Law in a Magical World

Dave Hoffman of the blog Concurring Opinions posts an interview with writer Pat Rothfuss here. Among the questions:

Can you imagine creating and writing explicitly about a world where magic and a litigation-based, common-law system, co-existed?

Absolutely. In fact, I've written such a world. You don't see much of it in this first book, but there is a working common-law system in my world. I don't think that the rule of law and magic are mutually exclusive at all.

Thanks to Sydney Beckman of Charleston School of Law for alerting me to this post.

Comments

[Alan Kellogg]

My interest lies in exploring how working magic (real results, not imaginary) may affect the practice of law. Using an example from D&D, having something like Zone of Truth available would radically alter how witnesses and suspects are questioned on the stand. Indeed, I think it more likely Zone would be used during the initial interrogation, in order to avoid future embarrassments at trial.

Speaking of interrogations. For my ever in progress home brew Dragon Earth I came up with the following for seances.

1. The only furniture allowed in the seance chamber are two solid wood chairs. The only recording equipment a pair of video cameras connected to recording equipment in a room located elsewhere. Cameras to provide a live feed as well. The room must otherwise be bare of any and all decoration.

2. Only two living persons are allowed to be physically present at a seance, the psychic and a witness.

3. The seance must be recorded on video, with two engineers present to operate the machinery and to act as eyewitnesses to events. (The recording medium used previously depended on available technology.

4. No more than four witnesses total. More increases the chance of psychic or magical manipulation of perceptions.

5. If the deceased appears different to each witness, the seance is invalid. If the deceased appears different on screen and/or in the recording, the seance is invalid.

6. The deceased must appear before each witness, 'live' on screen, and in each recording for a seance to be valid.

Probably other considertions, but that's for fussbudgets and worry warts to fret about.

And speaking of Laurel K. Hamilton...

Undead have no rights. With the exception of vampires (common law mostly) and liches (recently earned thanks to their service during the Lich King's War (he hated other liches)). Ghouls are treated as undead though they are not, technically speaking, undead.

There are other differences. For one thing, the people of Dragon Earth are not as privacy proud as we tend to be. So they accept methods of investigation and interrogation we would not countenance. Then too, the goal of investigations in Dragon Earth law is to determine and apprehend the subject, not find a suspect. It's cheaper and less time consuming in the end.

Taking typical fantasy magic abilities, which would you say are best for application in law?