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Charter D-002 - Territorial Sovereignty

"Every faction holds judicial authority over crimes committed within its claimed territory."

D-002 answers a question the Penal Code cannot answer on its own: not what an offense is worth, but whose bench reckons it.

The Rule​

Authority follows the ground. A crime committed inside a power's claimed territory is that power's to judge, whatever the citizen's own allegiance, whatever the article. The Code supplies the article and the term; the charter supplies the court.

What Follows From It​

Three consequences that shape how a citizen actually moves through the world:

  • The same act is not the same offense everywhere. Crossing a border changes who reads the ledger, and a power keeps its own.
  • A warrant is territorial. A name marked in one power's ledger is read by that power's watch, on that power's roads. It does not automatically follow the citizen home. See The Roads and the Watch.
  • Territory can change hands. Sovereignty attaches to the claim, not to the claimant, so ground that changes hands takes its judicial authority with it.

Where It Stops​

At the capital. Charter D-001 holds Wildoria city outside every power's claim, which is why the two charters are always read together: D-002 says the ground decides, and D-001 names the one piece of ground that belongs to no one.