The Law in The North Pacific

In this series we will be looking into the specifics on Law in our region, as well as explain the basics of law as some form of handbook for those new to law, those interested in it, and want to know more about our region's legal system. This will be a small side project for me to look into the legal system and get used to it more, and to make it more accessible to the public.


When one person thinks about law thinks of rules, of a certain set of guidelines or strict codes by which a society or group holds itself in order to maintain order and, to some extent, logic. We're social animals, and by such, we behave in a manner by which we comply with each other. First there was the rule of the strongest, in which the rules, the orders were given by that who had the biggest stick, or the sharpest sword. But still there was some form of organisation, which may distinguish us from other animals. And law isn't just there to be looked upon and expect to comply pro bono, but also to be enforced, and to fix what is wrong in a sense of justice. We could say that the first ounce of justice was done when a man hit another, and the second retaliated. Action, reaction, and that would lead to a direct kind of justice, in which that who was strongest, had the will of the law, had the power to enforce it.

Currently it is not like that, as we all are aware on our surroundings, for we work in a more complicated behavior. We theoretically put our own laws in common with the form of a parliament, in the case of this region, of the Regional Assembly, and any wrongdoings and acts against this will of the people is acted upon with the enforcement of the law with the current court system.

We're the last part of a millenia long evolution of society as a whole, as manifested in our laws, in our philosophy, and by that we can say that our laws could be better than some in the past, but is nowhere from being the most optimal way, nor the most just, for there isn't really a true common concept of justice. It is widely spread that justice is equal to equality, equity, or even punishing the wrongdoer. But how do you define a wrongdoer?

Certain situations, and time stamps, define the laws within a situation, a contextualization of a whole. We cannot look into our past legislation without knowing the mentality of that era, or the intent, for each law, each act, has its intention, it development and its time. There is no true, perfect law, such as there is no perfect ethic, or absolute law in the vast universe.

But we can look into more concrete parts of law, its history, meaning, and explanation.

Vivanco:

Action, reaction, and that would lead to a direct kind of justice, in which that who was strongest, had the will of the law, had the power to enforce it.

Currently it is not like that

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Although the strongest physically does not rule, I would say, at least in certain countries, the strongest financially, that is, the richest, have control over the law and country in many aspects.

In The North Pacific’s internal order, we can easily find three pillars of legislation: The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Legal Code. From all of these, the rest of the rules and procedures in the region come out and have its legitimacy. Each of them has its own body and importance. The first thing we have to clear up is how these laws interact with each other.

We have to clear up the existence of a basic norm, a supreme norm that rules over the rest: The Constitution.

The constitution consists of the basic form of TNP’s legal system, being the guarantor of the unity of the laws in TNP under a single judicial system. This superiority over the rest of the internal order is called primacy.

This primacy of the Constitution of The North Pacific can be found in its Article 6.17:

Article 6. General Provisions.
17. No law or government policy may contradict this constitution.

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What does this mean then? Exactly what this means; nothing can go against what’s stated in the Constitution. This document is the binding and pillar by which the rule of law is maintained amidst the region.

This idea of a grand primacy of a single law comes from the legal author Hans Kelsen; the need to base a legal system in a single, strong base as guardian, a “Grundnorm”, a basic law, that we will explain in further detail further down the line, along the thoughts of other authors, much like John Rawls or Ronald Dworkin.

But as a basis to know how it works, we have to keep in mind that we find ourselves in a pyramid hierarchy, with the Constitution at the top, from which the rest of the legislation flow and grow from; The roots of the tree of the law in TNP.