The Federation/Civil Courts

The Federation of City-States (Abbreviated as “The Federation” hereafter) has the stated purpose to expand cities in the MRT Gamma Server by connecting the cities via constructing links, encourage economic and industrial growth, provide a peer-led court system, and ensure transportation are handled in a manner that is both realistic and makes sense. In order to meet the goals, we have to PLAN for transportation, help BUILD each other’s cities, provide JUSTICE to all, and CONSTRUCT transportation links to easily move people around. It is important to note that The Federation is not considered an official MPO by the staff.

The Federation is structured as the overall MPO with several MPOs under its control. Rather than an unwieldy umbrella organization with its power focused into specific individuals, FCS has balanced itself with the 4 main MPO that has nominal jurisdiction over the majority of the Gamma World. The Federation itself has three relevant groups-- the Mayor’s Council, The Civil Courts, and the Governorate Council. The Federation will have its Headquarters located inside Central City to remove any favoritism towards a specific town.

As explained in the Overview:

The Civil Courts is responsible for the well-being and justice of the overall server by providing an unbiased, peer-reviewed, fair court to settle disputes in an orderly manner without the need to refer such petty measures to the Server Staff. The Civil Court is also responsible for overseeing economic-based initiatives such as stock markets, patent recording, and any other type of economic based initiatives. The Civil Courts has 5 courthouses - to be split into the 4 quadrants and Central City - to ensure each quadrants are represented fairly; each courthouse will have a single Justice presiding over the courthouse and the cases must be assigned to the quadrant that has jurisdiction over the area.

The Justice Council is made of 5 Judges; all appointed by the Governorate. The 5 justice will themselves determine who is the Chief Justice, which will preside over the Central City courthouse. The Chief Justice will also, at his own discretion, attend other cases in the four quadrants as an Justice Advisor to oversee the justice and their cases. They are responsible in following the general tenets set by the World Justice Project. All Court Cases will be listed on the wiki with in-depth information to ensure all decisions are set with a mind towards precedent and fairness.

Refer to the Appendix regarding the Civil Courts for what type of cases qualifies for the Court and what doesn't.

In summary, the Civil Courts does the following:

• Settles minor disputes between individuals only
• Determines city boundaries in disputes
• Settles court cases regarding build plagiarism
• Operates the Federation Patent Office
• Operates the Federation Economic Initiatives Office
• Settles cases between minor corporations
• Decides court cases on a fair and unbiased approach
• List all court cases and their results on the wiki
• Ensures all transactions are paid out

Justice Council Makeup and Responsibilities

The Justice Council is made of the 5 members appointed to the council by the Governorate Council. They are not allowed to participate in any proceeding in any other branches (such as the Mayor’s Council or the Governorate Council) to ensure a clean and consistent check and balance system in the Federation. To maintain stability in the Justice Council, their individual terms are one year long. However, they serve at the discretion of the Governorate Council, which can replace the Justices with the recommendation of the Mayors Council or the Judicial Oversight Office at any time. They are expected to participate in at least 3 Justice Council cycles to ensure fairness and that they rotate locations while serving, rather than staying on one quadrant all year. There is no limit on serving consecutive terms.

At the first meeting of an Justice Council cycle, which is to be held every 4 months, the Justice Council must vote to select an Chief Justice. The Chief Justice is responsible for the Central City Civil Court House, and its associated offices. The Chief Justice s primary role will be to act as an Judicial Adviser, attending and listening into court cases of other Justices and giving private advice and/or discussions to the Circuit Justice after the deliberations to ensure a fair and unbiased decision is made. The Chief Justice is also responsible in ensuring the Circuit Justice keeps their courts in order, and gives feedback, actions needed to be done, (or, in extreme cases, recommend an expulsion to the Governorate Council) if it is not kept in order. The Chief Justice can, at his own discretion, accept overflow cases from any circuit judges to keep the system flowing smoothly if there is such an backlog or conflict of scheduling on all parties. An individual may be able to serve as the Chief Justice for as many terms as the Justices votes the person.

For those Justices not designated as the Chief Justice, they are instead called the Circuit Justices. They will then, among themselves, select an quadrant (NE, NW, SE, SW) and pick a courthouse in the quadrant to base their courtroom out of. It is also recommended that the Circuit Judges rotate their location every cycle. The courthouse of their choice must provide, at minimum, room with lighting, two desks for the defendant and the plaintiff, a witness stand, and seating for spectators. A jury stand is optional; each judges will determine whether they need a jury or not on an case-by-case basis. However, for the sake of making it standard across all courthouses, it is recommended not to include juries.

The Circuit Judges’ responsibilities are:

• Follow the tenets set forth by the World Justice Project
• Try to be neutral, fair, unbiased, and courteous to all involved.
• Refer to any precedents if there are set precedents;
• Refer to server rules as the main law of the land; any other law you infer in your decision-making or during the court of law must be referred to clearly and listed in the wiki afterwards in the Court Summary;
• Consider both sides as neutral as you can be, allowing each side to present their case in an orderly and concise fashion;
• Ensure order is in the courtroom, with consequences including ending the court case in a person’s favor if order is not maintained.
• Gathering the necessary funds from both parties prior to the start of case to be given to the winner of the verdict unless the loser asks for an appeal/rehearing from the Governorate Council, in which the money should not be paid out until the decision whether to accept the request from the Governorate Council is announced.
• Listen and consider any advice given to you by the Chief Justice, even though he has no authority inside your court
• Make your verdict fair and balanced, with any consequence given out with the proper level of severity
• Upon completion, write the court summary in the Wiki page dedicated to Court Cases. The summary must be at maximum 3 paragraphs.
• Hear, and take in consideration, any advice, comments, or feedback coming from the Office of Judicial Oversight.
• Recuses themselves of any involvement in a case that they feel strong bias towards one or both sides.

Rule of Law and Other Law References

As you consider the verdict, you must take the law as the first step before proceeding.

The main and undisputable law of the land is the Server Rules; secondary to that is any roads and/or guidelines posted in any kind of form by the Admods of the MRT Server. If the court case fits, then use them immediately without setting any further precedents. In severe cases, do also refer the case to the admods.

After the Server Rules and Guidelines, the next course of law reference is the Federation Rules. It may not apply to your cases, but check it in case for specific loophole-related rules, and it holds priority over the Precedents. After the Federation Rules comes the Judicial Precedents, which should and will grow to be your main reference to laws as time goes by. Review previous cases and see if there's any precedent set by an previous justice. If there is such an precedent, use that, even if you disagree with the precedent used (if you strongly disagree, you should render the verdict according to the precedent, then immediately refer the case to the Governorate Council with why you disagree with the precedent being used. Regardless, the verdict must be given according to the precedent set. The Governorate Council will decide whether to put it to the Superior Court to edit or overturn the existing precedent.) In no case should the precedent you set overrule the law and guideline set by the Server nor the Federation’s own laws; it will be immediately ruled null and void, and the case retried with another circuit justice.

If the court case does not fall into those previous laws, precedents, and guidelines, then the Judge is allowed to refer to a law/guideline posted on the Internet that is backed by actual legal sources (sorry, no Rule 34). The law being used must also come from a country listed in the top 50 of the Rule of Law Around the World map, listed here: http://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-law-around-world . By having an scale set by an independent law review group, allows us to use a very diverse, internationalized set of law without falling into national-biased or oppressive laws that may not be recommended to implement into the server.

The Justice must then cite the law, and a link to the law being used, in the Google Spreadsheet document. Over time, as precedents are being set, we then will be able to build a peer-based body of law within MRT using international law from different nations to reflect the diverse background of the MRT citizens themselves.

Standardized Circuit Court Procedure

When a case is first submitted to the Courts, we ask that the plaintiff include a general, physical location of their grievances. If the nature of the grievance is not physical, we still ask you put down your main town for the sole purpose of assigning it to the proper circuit justice.

Once the complaint is filed and received, a Justice (or a representative of his choosing) will schedule a time for all to meet in his courtroom.

A normal court case should follow a standard procedure. The procedure is as follows:

1. The judge reviews the complaint and ensures both parties has signed the Memo of Understanding of the Consequences. If any counter-suits has been filed, the judge will then combine the suits into a single court case, with the term plaintiff designated to the person who filed the first complaint.
2. The judge then gather the necessary financial amounts from both parties if needed. Once funds from both parties are received, then he can proceed with the case. If one of the parties does not (or refuses to) pay up, the Judge can, at his discretion, refer the dispute to the Admods for meditation instead. (Refer to the Case Finances section below). If the party is unable to make payment due to a lack of finances, the court case can then proceed, with the understanding that the Judge may require some kind of future compensation (including payments, or property forfeiture) made by the Party.
3. The judges announces in a prior-agreed project channel (in-game, discord, or mumble) that the court has convened. From thereafter, any outside comments must be ignored and/or told to be quieten down via the use of mute button (in discord/mumble) or request to an mod.
4. The judge announces the case name and number, then identifies the parties involved, including the lawyers if they are involved.
5. The plaintiff opens the case with his side presented directly to the judge. There will be no cross-examination by the defendant.
6. The Defendant will then give his rebuttal straight to the Judge. Again, no cross-examination will be given by the Plaintiff.
7. The plaintiff will then begin his cross-examination of the Defendant if he desires to do so. The defendant will only be able to answer questions only, and nothing more.
8. The Defendant will then be able to cross-examine the Plaintiff if he elects to do so. As done in the previous phase, the Plaintiff should answer only to the questions, and nothing more.
9. The Judge will then begin his inquisition phase, where he will ask either sides questions to gather information. Again, if there is no question needed, the Judge can skip this. Both Parties should also refrain from going off-point, and answer only to the questions asked, and nothing more.
10. The judge retreats to his room, makes a decision (with assistance from the Chief Justice if present), then comes back in to announce the verdict and resolution. This can be done anytime between immediately, or at maximum 2 days after the conclusion of the Inquisition Phase. If an length of time is required to make a fair and unbiased, it is required that the Judge announces the recess to both involved.
11. The judge can consult with other judges for a proper verdict if desired; however, the judge should NOT share any of his opinion with non-judges.
12. The Judge then writes his court summary in the relevant google spreadsheet, along with resolution, court summary, which law was invoked, who was plaintiff/defendant and any lawyers involved, and any other relevant comments.

The Superior Court

If there is a case that has been recommended by the Governorate Council to be appealed and/or go through an rehearing for any reason, the Chief Justice will assemble all 4 Circuit Justices for an Superior Court to oversee the Case. The Superior Court will proceed as a normal Court Case, with the difference being the presence of the full Justice Council.

After the conclusion of the Inquisition Phase (which each judge will have the opportunity to inquire the parties) the Superior Court will then be able to make a verdict. However: the Superior Court will require a quorum before continuing to the verdict phase. The Quorum requires that:

• There is an odd number of Justices to properly give down a verdict. The minimum number of justices to render a verdict is 3.
• There must be 3 justices or above present at all times throughout the whole session. If there are, at any time, 2 justices remaining, the court case must be postponed and re-heard.

A majority of the votes are required to determine the verdict. Any decision from the will be considered the final decision on the case. After ensuring the Quorum is met, they can then deliberate and vote on the verdict. If it involves upsetting a recent precedent, then that needs to be discussed before announcing the verdict. The verdict should be handed down in a timely fashion, preferably immediately, but no longer than 2 days. If the Justices feel it may take time, they can ask for an recess to allow deliberations to continue without inconveniencing the parties involved. Any decision made by the Superior Court is final and unappealable.

The Chief Justice then makes a note of the Court Case in the Google Documents, including any changes to previous precedents and leaves an edited reference in any upturned/void precedents affected to make searching for Precedents easier. The Justices that does not agree with the majority is also invited to write an Dissent letter to be added in the Google Documents.

Meditation

A circuit judge can refer a case to meditation, which is an informal discussion between the judge, and the parties to better solve specific cases that the judge feels not necessary to go through the structured process of a court case. The goal is to resolve the dispute amicably, and without any type of consequences. If this fails, the judge can either refer this case to an proper court outside his jurisdiction (since the justice leading the meditation may have formed their own opinion that may influence the court and introduce bias) to decisively settle the dispute, or refer the case to the Admods as he or she sees fits to the situation.

Case Finances

If a court case involves any type of money, both parties are required to submit the amount of damages listed on the compliant plus $20 to the judge prior to the start of the case. At the conclusion of the court case, after the verdict will be awarded, and each person will receive the final settlement as decided by the Judge. If an appeal is declared to be filed, the money will be then withheld until either the decision not to refer the case to the Superior Court, or at the conclusion of the Superior Court decision.

Types of Court Cases Accepted/Rejected

To prevent overwhelming the Courts with backlog and frivolous cases, only specific types of cases will be accepted. They are the following:

• Personal Conflict between players arising from minor disagreements (Remember, any major conflicts should always be referred to the Admods.)
• Parties involved may also request the case be handled as an meditation rather than a court case.
• Patent disputes between small corporations
• City boundary disputes between towns
• Issues resulting from dissolution of SMPs or any previous agreements
• Issues with ownership of franchises
• Minor Financial Disputes
• Patent Disputes between new and old world brand owners
• Financial Disputes totaling under $1000

Cases that the Court System will NOT accept includes the following:

• Military conflicts including war, terrorist attacks, or any type of wargame roleplay
• Large Corporation Cases
• Serious personal conflict (Refer to Admods)
• Any type of Server Rules Infractions (Refer to Admods)
• Major Financial Disputes (at least $1000.01 and up) (Refer to Admods)
• Roleplaying
• Cases where one refuses to be involved (Refer to admods if serious enough)

Judicial Bias, Disputes, Retrials, or Expulsion

It is expected at all times that the Justices must be neutral and unbiased. However, there are times where a judge cannot help but feel biased. At those times, when the case comes to his court, he should immediately transfer the court case to another circuit justice without any penalty to the circuit judge or the people involved in the case.

If a current circuit judge is involved in a case either as a plaintiff or an defendant, the case must be tried by the Superior Court, with one other judge (of the defendant’s choice) abstaining to ensure the case can be decided in a manner without a hung jury. The consequences of the court case will NOT affect the judge’s position on the Judicial Council.

If one or both parties of the court case, or a Judicial Oversight representative, or the Chief Justice feels the court was tainted by the Circuit Justice’s behavior, bias, or ineffective operation, they must submit an official complaint to the Chief Justice within 15 days of the court case for a judicial review. If the Chief Justice finds it necessary to declare a mistrial, the case will be retried in the Superior Court. If this happens, the Chief Justice also is required to submit to both the Governorate Council and the Office of Judicial Oversight a report of why it was necessary to conduct a retrial, and a recommendation of actions for the Circuit Judge involved. The recommendations can vary from re-educating the Justice of the procedure, to expulsion of the Circuit Justice.

If one or both parties, or a Judicial Oversight representative, or the Circuit Judges feels that the court system is tainted by the Chief Justice’s behavior, they are to submit a report to the Governorate Council with the signature of a majority of the Circuit Judge to request a Governorate Review of the Chief Justice. Usually, a negative finding of the Chief Justice means immediate demotion and/or expulsion of the Chief Justice. A positive finding of the Chief Justice will have no result on the reporters, and the Chief Justice cannot retaliate towards those who has recommended the Governorate Review or face expulsion.

It is also reminded to the Court that they serve at the will of the Governorate Council, and their terms may be prematurely ended with a new Council term if the Governorate Council feels the need to do so.

Economic Initiatives and Patent Offices

As an added basket of responsibilities, the Federation has assigned to the Chief Justice (or his appointed representative) the responsibility in operating the Patents Offices and the Economic Initiatives Offices. At this time, the Economic Initiatives Offices is an future project that will include any diverse economic-based initiatives. Examples include initiatives such as the oversight of stock markets, corporation initiatives, and/or any other type of economic initiatives. Those projects will be determined by the Mayor’s Council with input from the Governorate Council. This office is listed in the framework only as a method to have projects be assigned without complicating the framework.

The Patent Office is however a major economic-focused effort that will make the Civil Court a main source of information. By setting up a public and secure database of patents, we ensure that there will be no conflict in between players setting up franchises and/or brands, and a place for the Circuit Justices to refer to in terms of patent litigation. In another words, the patents allows the owner of the patents the ease of mind in having their own patents be used for their own purposes.