Law Level

Law Level is an indication of the relative complexity and level of enforcement of the legal system of the world or system. The higher the level the more complex of the legal system, the more restrictions placed on people and their activities, and the more stringent the enforcement.

Description (Specifications)

UWP Data: The (Law Level) code of the UWP is categorized on the (UWP Law Level Code Table) to show prohibitions against weapons. It also influences the difficulty to avoid being harassed or arrested by local authorities.

The Law Level is only a guideline on local restrictions on possession and use of weapons by individuals. Police, Bonded Security and Military forces are usually not bound by these law levels, although they may be influenced by them. Private Security are bound by the same restrictions as individuals.

Note that Imperial Law can be described as Law level 1. Since Imperial Law supersedes Local Law within the Imperium, it could be argued that there is nowhere within the bounds of the Imperium where the Law level is actually zero.

UWP Code Table

UWP Law Level Codes
Code	Description	Prohibited Weapons/Controls (including those of earlier codes)
0 (Zero)	No Law	No Prohibitions
1	Low Law	Body Pistols, Explosives, Nuclear Weapons, Poison Gas,
2	Low Law	Portable Energy Weapons
3	Low Law	Machine Guns, Automatic Weapons, Flamethrowers, military weapons
4	Moderate Law	Light Assault Weapons, Submachine guns, All Energy weapons.
5	Moderate Law	Personal Concealable Firearms, EMP weapons, Radiation weapons, Non-automatic fire Gauss weapons
6	Moderate Law	All firearms except Shotguns
7	Moderate Law	Shotguns
8	High Law	Blade Weapons Controlled, open display of weapons
9	High Law	weapons outside home
A (10)	Extreme Law	Weapon possession
B (11)	Extreme Law	Rigid control of civilian movement
C (12)	Extreme Law	Unrestricted invasion of privacy
D (13)	Extreme Law	Paramilitary law enforcement
E (14)	Extreme Law	Full-fledged police state
F (15)	Extreme Law	All facets of daily life rigidly controlled
G (16)	Extreme Law	Severe punishment for petty infractions
H (17)	Extreme Law	Legalized oppressive practices
J (18)	Extreme Law	Routinely oppressive and restrictive

History & Background (Dossier)

Law is an important component of developing civilizations and helps society to control or direct population behavior and focus on group goals. One of the defining characteristics of TL–1 is the development of a formalized legal system.

Law levels above 11 would be considered Authoritarian, law levels of 14 or higher would be a police state. Typical authoritarian government restricting freedom of movement with cameras recording all public movement and some private would be at Law Level 11 to 12. On high tech worlds, though, presence of convenience devices giving verbal control of lighting, entertainment consoles, and other household items, will continuously record the inside of a home, would constitute Law Level-12 if the government has automatic and convenient access to them, even if the devices are voluntary but ubiquitous. The citizens might even agree with the monitoring in some cases, given the extra benefits given. For an average citizen in such a society the feeling of general oppression in daily life would begin with Law Level-13, which would also be common in occupied territory, or territory with a history of civil strife or rebellion.

True totalitarian government, with all aspects of life monitored, would begin with LL:15-16. Interestingly enough the Imperial classification for Zhodani worlds would be high for unrestricted use of mind control, but the Zhodani equivalent law levels do not consider the use of mind control and monitoring to be a consideration with law level.

See also

Universal world profile

§ == ( Please refer to the following AAB Library Data for more information: ) == §

• Main world
• Hex Number
• Universal World Profile
  • Starport (Sp)
  • Planetary Size (S)
  • Atmosphere (A)
  • Hydrosphere (H)
  • Population (P)
  • Government (G)
  • Law Level (L)
  • Tech Level (TL)
• Trade classification & Sophont Codes
• Importance Extension (Ix)
• Economic Extension (Ex)
• Cultural Extension (Cx)
• Nobility
• Bases
• Travel Zone
• PBG - Population, Belts, Giants
  • P: Population Multiplier
  • B: Belts
  • G: Gas Giants
• Worlds
• Allegiance Code
• Stellar Data
• COG Sequence
  • C: Climate
  • O: Orbit
  • G: Gravity

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• John Harshman, Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman. Library Data (A-M) (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), —.
• Marc Miller. The Traveller Book (Game Designers Workshop, 1982), —.
• Marc Miller. Scouts (Game Designers Workshop, 1983), —.
• Marc Miller. Referee's Manual (Game Designers Workshop, 1987), .
• Loren Wiseman. "Law In the Imperium." Challenge 50 (1991): .
• Frank Chadwick, Dave Nilsen. Traveller: The New Era (Game Designers Workshop, 1993), 191.
• Marc Miller. Marc Miller's Traveller (Imperium Games, 1996), 134,135.
• Loren Wiseman. GURPS Traveller Core Rules (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 123.
• Jon F. Zeigler. First In (Steve Jackson Games, 1999), .
• Martin Dougherty, Hunter Gordon. The Traveller's Handbook (QuikLink Interactive, 2002), 377.
• Gareth Hanrahan. Core Rulebook (Mongoose Publishing, 2008), .
• Matthew Sprange. Core Rule Book (Mongoose Publishing, 2016), 219.
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), .
• Marc Miller, Robert Eaglestone, Don McKinney. Worlds and Adventures (Far Future Enterprises, 2019), 17,23,25-26.
• Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science