Opinionated Question: Transformation and the Judicial System.

[William Swiftfoot]

I figured since I posted this on my journal, and some can't see FA, Id post it here. Every so often I run into weird questions and thoughts and try to make sense of them. This is one of them:

In a world that transformation magic is common place, what would a court system look like, and who would be the ones that would be residing over the cases?

So what do you guys think the answer would be?

[Anter]

With such stronger stereotypical and genetic differences: I highly doubt any court would be balanced unless someone took charge and had a good dictator, of which is a feat in itself.


Chances are the courts would be relatively similar to our own via nation, but specism would be significantly higher.


Not to mention the difficulty of pinning a crime when someone can just change shape.

[William Swiftfoot]

I didn't think about that. One would think altought a person would still have a magical(ie an Aura) or at least genetic signature that would make identifications available. This does not mean one could mask it, but I could see such with enough research.

[Anter]

Irregardless, it would make any civilian aid nigh improbable.


That and any popular criminal would spawn a slew of copy-cats that would mask his own presence, even if he did nothing in the meantime.

Something similar to the Laughing Man in GitS: where everyone was so sensationalized by his crime a million and one crimes were committed by 'The Laughing Man' when he never actually committed anything asides the very first one.

[Geary]

One possibility is that half the jury would be temporarily transformed into the prosecutor's species and half into the defendant's species, so as to eliminate species bias

[Digital Vulpine]

I'd have to say that the biggest hurdle will be establishing identity. Unless there are certain traits that absolutely cannot be changed via TF and are identifiable from a distance, possibly with the aid of computer analysis, it will be extremely difficult to prove that the person sitting in the defendant's seat is the same person who committed the crime.  Witnesses will be nearly useless, since a prepared perp would make sure they only see what he wants them to see. 

And that's not even getting started on the mess that would ensue when someone uses a TF to frame somebody.  The "good dictator" probably wouldn't even  be workable in a setting where identity is so hard to establish, in fact any attempt at centralization would likely be overwhelmed by sheer logistics until they develop the technology to consistently identify people in any shape, by which time there is likely to be significant cultural resistance to the idea.

I think the best way to describe courts in a TF setting would be "horribly unreliable", unless a special allowance for easy identification is made.  Of course, it also depends on how long TFs have been possible in that society, if it's a relatively new phenomenon that could cause things to vary wildly depending on how it was introduced and how well the mechanism is understood. Any historical period between the onset of easy TF and the development of reliable identification, however, would be absolutely riddled with conspiracy theories resulting from the inability to ever really know if you caught the right person.

Just my take on it. 

[Tvorsk]

Well, he said "transformation magic". That leaves hope for soul/aura/youcallitium detection spells being available and (mostly) reliable.

[William Swiftfoot]

While I understand that reasoning, I have always thought that even in transformation there will be always be those "Truer" forms, and the knowledgeable would know how to discern them. Yes, this does still cause for the copycats, and the professional criminals to slip through the cracks, but really thats not much different from this reality.

It also would be completely reasonable that with the abundance of such magics that there would be the magic to negate or prevent a transformation on such a place as a witness stand...or a building in the case of preventing a "long range TF Hit".

This kinda leads me to my own reasonings to who would reside. To me it would be a group much like the courts are not who are skilled in the arts as much as the system, sort of like a circle of mages. This of course makes appointments of justices far more based on test than opinion, but it does to me at least make sense.

@Geary: That would be interesting, although...wouldn't that cause major uncomfertabilities without changing much Bias?

[Anter]

Aura or anything else aside: criminal investigations would be almost impossible to do. Unless the person was cornered by the proper authorities who had the skills to notice and find someone affected by such magic, and had the meaning to know that the aura was that person, there would be almost no way to confirm the location of someone who committed a crime.

Videotape, Audiotape, nearly all forms of surveillance would be rendered worthless. And, to make it worse, crimes could be very easily framed and the justice system would be in near tatters.

TF magic on a common level would be disastrous to almost all forms of social order in society: the only real way of keeping it under control would be to keep everyone in an tight noose, managing and watching their every movement if they had the slightest capability of TF.