Join the new world

eCanadian Justice System



Despite numerous death threats throughout our history, the Supreme Court of eCanada is still kicking. It is not well however, institutions such as the court are dependent on the dedication of the individual running them to be successful. Since Max Maher resigned from the post, none have stepped up to fill his role as Chief Justice, and these days the Supreme Court just sits there abandoned.

Recently the Charter was amended. Instead of requiring a presidential nomination, any citizen can now apply for the position of SC Justice, though they still require a 2/3‘rds majority vote from congress. Since the amendment, 4 people have made such an application, and the only one to be approved is Muglack. This is just to reinforce my point, that with a single judge and still no chief the court is currently out of order.

That’s not quite what I’d like to talk about however, I’m just trying to provide some background. I’d like to address the age old issue that has plagued eCanada for probably 2 years now, should the Supreme Court even exist? My short answer would be yes, but I feel we’re going about it the wrong way. My long answer is about 700 words long.

On one hand, they’ve provided eCanada with a fair amount of entertainment. Whether it be lulzy court cases, or the occasional serious debate, I genuinely enjoy reading through the old court case archives. Then there’s those who actually get involved with the court, which simply provides people with an alternative to the fight and work buttons. More importantly, most of us like to know that if somebody does something wrong, they will be punished for it, and I’d personally prefer to be judged by a court as opposed to the congress. eCanadian criminal law is basically 2 very simple rules:

1~Every eRepublik player owes, to every other, a duty of honesty and good faith.
2~Breach of the duty of honesty and good faith attract sanctions, determined by the Supreme Court of Canada.

This leaves most up to interpretation, which is the duty of the court. What tends to happen is that older court cases are referenced to determine the precedent that was set. We usually act according to that precedent; even though there’s no legal obligation to do so. Now the precedent for “sanctions” has been to ban the person found guilty from the forums and IRC for a set period of time; though congress eventually allowed for those found guilty by the SC to be allowed on eCanada’s IRC channel.

Personally, I really dislike the idea of exclusion; I’d much rather work on including as many people who are interested in participating in the erepublik experience as possible. There’s certainly a line, but I think Dominik is the only person I’ve seen come close to crossing it. My personal moral compass aside, with the diminishing influence of the forums, coupled with the fact that it’s impossible to completely ban somebody from the group, the ban-hammer just isn’t as effective as people may like to believe. This leaves the SC with symbolic power alone with which to condemn the wicked for their injustices, and as I implied, people don’t typically take the court seriously.

In the early days (I’m talking 2008 here), this appeared to be a fairly decent method of enforcement, people took the court’s authority seriously and in general people behaved appropriately. The first serious legal incident I can recall is that of Dean22, who ended up being banned from http://ecanada.forumotion.com/ . (There’s actually a very long and interesting story behind that, but I won’t get into it here) Then as time went on, people slowly begin to realize that the court doesn’t have any real power. From then on the court has been faced with near constant mockery. That’s basically 3 years of eCan legal history in a nutshell; please understand that there really is much more to it than my puny paragraph.

I said earlier that as my short response to wether or not I think we should even bother with the Supreme Court or not, was simply yes. That really depends on how eCanadians feel about my next question. If we cannot adequately enforce the rules, should we continue trying? We could very easily abandon our attempts at justice, and submit ourselves solely to the laws of erepublik, which theoretically are the only rules that can truly be enforced. Is that naive notion that every eRepublik player owes, to every other, a duty of honesty and good faith worth pursuing? I do believe it is, which is why I also believe that we should have a Supreme Court. That’s a decision I made because it’s just what I feel is right. If most people feel otherwise, then by all means, abolish the court.

That being said I also believe that the only court that has the power to enforce any rule which the admins do not, is the court of public opinion. The Supreme Court itself merely provides a great environment in which discussions about justice can take place. My suggestion for removing the out of order sign is to rebuild the Supreme Court as something eCanadians can respect. Allow them only the symbolic power of a guilty verdict with which to condemn the wicked for their injustices, and publicize it so that the world will know. In the end, it will ultimately be the collective opinion of the community that determines the consequences of our actions here in erepublik.

http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/ehockey-night-in-ecanada-810224/1/20
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/the-book-of-plug-973955/1/20
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-the-og-my-story-of-oil-goats-and-eternal-love-pics--942081/1/20