The Law

In Corrum, the basic law of the land is the Gerhan Codex, the summary of which follows. This is the base document, but Corrum also has a very strong tradition of common law and precedent.

• Establishment
• Royalty
• Nobility
• Clergy
• Freemen
• Indentured Servants
• Slaves

Establishment

1. The six classes as recognized under law are: Royalty, Nobility, Clergy, Freemen, Indentured Servants, and Slaves. No serfs are allowed under the law, for it is expressly forbidden to bind anyone to a piece of land.
2. All land is the property of the Monarchy and is granted to an individual or a family to hold in trust. Different grants exist, entailing different restrictions, but any land grant given by the crown to a peasant may be sold. Each grant carries with it an annual fee to retain the grant.
3. The age of majority is sixteen. A child of thirteen or more summers may petition for the rights of adulthood if they can prove that they have supported themselves without paternal assistance for the past year and a day. Foundlings, unless adopted, are automatically granted Majority at the age of thirteen.
4. Any two to four non-royal, non-titled noble adults with at least two degrees of blood tie separation may form a union by applying to and receiving permission from the local Magistrate (heirs to a noble title are also excluded).
5. Any two unaligned unions may form a sib-clan by applying to and receiving permission from the local Magistrate.
6. Any member of a union may dissolve their part of a union by applying to the local Magistrate. If the union is part of a sib-clan alliance, the sib-clan and the dissolving party must state a willingness to retain sib-status or the alliance is lost. If there are only two members to a union where one party seeks to dissolve the union, the sib-clan must state their desire to retain sib-status with both, one, or neither of the dissolving union members. The party seeking dissolution is entitled to a portion no greater than and no less than their even part of the prosperity (or debt) of the union. In the event that the union is in debt, the Magistrate may require that the portion of the debt owed by the dissolving party be paid before allowing the dissolution to go through. Inherited property or monies remain with the individual who inherited them and may be used to pay off union debt.
7. Where a lone individual survives the deaths of their union members, the sib-clan bond remains unless formally dissolved by petition to the local Magistrate.
8. Anyone may leave a will detailing their desired dispersion of their properties and with the following exceptions, the will must be followed as closely as humanly possible:
   1. No member of a standing union may decide the dispersion of the prosperity of the union by themselves if any member of the union survives them.
   2. Entailments must be dispersed based upon the conditions of the entailment, without regard to the wishes of their former owner.
   3. Noble Titles may only be inherited down the bloodline or, when no bloodline heir exists, formal adoption by royal grant.
9. Where no will is left, inheritance is decided as follows, with the entirety of the inheritance passed to the first group that satisfies all of the noted requirements for that group:
   1. From deceased to union member(s)
      requires surviving union members, excludes the passing of titles and entailed property
   2. From deceased to child, in traditional portions
      requires children of the blood or of the union of the deceased
   3. From deceased to sib-clan members, in traditional portions
      requires sib-clan bond with surviving sib-clan members
   4. From deceased to the surviving siblings of all the deceased’s union members, in traditional portions
      requires siblings of the deceased, or of the deceased’s union members
   5. From deceased to their nearest living relative of the blood
      requires a living blood relative of the deceased
   6. From deceased to the nearest living relative of any of the deceased’s union members
      requires a living blood relative of a member of the deceased’s union
   7. Should no living relative, either through blood or union, be found the properties of the deceased shall revert back to the Monarchy.

Royalty

10. To offer or attempt to offer violence or to cause or attempt to cause violence to be offered to the Monarchy is High Treason and punishable by death, exile, or enslavement.
11. Royal Magistrates are appointed by the Monarchy to oversee the dispensing of the law within a given area. Magistrates are both judges and investigators. They may deputize any whom they see fit, giving to their deputies the authority to investigate crimes and hold suspects for the Magistrate’s review. The judging and sentencing of a suspect or criminal are the sole responsibility of the Magistrate.
12. Royalty may only enter into monogamous, heterosexual unions with the intent to create bloodline heirs.

Nobility

13. A noble is any individual who can prove a blood relation within three degrees to a titled noble.
14. The body of titled nobles may elect three persons of any rank, excluding those who have committed crimes against the crown, to sit upon the Monarch’s Advisory Council. The Monarch may veto any appointment that is too disagreeable. Any slave or indentured servant elected and approved by the Monarch will be granted freedom.
15. Nobles have the right to be tried by either the reigning Monarch or a jury of eleven nobles, at the Monarch’s discretion. If trial by jury is selected, the outcome must be agreed upon by a majority of no less than seven members, at which point the Monarch must abide by their decision. If the nobles are unable to come to a decision, the monarch must render judgment. If the noble is found guilty, the Monarch may ask for a suggestion from the jury for sentencing, but is ultimately the only one responsible for choosing the punishment.
16. No peasant, indentured servant, or slave may offer violence to a noble upon penalty of indenture or death.
17. Titled nobles and their heirs may only enter into monogamous, heterosexual unions with the intent to create bloodline heirs.

Clergy

18. Recognized clergy have the right in any crime short of treason or murder to be tried by the ecclesiastical court of their Temple.

Freemen

19. Debt default, burglary, fraud, and other non-violent crimes may be punished by imprisonment in public stockades, community service, fines, indentured servitude, exile, or hard labor at the Magistrate’s discretion.
20. Murder, attempted murder, assault, robbery, rape, kidnapping and other violent crimes may be punished by community service, hard labor, flogging, exile, or execution at the Magistrate’s discretion.
21. No freeman may own a land grant of more than fifty acres.

Indentured Servants

22. Indentured servants may not be killed, beaten excessively, raped or prostituted. They must be fed properly, provided with a shelter from the elements and clothing appropriate to the climate.
23. Only Freemen may be placed into indentured servitude, but adult untitled nobles and clergy may sell themselves to pay off debts.
24. No one under the age of six may be placed or sold into indentured servitude and any child so placed or sold must be educated in ciphering and letters to the satisfaction of the local Magistrate.
25. No term of indentured servitude may exceed seven years.

Slaves

26. Slaves may not be killed out of hand or beaten excessively. They must be fed properly, provided with a shelter to sleep under out of the elements as well as clothing appropriate to the climate.
27. No slave may enter into any union. If a person is enslaved, any union they were a party to is void and inheritance follows as if the slave had died. Only a royal decree may restore a slave to their former holdings, though their rank in a Guild is not affected by slavery.
28. Slaves may be set free by their owners, unless enslaved for a crime. Slaves freed by their owners must be given the means to see them through to the next summer.
29. Slaves may buy their freedom, unless enslaved for a crime. The slave must pay his or her purchase price, as determined by the Magistrate, to his or her owner in order to buy freedom. The physical appearance of the slave may not be a factor in the purchase price.