Great Morstaybishlia: Difference between revisions

[[File:Tribunal Supremo, Madrid.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Hamlen House, the location of the Supreme Court of Justice in Great Morstaybishlia.]]

Great Morstaybishlia does not have a single legal system as the 1515 Treaty of Union provided for the continuation of Caltharus's separate legal system. Today the MBE has three distinct systems of law: Staynish law, Caltharus law and Valerian law. The Supreme Court of Great Morstaybishlia came into being in 1917 to replace the Royal Courts, which had been previously used since 1036. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, including the same members as the Supreme Court, is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the [[Morstaybishlian Empire|Morstaybishlian Overseas Territories]] and the Crown Dependencies.

Both Staynish law, which applies in Staynes and Justelvard, and Valerian law are based on common-law principles. The essence of common law is that, subject to statute, the law is developed by judges in courts, applying statute, precedent and common sense to the facts before them to give explanatory judgements of the relevant legal principles, which are reported and binding in future similar cases (''stare decisis''). The courts of Staynes and Justelvard are headed by the Senior Courts of Staynes and Justelvard, consisting of the Appeals Court, the Justice High Court (for civil cases) and the Royal Court (for criminal cases). The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in Staynes, South Staynes and Justelvard and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction, often having a persuasive effect in other jurisdictions.

In Staynes, South Staynes and Justelvard, The Court of Magistrates conduct trials. They are ranked according to the affairs and geographical area over which their jurisdiction extends. In order of least to highest, they are as follows: ward (or parish), borough (or shire), county (or district), then region (or province).

Caltharusian law is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles. The chief courts are the Conclave, for civil cases, and the Jurat High Court, for criminal cases. The Supreme Court of Great Morstaybishlia serves as the highest court of appeal for civil cases under Caltharusian law. Sheriff courts deal with most civil and criminal cases including conducting criminal trials with a jury, known as sheriff solemn court, or with a sheriff and no jury, known as sheriff summary Court. The Caltharusian legal system is unique in having three possible verdicts for a criminal trial: "guilty", "not guilty" and "not proven". Both "not guilty" and "not proven" result in an acquittal.

[[File:RPS Calinton.jpg|left|thumb|230px|RPS Calinton is the largest adult male prison in the MBE.]]

Each province possesses a police force under the authority of the provincial government. The national government controls law enforcement agencies that deal with particularly complex or multijurisdictional cases and provides support to province police. Some larger cities, such as [[Sani Bursil]], [[Aeternum]] and Kirdintayos maintain their own police forces. Generally the law enforcement is disciplined and impartial. In recent years, more pressure has been put on policing in the MBE as staffing shortages have increased, which has led to breaches in security such as the [[Prince Thadeus, Duke of Horkalo#Assassination|Assassination of Prince Thadeus]]. As recently as 2016 this policing shortage has been called a national emergency.

Crime in Staynes, South Staynes and Justelvard increased in the period between 1976 and 1983, and then again between 1993 and 1997, though since that peak there has been an overall fall of 59 per cent in recorded crime from 1997 to 2017, according to crime statistics. The prison population of Great Morstaybishlia has increased to 2 million, giving the MBE the highest rate of incarceration in the [[Wikipedia:Southern hemisphere|southern hemisphere]] at 388 per 100,000. The Royal Prison Service (RPS), which reports to the Ministry of Justice, manages most of the prisons within metropolitan MBE, whilst the Justelvard Prisons Committee (JPC) is independent. The murder rate in Great Morstaybishlia has increased in the second half of the 2010s with a murder rate around 3 per 100,000 which is double the peak in 2008, the highest year in that decade. Morstaybishlia's prisons are overcrowded and the prison population is increasing.

Although many nations have abolished [[Wikipedia:Capital punishment|capital punishment]], it is sanctioned in the MBE for certain civilian and military crimes, though this excludes Justelvard. Executions are not commonplace, thought to be due to long prison sentences, good education and supplementary social welfare programs. Since 2000, there have been 159 executions. In recent years the number of executions and presence of capital punishment statute on whole has trended down nationally.