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PostPosted: October 12th, 2016, 6:29 pm 
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King

Joined: May 30th, 2015, 5:52 pm
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Evening all.

As we continue on with our effort to modernize all of our old legal language (Way to go, we're over half-way done folks!), the time has come to review our International Rules of War Act for any changes that may be needed to bring it in line with our legal standards today.

As always, community discussion is emphatically encouraged. Happy legaling!

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The original, historical text of the International Rules of War Act:

International Rules of War Act

Definition of war

Wars are completely restricted to personnel combat (Which means trying to kill your opponent or his allies), and when absolutely necessary, military targets (loosely defined). This rule gets slippery during long wars or wars over boundaries, but the destruction needs to be limited to the disputed areas and the attackers should be aware that the Council of the Kings will be monitoring such attacks carefully and will declare some as terrorism if necessary. This means you should not attack, under any circumstances, homes, major infrastructure (except to leave a small hole to slow your enemy travel), no damaging domestic factories, or even their natural landscape like forests. Consider the citizens when at war! Stealing is generally permitted, but only if it punishes the title-holder, and not the settlers (npcs, villagers, etc) as a whole. Again, overtly aggressive attacks will be subject to review after words.

Aggressive wars

These can be legal. If you declare it openly then you cannot be punished for starting the war. But it is then up to you to cobble together support from allies. However, starting an aggressive war without strong ally support, years worth of campaigning, and legitimate grounds, it is almost certainly the case that aggressive wars will be viewed negatively by the international community. This means you could find few allies, and could face a likely and swift defeat at the hands of those you attempted to take advantage of, for they will likely find many allies.

Defensive wars

If you find attacks or major griefs in your land, you can declare a war and post a REQUEST FOR SUPPORT. Unlike an aggressive invasion, you can almost always expect support from kings, and perhaps even from the Council of the Crowned as a whole.

Illegal wars

Deciding to attack someone without declaring it formally to the commons is either a) grounds for an immediate invasion of your lands, with a possible Total War being declared. or b) your attacks are declared terrorism, which is grounds for the worst of the worst punishments (including exile or even ban).

Total War

The rarest of wars. Sometimes the Council of the Crowned can call for a vote for a Total War, which legalizes the pillage of a realm. While usually wars are restricted to military targets and personnel combat, total war enables invaders to bomb and sabotage as they wish (and steal as they wish).

Upon death

If you die during a war (and this includes falling to death all by yourself) stop playing. A representative of the Council of the Crowned, if online, will /jail you. If no representative is online at the time, be sure to log off on the spot. Others, be sure to screenshot deaths so war participants cannot deny it when they fall. The vanquisher will determine the jail, but if the person died on their own, it is the person who called the war, or called the defence who gets to decide which jail to send them.

Ending a war

One by one, as allies in the war get locked up, get ready to negotiate. Sometimes this takes a single day of combat, other times it takes weeks and weeks or years. To win a war: all of your opponents need to die or surrender. Wars do not pause when players log off, but this is thanks to these strong rules of war that prevent sensless destruction of civilians during war (a war crime). The terms of war should be clear at the outset of the conflict, otherwise you run the risk of not attracting allies, or run the risk of being accused of triggering unwarranted destruction without rational cause. As such, by the time of negotiations, active parties and watchers from the sidelines alike should be able to fairly easily predict the terms that will be negotiated at the outset of a war. For example, if you are calling for a defensive war, your capture of your enemy will probably trigger reparation payments and/or jail time for previous crimes that triggered the war. Or alternatively, if after years of careful campaigning there is a strong case to be made for shifting a vassal to a new liege, and one is able to secure legitimate allies and can call an aggressive war somehow without looking like a tyrant, than it will be predictable that at the outset of the war, should they win, that they would want to capture the targeted vassal.

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PostPosted: October 12th, 2016, 7:24 pm 
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King

Joined: May 30th, 2015, 5:52 pm
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A main issue with our current Rules of War Act is that while much of it is valid, it was also written much as an instructional guide for war and less as a set of laws. The instructional guide still certainly has a place, though; so what I would like to propose is that we divide this into two documents:

1) A pared-down, solely legal, International Rules of War Act that you see below. This is just the legal language, and it contains everything the Imperial Court will need to make legal judgements and everything players will need to know exactly what is legal during war time.

2) A rewritten Guidelines for Conduct in War that is not part of our legal codex, and is simply a guide for all players to access. This, linked here provisionally as a non-binding document in the Legal Library, will be the resource for all players to learn what is generally cnsidered by the community to be appropriate during war time, and is sort of a 'User's Guide to War and Conflict'.

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International Rules of War Act

Definition of War

Wars are fully restricted to personal combat between individuals at war and military properties belonging to those individuals. Conflict and destruction conflict spreading outside of these to adversely affect and/or damage other individuals and/or areas such as but not limited to the civilian populace of territories at war, residential areas, major infrastructure and industry, and natural landscapes and wildlife may be liable to be viewed by the Imperial Court as amounting to war crimes, and treated as such.

Aggressive War

Wars declared against another group are legal when a declaration of war is made openly and publicly in the Judicial Court of the Imperial Parliament prior to the commencement of hostilities. If war is legally declared, the aggressor cannot suffer legal punishment for inciting war.

Defensive War

A realm attacked either through legal declaration of war or illegal attack may issue a Request for Support through the Judicial Court of the Imperial Parliament,formally requesting the support of neutral territories and peoples.

Illegal Attacks

Attacking another realm, territory, or grouping of peoples without first making a legal declaration of war through the Judicial Court of the Imperial Parliament is considered an illegal attack. An illegal attack is liable to be viewed as a war crime and/or viewed as terrorism under the Imperial Criminal Code.

Death and/or Surrender of Combattants

Individuals at war who perish during the war from any cause, either natural or in combat, are formally dead. The individual shall be sent to jail where they shall remain until the formal conclusion of the war. Disputed deaths may be confirmed through an inspection of server logs if necessary.

Individuals at war who wish to surrender and thereby no longer engage in hostilities for any reason may do so through a public notice of surrender through the Judicial Court of the Imperial Parliament. The individual shall be sent to jail where they shall remain until the formal conclusion of the war.

Ending a war

Hostilities shall only be concluded when

a) all forces on one side have died, surrendered publicly through the Judicial Court of the Imperial Parliament, or taken no actions for five years (5 days), or

b) both sides jointly sign a formal armistice or declaration of peace, communicated in the Judicial Court of the Imperial Parliament, ceasing all hostilities.

Upon the cessation of hostilities, representatives of both sides must come together to formally designate terms and sign a peace signaling the end of the war. International observers may be present to record the process of discussion and observe the conditions of peace.

Materials of Great Destruction

Buckets of Lava, TNT, and Fire as generated by a Fire Charge or Flint and Steel are legally recognized as Materials of Great Destruction, items which when used are liable to cause great amounts of destruction over a large area. These materials may be used in legal war during combat so long as the use of these is constrained in the immediate area of combat. The offensive and/or destructive use of these materials in areas outside of legal military conflict may be recognised as a war crime.

The Wolf Laws

1. Wolves shall not be allowed to be bred en masse for any purpose other than domestic use, whereas 'domestic use' refers to the status of being a tamed pet.

2. Tamed wolves may be employed in combat but shall be limited to a number of five (5) per combatant in the case of legal war.

3. Tamed wolves not engaged in combat shall not be slain or abused by any person.

War Crimes

Individuals or forces found to have committed actions in the course of warfare illegal under either the International Rules of War Act or the Mercurian Criminal Code shall be liable for trial as having committed war crimes. Trials may take place after the formal cessation hostilities at the discretion of the Imperial Court.

Lore War

Conflict may be incited and war may be declared between parties who have previously agreed on a time and place in which to engage in battle for mutual enjoyment - this type of war is legally referred to as 'Lore War'. Prior to the commencement of hostilities, all parties may agree to terms to be adhered to during combat; as contained events, Lore Wars shall not be governed by the terms of the International Rules of War Act, though individuals may be held accountable to agreed-upon terms through a civil suit if necessary.

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PostPosted: October 12th, 2016, 7:32 pm 
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I really like the changes so far Nicholas. As we discussed, I would love to see guidelines added for Lore Wars.

My basic thoughts on lore wars include some of these points:

* The person hosting the lore event sets the rules
* Violating rules can result in some kind of working prison time
* Lore wars should try to be evenly matched, unless a certain outcome is desired and everyone agrees to those rules.

My thoughts on your changes:

* I agree that stealing during war shouldn't be legal, glad to see it removed
* Total war has no place in the empire. If something is that bad, someone really had to have been committing some crazy crimes.
* I would like to see something added about who TNT/fire can be used, specifically, only used to gain access to military targets, not to utterly destroy them. I think using them to kill enemy combatants is fine as well.

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PostPosted: October 12th, 2016, 8:13 pm 
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Duke

Joined: July 7th, 2015, 9:01 pm
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Location: Maryland
Mark Accynnafon wrote:
I really like the changes so far Nicholas. As we discussed, I would love to see guidelines added for Lore Wars.

My basic thoughts on lore wars include some of these points:

* The person hosting the lore event sets the rules
* Violating rules can result in some kind of working prison time
* Lore wars should try to be evenly matched, unless a certain outcome is desired and everyone agrees to those rules.

My thoughts on your changes:

* I agree that stealing during war shouldn't be legal, glad to see it removed
* Total war has no place in the empire. If something is that bad, someone really had to have been committing some crazy crimes.
* I would like to see something added about who TNT/fire can be used, specifically, only used to gain access to military targets, not to utterly destroy them. I think using them to kill enemy combatants is fine as well.


I agree that Lore events' rules should be set by the hosts of the event ahead of the time, a good example of this is the recent Ostron Battle that went well.

Overall I agree with Nicholas' additions/revision.

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PostPosted: October 12th, 2016, 10:39 pm 
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King

Joined: May 30th, 2015, 10:17 am
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I like the changes and the suggestions mark has made. Good job working this into the current draft.

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PostPosted: October 18th, 2016, 10:39 pm 
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King

Joined: May 31st, 2015, 3:32 am
Posts: 846
I also like the revisions to this. We should definitely make an explanation guide to explain how to meet the proposes legislation. Great idea.

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