5.0 KiB
Wellspring general governing laws:
Externality Exchange Auction
Purpose
This service shall be provided by the Informative branch of government and funded by taxes and service fees/commissions to inform the economy of services which have effectual demand but have externality properties. It shall also be the benchmark for market rate when needed for government references and the mechanism for coordinating relief in the event of natural disasters.
All property expropriated by government as a result of court judgments shall be listed on this auction in the format best suited to maximize revenue after a reasonable time has passed, and only if there is no ongoing legal dispute over the property.
Natural disasters
When a natural disaster does occur, the Informative branch shall ensure that it deploys proactive agents to the area to take continuous surveys of the demand for goods and services and ensure that they get listed on the Externality Exchange Auction so that opportunistic, profit-seeking entrepreneurs can be informed of what is in demand for reconstruction and bring their capitals to bear on the locale of the disaster quickly.
Government shall have no power to impose price controls on the supply of products and services to/within a disaster zone.
When a natural disaster does occur, the Judicial branch and police shall rapidly set up emergency courts and police presence in the disaster zone to quickly establish a court presence for efficiently dealing with instances of fraud, robbery, etc. The judicial branch shall deploy proactive agents to the locale of the disaster and establish a visible, ubiquitous presence to anticipate and take on new lawsuits and claims. Note that these proactive judicial agents are merely for filing papers into the court, and not for conducting judicial processes or producing judgments.
These active emergency government measures shall gradually be phased out as the disaster area is restored to regular working order.
There shall be no government expenditure on charity of any kind at any time for any reason whatsoever. Conagents living in a particular natures area have a knowledge of the climate and weather patterns in that area and should both pay for insurance against natural disasters common to that area, and build their domiciles appropriately to meet the challenges of that area.
Replacement for jail:
Outlawing system
Outlawing system based on amount owed in criminal debt. By implication an outlaw may be tried by a parallel court and handled by a parallel legal system.
The outlawing system shall be used in place of capital punishment and it shall not be used for non-violent offenses. In particular civil debts and debts owed for fraud shall not incur outlawing.
After the convicted has paid off his debt in full both to the state and the victim, he shall be considered to have repurchased the protection of the courts.
Criminal reputation/Pockmarking and besmirching
A person who is convicted of violence, duress or fraud shall be required to wear on his person at all times when in public, a clear, visible and easily recognizable marker, known as a pockmark, that designates him as a convictee, and also betrays the type of crime he committed - whether robbery, rape, pedophilia, etc. The person may redeem himself and remove the pockmark only after a fixed time period (known as the desmirching period) after s/he has paid off all debts relating to that charge. While the debt is not yet paid in full, the person is considered "unapologetic".
The desmirching period begins after the last debt has been paid. For the whole desmirching period the convictee must continue to display the pockmark, and s/he may remove it when the desmirching time has expired.
Each crime shall have its own pockmark and desmirching period. Multiple concurrent convictions shall simply mean that the person shall carry multiple pockmarks and have concurrent desmirching periods ongoing.
This system is intended to make it clear to people who interact with the besmirched what his nature is. A fraudster won't be able to present as an honest man, a rapist won't be able to present as a wholesome man, etc. It's a social imprisonment system rather than a physical one.
Obviously different pockmarks will carry different stigmas: some greater, some lesser, others just ridicule, and still others just a laugh. A bar fight pockmark won't carry the same stigma as fraud or murder.
Besmirched people who are found guilty of going out in public without their pockmark shall suffer outlawing. There shall be protections in place to guard besmirched people from people who might hold them and forcibly remove their pockmark to frame them for not wearing it.
[Measures to outlaw violent criminals if they game the system and turn pockmarked life into a profession, such a hitmen]
Gene experimentation
Germ line editing is unconditionally prohibited. Pre-sui-juris somatic editing can be done for curative and palliative reasons only.
[On plants and so on, strict principles of what constitutes trespass.]