the one Judge in charge of the trial.

4.1 If a Judge is dismissed from deciding (see 3.2), the session will be adjourned, and one of the other Judges stands in to place the verdict, after some time of research and consideration.

5.

Severe breaches of this set of rules of proceeding shall be punished, as the Court policy demands. A Judge bleating out facts about cases in public shall not remain Judge. This includes OOC discussions among the players. However, in general it should be noted, that the OOC exchange of information among players is to be separated from the MUD behaviour of that player's character(s).

Since the laws by which the Judges have to decide are aimed at the protection of the whole Realm, its interests and well-being, the punishments should be kept within the boundaries of the Realm (meaning: if a defendant is found guilty to have broken a law which applies to RolePlay, (s)he is to be punished accordingly, not so much in the technical sense of thinking about the withdrawal of skills/spells/stats or the addition of flags, but maybe in terms of, say, imprisonment for a certain time... - the time modifier, as known, is: 40 MUD days = 1 RL day..)

Proposal:

A dungeon for those misbehaving severly should be implemented. The defendant having been convicted and sentenced to stay there should have this dungeon set as start room, and otherwise behave like he was frozen. The defendant should be granted the possibility of receiving and sending tells, so that friends of him may grant him a visit. A nice addition to the dungeon might be a visitors' room, where a window might be added, to allow visitors to take a good looks at the defendant, posing a 'bad example' to the public.

The minimum punishment should be:

40 days of imprisonment.
(meaning, prosaically: 1 RL day of 'dungeon freeze', as the procedure might be called.)

In case of severe misbehaviour, the sentence might be raised... However, it should not be more than

240 days (8 months) of imprisonment. (6 RL days of 'dungeon freeze')

A possible addition might be, that the defendant might be tortured while being in prison (this should especially apply for severe crimes, and longer stays in prison...). One way to deal with it might be:

Setting stats lower on players for a given time... Since they had to suffer from torture, they might have sustained some damage and need recovery... A malus to the STR or the CON stat (or even both) and a certain amount of max. hitpoints subtracted for a given time (40 days, being 1 RL day) should make it easier for some to avoid prison next time... However, as there are truly devious minds, heavier torture might have to be applied to them, hence the time of recovery might stretch to even 4 months (120 days, 3 RL days.).
After the given time, all stats should be back up to normal... with a longer period of recovery, stats may be raised bit by bit, to make it a more natural recovery.

Please note: This 'policy' is not official, as no one asked for it (or, to put it in the appropriate context: it is 'unsolicited' :)), and it is not binding. Unless there has been a decision by the Elders, this is just a draft, more or less to be treated as an 'experiment in thought' ("Gedankenexperiment").

Acknowledgement: Congrats to Firux for designing the nifty ASCii logo seen on the top of this document. :) The ASCii is (c) 1996, Firux/RoM, and has been reproduced here for RoM-purposes only. Any commercial use of this logo is strictly prohibited!