Justice System of Dagnia

Dagnia's justice system is primarily a Civil Law system in which all laws are created by the legislature and precedents set by courts have little influence over future interpretation of a law, although it has a few features of Common Law. Dagnia was founded on the principle that no one may initiate violence against another, that the use of force should be used only in retaliation for violence or fraud and that the power to use violence should be delegated to the government, except during an emergency. Dagnia's justice system has more or less reflected this idea for most of its history, however neglect, lack of funding and modernisation, along with fear of violating civil and political liberties caused Dagnia to become synonymous with crime. In more recent years, the government has taken a more active stand against crime, though this has started to worry many people, including those who usually support tough anti-crime measures.

History

The structure of Dagnia's justice system is explained in detail in the nation's constitution, written at the time the nation was founded. It was created with the idea of what the fairest legal system would be, as well as more immediate concrete concerns with so many governments being able to detain citizens with no reason. The constitution guarantees the right to the presumption of innocence before proven guilt, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, the right to legal counsel and the right to refuse to speak to any authority until the accused has a legal representative. The accused may also select between a jury or judge-only trial and has the expectation that the trial will be quick along with the expectation that the prosecution only has one shot at conviction. There are courts, police and prisons for every level of government from city to planetary.

The Early Years

When Dagnia was founded, the planet had a population of 5 million spread over the planet with only a few concentrations on harbours. There was little need for a centralised police force as towns were very small and homesteaders were more than capable of defending themselves. The entire justice system consisted of a few policemen per town and one judge per prefecture. Crime was almost non-existent in the beginning because of many factors. These include that the first colonists were people who came there for their ideology and because the harsh environment caused the few people there to work together peacefully.

Rising Crime

As Dagnia's population neared its first billion, the immigrants coming into the country started to become less of the people intersted in creating a society where the intelligent, talented and inventive could work without restrictions and enjoy the rewards, and more of the people who just wanted a job and food. Dagnians accepted all of these immigrants with open arms. While most of them assimilated very well into Dagnian society and were model citizens, this did add a criminal element.

In addition, criminal gangs would set there operations on the planet, since the lack of anti-drug laws made it easy to warehouse and ship substances that would be illegal on most other planets. The Dagnian government did nothing to stop them, as it believed such things should be legal and it would be unconstitutional to stop them. Very few Dagnians bought the drugs anyway, as Dagnian Culture, in spite of its tolerance to personal choices, considers any mind-altering substances, even alcohol, taboo.

When the criminal gangs began operations on Dagnia which were illegal, such as extortion from Dagnian businesses, Dagnia's police were completely unprepared. When police attempted to arrest the crime bosses was when a near complete breakdown of social order began. In that year, the annual police mortality rate went from less than one percent to almost 50%, going over that much in the next year. Bands of criminals began roaming the countryside and the highways extorting from, raping and murdering from anyone the came upon. Dagnia became a haven for terrorists of nearly every political stripe. While the government still had the power to do something about this, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party was more concerned with avoiding legislation that might harm civil liberties than with stopping the crime wave.

Many ordinary Dagnians tried to put a stop to it. In smaller towns, policemen, backed by the citizens of their towns, monitored everyone that moved in and out, in many cases isolating the town and becoming a de facto nation. In larger cities, native Dagnians and recent immigrants alike formed groups to protect their neighbourhoods and retaliate against criminals who attacked them. In many cases, the groups became criminal organisations themselves. The extremely wealthy, who had once had no problem socialising and even living amongst the less well-off, formed gated communities that looked like fortresses from the outside. Private security forces also became popular with the wealthy, although these companies were not above breaking the law in order to do what they were payed for.

The Backlash

After years of anarchy and terror on Dagnia and humiliation on the galactic stage (namely, being called a "failed state" by many of the nations Dagnia economically dominated or had once gloated over "draining the brains" of), law-abiding Dagnians from all sections of society began to call for better policing and anything else to end the anarchy situation. Implementing this would be a problem, as the prominent people who were in a position to end it were either killed or threatened.

In one election, the National Action Union produced a promising young candidate for the office of Chief Executive, who was not afraid to speak out against the criminal gangs and had a talent for avoiding assassination. Chen Linmei was born to an immigrant family from the DaPing system and had lost her father when he could not pay a crime boss extortion money. In spite of her Confucian upbringing, she was almost a caricature of a tough, brash, insolent, individualist Dagnian. Her main campaign slogan, "Policemen of Dagnia, the LDP won't stand behind you" was directed as much at the general population as it was at the police. The NAU won the election in a landslide, shutting out the LDP on nearly all levels.

One of Chen's first acts was to set up an Interprefecture Highway Patrol, that had the power to detain people transporting certain products or substances that were commonly transported and sold by gangs (usually weapons, chemicals and drugs). Sensors for looking into people's vehicles were set up at random points on highways and if anything suspicious was detected, the driver and passengers would be detained until they were determined to be law-abiding citizens, unless they were known to be associated with a criminal gang. While this seeming violation of civil liberties shocked even some of the most crime-weary Dagnians, Chen assured the people that it was all within the confines of the constitution. As the highways were privately owned, the owners voluntarily allowed the government to place the sensors and the highways and the users had little say in what went on them since they did not pay for them if they did not use them. In addition, the searches and arrests were constitutional, as the substances, while still legal, were associated with the criminal gangs, constituting probable cause and the only people arrested were already known criminals.

Police were given new equipment, from basic guns to surveillance and communications interception technologies, along with some military weapons like planes and tanks. The government began recruitment drives for the police, including some targeted at the very vigilantes Chen had criticised.

After an attempt by several gangs to assassinate several leaders and destroy large economically important buildings, Chen declared martial law giving herself near dictatorial power. In this period, Chen approves the use of some torture (never to extract a confession, only for who/what/where questions), jails known members of criminal gangs, imposes tight restrictions on travel to and from the planet and grants police immunity from prosecution for anything they do on the job.

Within months most of the major gangs and terrorist groups had been rounded up and were awaiting trial. The streets were mostly safe, with the exception of some areas in larger cities at first, but they also were soon cleaned up. Chief Executive Chen began to return some of her power gained from declaring martial law back to the legislature, alleviating some people's fears that she only did it to become a dictator. Chen has retained some of her power though, as she believes Dagnia still has a long way to go to become a truly safe nation again. A police force with the power to arrest people off-world is in the works, as many Dagnians were kidnapped and sold off-world by criminal gangs runnning slaving rings. Chen wants these people rescued and their owners severely punished.