Some notes on law and punishment

Most laws in Daleth are based on the ancient laws of the Naglani. These simple yet social rules are based on liberal ideas. A person can do whatever he wants, as long as no one is harmed by it, when someone harms another, a kind of punishment is needed.
Modern Dalethian laws are split in “doing harm to a person”, “doing harm to society” and “doing harm to the Empire”. This splitting is necessary for the jury that is needed to come to a satisfying punishment. More on the jury later.
Punishment is needed to satisfy the harmed person. Punishment is not there to make better people, it is not there to contemplate the errors you made. Punishment is, in general, not to keep the offender out of society or stop the conflict to separate the participants.
The general idea of punishment in Daleth is that the offender got unwanted involved of the life of the victim and thus harming the victim. Punishment has the offender to take care of the victim and bring him back to the life he had before the offender changed it. The offender is taken fully responsible for the deed he did and the effects of it, so he is responsible for correcting the errors he made in his life.

If we look at a case this might get more clear:
A thief has taken 5 bags of flower from a bakery. Doing so he broke down the door, killed the dog and bruised the arm of the baker. The kindins took three days to catch the thief.
What we see here is a direct loss: the 5 bags of flower. The thief has to replace these bags. Additional damage, like the broken door and the killed dog, has to be paid for too. All these things are quite clearly a matter of paying back what it costs to replace it.
The bruised arm of the baker is a different story. Of course, the thief can be asked to pat for any medical help the baker has had and will have for this in the future. But with this bruised arm the baker will be unable to work for a while. The thief can be asked to pay for a replacement, even if no baker can be found to replace the original baker. This is all personal harm done to the baker.
If the baker’s customers are harmed by the thief, because the baker could not bake without the flower, or he can’t bake for a while because of the bruised arm, and there is no bread in the community, it is a case of harming society. It is possible the thief is asked to pay the community for what he did to it.
Finally, the kindins took their precious time to catch the thief. They are harmed as well, getting the case into “harming the Empire”. The thief can be asked to pay for the job the kindins did.

A rich thief might be able to pay everyone from his own sources. To avoid rich persons to become criminals because they can avoid it, there is a penalty of 10% of the registered income where gong-tax is based upon. Thus, persons have to pay the normal price to pay back what they have taken, plus a percentage of their income. The extra money is for the Emperors Department of Treasury. In some cases, a part of this money is given to the victim for emotional harm done to him, but this is not standard to avoid “victims” to provoke the offender.

If a person cannot afford his illegal deeds, he will be taken in custody and work for the money to pay the victims. In the Empire, there will always be a need for cheap labour. Cheap labour to pay ones penalties is different from the life that is guaranteed for the poor. The prisoners are chained to the wall or chained to each other, they have to work long days, and spend the nights together in a room where there are just beds. They are not allowed to spend time outside prison or away from work. They are guarded day and night. They lack every kind of luxury, even on holy days. They don’t get a kintus with the work they do. Each 7 Assar per stond they “earn” is given to the victim(s). With this payment a day, they earn less than the poor. The prisoners must work until each kintus is paid back.
Doing time in prison freezes the life of the prisoner, he is no longer has to pay taxes or join in social service.

By law, each victim should be asked what the penalty or sentence should be. To avoid long court cases, the usual way to deal with an offender is to have the victim calculate his loss, have this checked by an official, and then the judges declare the amount that has to be paid back. When in doubt, the judges consult the kurlors and the counsellors.
If the offender feels harmed by the outcome of the case, he can open a new case as a victim against the Empire. To make sure no one will open unnecessary cases, law specialists (witodeigo-thuhtus) will make clear to the victim within what rage the possible outcome will be before the case is opened in court. Usually, they will assist him during the whole case.

If a loss cannot be calculated in money, the victim has to inform the judge how he can be satisfied. To avoid extreme demands, there are some maximums in the laws. These maximums are rather high and a victim may decide to let a case be.
These kind of law cases are usually in case of murder, rape and serious destruction or harm of body or matter.
The same is done with the society or the Empire as victim. In these cases, the society or the Empire is represented by a jury. The society is usually represented by three or more (always an odd number) persons who are somehow involved in the case. The Empire is represented by official people, usually members of the local government.

Luns

In case of murder the murderer cannot pay (just) a penalty. The life of the victim was worth much more than money, so it is said, so the murderer has to pay to clear himself of the debt he has with the victims family and friends, and to society that has lost a member. This pay-back is called luns.
Luns is usually as much as the victim was supposed to have earned in the coming year, with a minimum of 50 Skatts and a maximum of 1000 (a myria) Skatts. Apart from that, the murderer has to pay the life of family members that have lost their income, such as servants, children, partners and partners that lived from the income of the victim (the dependents). Servants have to be paid for a maximum of 5 years, children until they are able to earn their own income and run their own household or, as a maximum, when the child turns 25 years of age. Partners that are left behind have to be paid by the murderer for the rest of their life. Parents and other members of the family that lived on the income of the victim have to be paid until they die. In several cases, the murderer has to take care of the dependents as well and take over duties the victim did, such as working the land or garden, harvesting, maintaining the house, housekeeping). The idea is that the dependents don’t have to suffer from the loss of their caretaker.

Of course, this is hard for the one who committed the crime, but he has taken the full responsibility for his deed by doing it. The victims and his dependents have been innocent and are not responsible for the deeds of the offender. Thus, they may ask to continue their life as they were used to. Society or the Empire are not responsible for the deeds of the offender as well. The offender is the only one responsible and the only one who can asked to clear his case.
It is know that the high penalties and the risk of luns make many people think twice before they harm another.

The Empire takes care of dependents when the murderer has died or is for other reasons no longer able to pay luns. Because the Empire is not responsible to pay in the first place, it will make sure that the offender keeps able to pay. Thus, doing damage to the offender or kill him is not allowed. Torturing is not allowed either.

Death penalty

Only in case that an offender will stay a great risk for society and he will not be able to pay even 10% of all his luns and penalties in the rest of his life, the death penalty may be asked (if victims and dependents agree). The Emperor is the only person who can grant a death penalty. Death is only given when the cost of keeping the offender jailed and the expected costs of future criminal behaviour extremely exceeds the possibilities of ever paying back that amount of money.
Some rich persons have asked a death penalty themselves, because they could afford it to pay everything back but the thought of having to work for it for the rest of their lives was appalling to them. The Emperor has refused this demand - being rich should be no excuse for not taking the responsibility of your deeds.

Where the loss can’t be calculated in money and the victims are society or the Empire, the offender has to pay hlutrs-baúths. This is a penalty paid straight to the Empire. It cleans the offender from his responsibilities and should keep the peace in society because the victims will know the price is paid and the offender has been punished.

Master Kryzlmoz Hratswer, witodeigo-thuhtus
Ildritz university, 1811