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Law for Fantasy Writers — Legal Systems in Worldbuilding
This article is by Garren Jacobsen.
What do you call 1000 attorneys at the bottom of the ocean? A good start. Now, with the obligatory lawyer joke out of the way, let’s consider fantasy writers’ worlds and the law. There is a lot that goes into the law. Sometimes, the law is concerned with high minded concepts and digs deep into philosophical discussions to understand itself. Other times, the law is bogged down by the mundane and the procedural. But, no matter what, the law is an integral part of everyone’s lives and is inescapable. Everyone has or will enter into a contract of one kind or another. Everyone will be injured by someone else’s actions and could use legal redress. And every single writer that has written a story will be afforded the protections of copyright law.
However, while the law is so ubiquitous in our own everyday lives, the law is not quite so impactful in the lives of main characters. The legal systems of many worlds are either such a sham of a system that the people would have torn the system down long ago (looking at you Harry Potter) or the legal systems are entirely non-existent.
But Garren, you might say, the law is so complex and so vast, it is impossible to actually build a decent legal system. Ah, but that is where you are wrong. While, yes, in the details, the law is complex, in its foundations the law is rather simple. Now, like Virgil and Dante,...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.
Law for Fantasy Writers — Legal Systems in Worldbuilding
This article is by Garren Jacobsen.
What do you call 1000 attorneys at the bottom of the ocean? A good start. Now, with the obligatory lawyer joke out of the way, let’s consider fantasy writers’ worlds and the law. There is a lot that goes into the law. Sometimes, the law is concerned with high minded concepts and digs deep into philosophical discussions to understand itself. Other times, the law is bogged down by the mundane and the procedural. But, no matter what, the law is an integral part of everyone’s lives and is inescapable. Everyone has or will enter into a contract of one kind or another. Everyone will be injured by someone else’s actions and could use legal redress. And every single writer that has written a story will be afforded the protections of copyright law.
However, while the law is so ubiquitous in our own everyday lives, the law is not quite so impactful in the lives of main characters. The legal systems of many worlds are either such a sham of a system that the people would have torn the system down long ago (looking at you Harry Potter) or the legal systems are entirely non-existent.
But Garren, you might say, the law is so complex and so vast, it is impossible to actually build a decent legal system. Ah, but that is where you are wrong. While, yes, in the details, the law is complex, in its foundations the law is rather simple. Now, like Virgil and Dante,...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.