Notes on the universal laws in Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota
Published
Updated
The Universal Free Alliance is a government of and between the Hives (voluntary-membership organizations with intercontinental domain and governance, and their own systems of law) and the Hiveless (people who have no Hive, by default or by choice), meeting to set the minimum law for all Humanity. But this preface already tells what you may learn by reading:
Section One: the Universal Human Law Code
No Law or Right may be justly called Universal which is in any way relative, debatable, dispensable, or based on any belief or custom whose universality is not proved by those guides of Reason and Necessity which are truly unchanging in all generations of the human race.
Authorities, which have many names, among them Government, State, and Hive, are created by a compact of members desiring to be governed by common law and defended by common force. Each authority has just scope to restrict, define, and defend those who have voluntarily submitted themselves to its governance, yet it does not lie within the scope of such an Authority to create Universal Laws, nor to force its governance upon any unwilling person, nor to prevent any person from voluntarily dissolving ties with it, unless the motives for that dissolution be criminal and unjust.
Likewise it lies not within the just scope of such an authority to use its force against any person who is not its subject, unless that person has violated one of its subjects. Further, when the subject of one Authority violates the subject of another, the Necessity of Peace demands that the Authority governing the victim not use its force against the violator without first laboring in good faith to reach a compromise of punishment and action acceptable to both Authorities.
It is therefore concluded that no such Authority may justly be the source of any Universal Law.
And yet, because it lies within the power of a human being to inflict such damage upon the human race as to compromise its future, and to inflict such damage upon the human race as to compromise its future, and to inflict such damage upon Nature as to endanger all present and future life and to inflict such damage upon the Produce of Civilization as to undo the life’s labors of past and present generations, and to commit intolerable crimes which so outrage the common conscience of humankind that they cannot be suffered, it is therefore necessary that certain universal Laws bind all human beings to that necessary minimum of restrictions upon their general license without which civilization and the species itself cannot endure. These Universal Laws being necessary, it is also necessary that there exist an Authority capable of expressing and enforcing them.
Therefore the Human Assembly, embodied in the Senate of the Universal Free Alliance, assembled in accordance with the Carlyle Compromise, proclaims this LIST OF UNIVERSAL LAWS, which represents the extreme minimum of restrictions which Reason and Experience prove necessary for the continued welfare of the human race. [Amendment of 11/12/2239: Except for the Eighth Law] all human beings are equally subject to these Universal Laws, and all Authorities established by the human species for its governance and protection are equally empowered to enforce them upon those who have chosen to subject themselves to said Authorities. This same Human Assembly hereby institutes the UNIVERSAL FREE COURT to be a final court of appeal to protect and enforce these Universal Laws when all other civil authorities when all other civil authorities fail, and grants to the Court those powers necessary to carry out this mandate.
Whosoever, being of sound and mature mind, should, with full understanding or through gross negligence, violate or attempt to violate of one of these Universal Laws, if that person is not appropriately punished by some other authority, may be detained, tried, and in the absence of mitigating circumstances, appropriately punished by the Universal Free Court.
Whosoever should plan to violate one of these Universal Laws but does not attempt to carry out the act may not be prosecuted or punished in any way by the Universal Free Court, but the court may take appropriate measures to prevent the execution of such a plan.
Whosoever, not being of sound and mature mind, should violate or attempt to violate one of these Universal Laws may not be punished in any way by the Universal Free Court, yet if said person is expected to commit more such actions, and if no other Authority takes action to prevent the commitment thereof, the Universal Free Court may take the minimum action necessary to prevent said actions, for the sake of all humanity.
As the Object of these Universal Laws is the continuance of human civilization, not any judicial agenda of correction, retribution, or moral enforcement, so the Spirit of these Universal Laws demands that they be enforced minimally and generously, and with Humanity, not abstract Justice, as their final arbiter.
I’ll save my commentary for the end.
The Code of Universal Laws, commonly known as Black Laws
First Law: It is an intolerable crime to take an action likely to cause extensive or uncontrolled loss of human life or suffering of human beings. [Clarification by Senatorial Consult 2114-3: proselytizing outside Reservations violates this law.]
Second Law: It is an intolerable crime to do significant and measurable damage to Nature or the Produce of Civilization, or to take an action likely to result in extensive or uncontrolled destruction of the same.
Third Law: It is an intolerable crime to kill or seriously harm a minor. [For the definition of a Minor see Senatorial Order 2114-8 ‘Minor Law’ and Senatorial Order 2114-33 ‘Rights of High-functioning Non-Human Animals and Artificial Intelligences.’
Fourth Law: It is an intolerable crime to deprive a human being [or nonhuman Minor] of the ability to call for help or otherwise successfully contact fellow human beings. [Clarification by Senatorial Consult 2192-21: destroying or removing a tracker or the means to access and use a tracker violates this law.]
Fifth Law: It is an intolerable crime to inflict tortuous and unnecessary suffering upon a living animal which is not a human being and thus incapable of fully informed consent.
Sixth Law: It is an intolerable crime to interfere with or disregard reasonable directives issued by a police officer, firefighter, doctor, or other agent of an Authority carrying out a mandate to enforce these Universal Laws or to protect the human race, intelligent life, Nature, or the Produce of Civilization.
Seventh Law: It is an intolerable crime to break a legal contract which one has made voluntarily without duress or pressure, and with full understanding of its terms, conditions, and consequences, unless an unforeseeable change in circumstances renders the contract’s terms destructive, absurd, or cruel, in which case a settlement must be found which is as fair as possible to all parties who have acted in good faith throughout.
Eighth Law [passed by an amendment of 11/12/2239, known as Senatorial Act 2239-19 or the True Eighth Law Act]: We do not anger the Leviathans. This Eighth Law applies exclusively to those, known commonly as Blacklaw Hiveless, who bind themselves to no laws but these Universal Laws, and it may be applied and enforced only by same.
Supplements to the Universal Laws
First Supplement: The Consensus Laws, commonly known as Gray Laws.
In compliance with Senatorial order 2114-3, the Universal Free Court has assembled a list of balanced and reasonable laws intended to reflect those laws most commonly recommended by all human beings for the preservation of the common peace. Prohibitions apply primarily to violence against persons or property, theft, deception, exploitation, and other destructive behaviors.
All Minors and persons not of sound and mature mind, as well as all adult persons who have not registered to be governed by a different Authority or by the Universal Laws alone, and who are residents of Reservations, are automatically protected by these Consensus Laws, and may, in appropriate circumstances, be detained, tried, and punished by the Universal Free Court for violating them.
A person who is not a Minor may choose to adopt the Consensus laws at any time, or to renounce them and be governed by the laws of some other Authority of by the Universal Laws alone, unless the motive for said change is criminal and unjust. [Clarification SC 2144-14: The Universal Free Court will make public a list, known as the Blacklaw Registry, of all persons who have renounced these Consensus Laws and elected to be governed by the Universal Laws alone.]
Second Supplement: Minor’s Law.
In compliance with Senatorial Order 2144-5 no Minor, unless born in a Reservation, may renounce the protection of the Consensus Laws and be governed by the laws of another Authority or the Universal Laws alone.
A Minor is defined as a sentient being, regardless of age [or species], who has not passed an examination demonstrating sufficient mental competency to make moral, legal, and life-or-death decisions, or who has passed such an examination but can be demonstrated to have lost said competency and can no longer pass a comparable examination. No person shall be prevented from taking such an examination for any reason including age [species or synthetic origin]. No limit shall be placed on the number of times a person may take such an examination. The Office of Minors of the Universal Free Alliance must make the opportunity to take such an examination available to any Minor within 24 hours of request. Such examinations may be offered by the Universal Free Alliance Adulthood Competency Exam Office, or by any other Authority whose examination process is approved by said office.
Third Supplement: The Character Laws, commonly known as White Laws.
In compliance with Senatorial Order 2144-104, the Universal Free Court has assembled a code of behaviorally restrictive laws intended to reflect those laws most commonly agreed upon by those human beings who believe that the prohibition of certain activities and the requirement of certain others is conducive to the formation of good moral character and health, and thus beneficial to the human race and the fulfillment of human potential. Prohibitions apply primarily to such arenas as recreational violence, mind-altering chemicals, harmful cultural artifacts, and potentially exploitative sexual activities, while requirements apply mainly to arenas such as health, education, working conditions, and happiness.
Any person, including a Minor, who has not registered to be governed and protected by the laws of a different Authority may register to be governed and protected by these Character Laws in addition to the Consensus Laws and Universal Laws, may thereafter demand protection and enforcement of these laws from the universal Free Court, and may be detained, tried, and punished by the Universal Free Court for violating them. A person may choose to adopt or renounce the Character Laws at any time, unless the motive for said change is criminal and unjust.
Masonic Emperor Cornel MASON’s reading of this text is interrupted in several places, but comparison of the text before and after each interruption shows significant overlap; it is therefore to be concluded that the author Mycroft Canner, or their editor 9A, or This Universe’s God (Ada Palmer) desired that the reader be able to assemble the entire Universal Human Law Code and the three supplements. I have supplied paragraph break within the Supplements to suit my own taste.
The Gray Laws, the Minor Laws, and the White Laws are not reproduced in the text of Too Like the Lightning, Seven Surrenders, or The Will to Battle; the plot point that required their recital was resolved before MASON would have began reading the text.
I doubt that Ada Palmer will write these later Laws into Perhaps the Stars. I can’t see how 9A, who I suppose will be the in-universe author of that book, would be able to work the text of those Laws into the text of the story without another filibuster of the sort that Cornel MASON held upon the floor of the Romanovan Senate.
There are places where the Universal Laws do not hold; these Reservations are governed by their own laws. An example given is the Vatican.
The whole Universal Human Law Code reads like a response to, and criticism of, aspects of the United Nations and criticisms thereof.
There are three points that I want to take up in contrast to the Collected Laws: