Campaign:NHNE/Governments/Fleet Court
The Fleet Court acts as a dispute resolution and arbitration service and its judges can influence Governments, but not all of its judgements are enforceable.
Description[edit]
The Court has a body of Judges - each recognised state having the right to appoint one. Any case is judged by a body of 3, 5, 7 or 9 judges drawn from this pool by lot. And each party has the right to reject a number of drawn judges equal to the panel size, each rejected judge then being replaced by lot.
History[edit]
The Fleet Court started as a court of Captains of the colonisation fleet, but the split between the Fleet and Downers found the institution with no authority. However, all parties were aware that some form of arbitration mechanism was necessary - so the Captains and the Colonists appointed representatives to act as negotiators - notionally as a sub-committee of the original body.
This court effectively replaced the original institution in 13, and the Judges became influential in interplanetary affairs.