Any Player may, at any time, initiate judicial proceedings in any matter through a Request for Judgment.

A Case corresponding to a Request for Judgment is opened at the time that said Request is made. The Player making the Request is the Plaintiff in the Case.

All Requests for Judgment must unambiguously name a Defendant and explicitly provide a Statement to be judged.

Any subset of the set of Players and Officers may be named as Defendants, as may the game itself.

A Player may appeal a Judgment iff less than 36 hours have passed since its issuance, it was not issued by the Supreme Court, and e is the Plaintiff or Defendant in the Case.

Players in the Judicial Pool, with the following exceptions, are eligible to become Lower Court Judges on a Case:

i. the Plaintiff
ii. the Defendant
iii. Supreme Court Justices

Exceptions shall be waived from greatest to least in the event that such restrictions prevent a Lower Court from being chosen.

Whenever it is necessary to select a Judge for a Lower Court, the Administrator shall randomly select an eligible Player.

A Judge selected to a Lower Court must issue a public Judgment on the Case within four days or be subject to a ten point fine.

A Lower Court is dissolved if it lapses or its Judges return the same response within the allowed time.

A Lower Court Judge's tenure ends upon the dissolving of eir Court, at which time e relinquishes the title of Judge and its associated powers and privileges.

Rules must be followed in accordance with the final response to a Statement in each Case, with the exception that no Judgment by a Lower Court may prevent the Supreme Court from reviewing said Judgment.

Game actions found to be illegal must be undone, as must all actions made possible solely or in part by said illegal actions, but only as allowed by the Statute of Limitations.

A Judgment must consist of a legal response to the Statement to be judged, and either the Judge's analysis of the Statement and response, or an explicit statement of concurrence with an opinion issued by another Judge on the Court.

Only Statements and their corresponding responses are considered to have official legal standing, and only Judges chosen in accordance with the rules may issue Judgments.

The set of legal responses to Statements is defined as {TRUE, FALSE, DISMISSED}. DISMISSED indicates that a Statement cannot be evaluated as to its veracity or does not address a rules-related matter; or that its Request for Judgment names extraneous or irrelevant Defendants, or provides no analysis of the Statement. TRUE indicates that a Statement can be evaluated as to its veracity, addresses a rules-related matter, and is logically true. FALSE indicates that a Statement can be evaluated as to its veracity, addresses a rules-related matter, and is logically false. No other responses are allowed.

All decisions by all Judges must be made in accordance with all the rules then in effect; but when the rules are silent, inconsistent, or unclear on the point at issue, then Judges shall consider game-custom and the spirit of the game before applying other standards.

Upon each Request for Judgment, the following procedure is executed:

1. A Case is opened on the Request for Judgment.

2. A Lower Court is selected to rule on the Statement.

3. If, at any time after the initial selection, the Lower Court has no Judge, or if the Lower Court lapses, it is dissolved; if possible, a new Lower Court is selected; if not, the procedure skips to step 6.

4. The Lower Court issues a Judgment, at which time the Court dissolves.

5. If a legal Appeal of the Lower Court's Judgment is made, the Supreme Court must either grant the Appeal, and then may issue a Judgment; or deny the Appeal.

6. At such time as no further legal Appeals in the Case are possible, the Case is closed and the Lower Court Judge on the Case is paid.

This Rule takes precedence over all other Rules dealing with the Judiciary.

A Case consists of a Statement and all judicial documents produced by the Plaintiff, Defendant, and Courts assigned to the Statement.

The Judicial Pool shall consist only of all Players having publicly consented to selection as Judges. A Player may, at any time, add or remove only emself from the Judicial Pool.

Players entering Limbo are automatically removed from the Judicial Pool.

Justices are automatically in the Judicial Pool.

In the event that no Players are in the Judicial Pool, all Players not in Limbo are automatically placed in the Judicial Pool.

Justices are Judges serving on the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court shall consist of five elected Justices. No Player may hold more than one Justiceship at a time.

If, within 48 hours of an Appeal, at least two eligible Justices explicitly declare their willingness to grant said Appeal, the Supreme Court shall hear the Case.

The Supreme Court issues a Judgment on a Case to which it has granted a hearing when a simple majority of the eligible Justices have publicly returned the same response to the Statement.

If the Supreme Court fails to issue a Judgment within seven days on a Case to which it has granted a hearing, the Lower Court Judgment stands.

A Justice is ineligible to rule on in a Case iff e is the Plaintiff or Defendant in that Case.

Upon the closure of a Case, the Lower Court Judge on the Case receives 3 points iff the final ruling on the Statement is TRUE or FALSE.

A Judgment may not undo actions that occurred more than two turns prior to its corresponding Request for Judgment. All such actions are to be considered legal and in accord with the Rules.

1) Any entity who performs an action defined by the Rules to be a Crime during the current or previous 3 turns, or fails to perform an action where such failure is defined by the Rules to be a Crime during the previous 3 turns, shall be subject to whatever penalty the Rules prescribe for that Crime upon the execution of a Sentencing Order executed consequent to a judicial finding that e did in fact commit that Crime.

2) The imposition of penalties for the commission of a Crime shall be by Sentencing Order(s). Upon a judicial finding that an entity has committed a Crime, the Judge so finding shall execute Sentencing Orders sufficient to implement the penalty required by the Rules for that Crime. If the Rules specify a range of penalties, then the Judge executing the Sentencing Order shall determine the exact penalty within the stated range.

3) The punishment for a Crime shall be whatever was specified by the Rules at the time the action so designated as a Crime was committed, even if the Rule or Rules which specified the punishment, or which designated the action as a Crime have since been amended or repealed.This Rule takes precedence over any Rule which specifies a different penalty for a Crime.

4) No action is a Crime unless defined as such by the Rules. If the Rules define an act to be a Crime but fail to prescribe a penalty for that act, then there is no penalty for that act.

5) Any RFJ whose Statement alleges that an entity has, through action or inaction, committed a Crime shall be dismissed if there is a prior RFJ, the statement of which alleges that the same entity has, through the same action or inaction, committed the same Crime, and which was itself not dismissed.

6) A RFJ alleging that a Player has committed a Crime shall not be judged TRUE unless the evidence is sufficient to be certain of that Judgment beyond reasonable doubt. Furthermore, it is a defense to any accusation of a Crime that the Player reasonably believed that eir actions were not a Crime at the time e performed them, or that e reasonably did not know that e was required to perform an action, when such nonperformance is defined as a Crime. No Player shall be convicted of a Crime if this defense applies.

The following Classes of Crime are defined, with the listed penalties or range of penalties:

Misdemeanor

I Fine of 1 point
II Fine of 3 points
III Fine of 5 points

Felony

I Fine of 1-5 points and loss of 1-3 Subers
II Fine of 5-10 points and loss of 3-5 Subers
III Fine of 10-15 points and loss of 5-10 Subers

Capital

I Fine of 15-45 points, loss of 10-40 Subers, and a period in Limbo of 0-3 turns
II Fine of 45-75 points, loss of 40-70 Subers, and a period in Limbo of 1-5 turns
III Fine of 75-100 points, loss of 70-100 Subers, and a period in Limbo of 5-10 turns.

Any Player who goes into Limbo while serving as the Judge of one or more RFJs commits the Crime of Judge Inactivity. This Crime is a Felony I for each RFJs for which the Player was selected as Judge when e went into Limbo.

Any Player who knowingly attempts to act as, or purports to be, someone other than imself commits the Crime of Impersonation. This is a Capital I Crime.