The Laws of Rheinland (Changelog/Law Archive)

THE LAWS OF RHEINLAND

>>Article One: The definition, territorial jurisdiction and enforcement of the Rheinland laws

§1. The supremacy of Rheinland laws is absolute in Rheinland space.

§2. Rheinland space is defined as the combination of the following systems: Cologne, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, New Berlin, Munich, Omega-7, Sigma-15, Sigma-21 (jointly), Stuttgart and Thuringia, and also the southern part of the Hudson system (sectors A-H 5,6,7,8 with exception of 15 kilometres perimeter around planet Atka).

§3. Following systems are considered neutral or border zones where Rheinland forces send patrols to provide protection: Omega-3, Omicron Xi, Zurich, and the southern part of the Bering system (sectors A-H 5-8).

§4. Following systems are considered as a war zone where respective Rheinland forces are allowed to act in the interest of the Bundesrepublik, including arresting or eliminating all enemy or hostile entities: Sigma-13 and Sigma-17.

§5. Rheinland law-enforcement authorities are represented by the Rheinland Military, the Rheinland Federal Polizei and the Marinenachrichtendiensts. Rulings by the Bundestag always supersede decisions made by law-enforcement authorities.

§6. Rheinland has signed a number of treaties and agreements which are publicly accessible in this database. In case of conflict, ratified agreements supersede local House law.

§7. Ignorance of the Rheinland laws does not exempt from liability.

>>Article Two: The Rheinland criminal code

§1. Rheinland Criminal Code is fundamental and the only source of penal law in Rheinland. It describes activities subject to punishment by law-enforcement authorities and regulates responsibility for the perpetration of them.

§2. The following activities are defined as unlawful in Rheinland Space:

§2.1. Contraband smuggling and/or trafficking: Possession, shipping, trading or any manipulation with the following goods in general is illegal in Rheinland space (note the exceptions below):

Artifacts (of any sort)
Black Market Arms (of any sort)
Black Market Munitions
Blood Diamonds
Cardamine (of any sort)
Counterfeit Software
Human Organs
Kemwer Munitions
Nomad Materials (of any sort)
Nox
Slaves
Stabiline
Synthetic Marijuana
Xeno Relics

Exceptions are as follows:

§2.1.1. Cryer Pharmaceuticals and its affiliates are for medical purposes licensed to carry an unlimited amount of Human Organs, Stabiline and Synthetic Marijuana. Any other ship may legally carry up to 5 cargo units of Stabiline.

§2.1.2. Rheinland law-enforcement authorities are allowed to transport confiscated contraband to relevant stations or planets for further investigation.

§2.1.3. Other regulations regarding the shipping of certain goods may be implemented after official publication on the Communication channel.

§2.1.4. The following regulations are implemented in case of contraband possession:

§2.1.4.1. All contraband must be always confiscated and handed over to a relevant station or in case of non-human contraband destroyed on site.

§2.1.4.2. Violator is obliged to pay 1.000 SC fine for every cargo unit of contraband, however minimum sum is 250.000 credits regardless of the amount of contraband.

§2.1.4.3. In the case of 5 cargo units of contraband or less, law enforcer may waive from issuing fine and use only formal warning, if they see fit.

§2.2. Possession of following illegal equipment:

§2.2.1. Restricted equipment specified in Rheinland restricted technology registry such as Firekiss or Hornviper weapons, combat vessels (e.g. Wraith, Bergelmir, Fafnir, Mjolnir, Oder class gunboat and capital ships) and other equipment. Special authorization can be obtained by submitting a request in the registry.

§2.2.2. Nomad equipment or equipment constructed on basis of it, except experimental technology used by the Marinenachrichtendiensts.

§2.2.3. Equipment and ships that belong to or are manufactured by hostile organizations, terrorist groups and criminal organisations as defined in Article Five, §1.

§2.2.4. Cloaking Devices, Jump Drives and Hyperspace Survey Modules mounted on ships that do not belong to the Rheinland Military, the Rheinland Federal Police or the Marinenachrichtendiensts or permitted individuals which are registered in Extraordinary equipment registry.

§2.2.5. The following regulations are implemented in case of illegal equipment possession:

§2.2.5.1. Unmounted equipment is to be confiscated in space.

§2.2.5.2. Ships with mounted equipment are to be banned from Rheinland until the equipment is demounted or they are cleared to re-enter. Law enforcers are also allowed to issue fine from 500.000 to 10.000.000 SC according to the severity of the committed crime.

§2.2.5.3. Illegally possessed ships may be destroyed.

§2.3. Piracy and Terrorism:

§2.3.1. Piracy is described as performing or attempting to perform actions such as the disruption of trade lane rings, and/or extortion for sums of money, equipment, cargo or personnel in exchange for the immediate or future safety of the target of the said actions.

§2.3.2. The intent is shown by the accused party being present in the close vicinity of a trade lane ring when the disrupted party drops out of the lane.

§2.3.3. The following regulations are implemented in case of piracy.

§2.3.3.1. Persons suspected of committing acts of piracy or terror are to be put under arrest.

§2.3.3.2. Persons spotted committing acts of piracy or terror are to be arrested or executed.

§2.3.3.3. In case of hostages being held by pirate or terrorist, an attempt to negotiate and rescue the hostages before elimination of pirate should be performed.

§2.4. Disorderly conduct:

§2.4.1. Violation of orders given by law-enforcement authorities’ representatives.

§2.4.2. Denial to provide law enforcement authorities’ representatives with information concerning your identification, documents on your cargo or your intentions in Rheinland space.

§2.4.3. Public swearing or threatening as well as using channels with “//” encryption.

§2.4.4. Insulting the Kanzler, the Republic, the representatives of law enforcement authorities

§2.4.5. Flying ship as captain or pilot while being under influence of alcohol or other drugs which affect the ability to control the ship or communicate properly with law enforcement authorities.

§2.4.6. Moving persons with symptoms of Planet Harris syndrome in Rheinland space as well as attempting to land on planets and stations with such persons onboard.

§2.4.7. Disrupting trade lanes or any other action disrupting the smooth flow of trade or execution of law enforcing.

§2.4.8. Assault on civilians or representatives of law enforcement authorities.

§2.4.9. Offering a bribe to a law enforcer. This action may be punished by issuing an additional fine in the same sum of money as an offered bribe was.

§2.4.10. The following regulations are implemented in the case of disorderly conduct:

§2.4.10.1. In any above case, the pilot should be warned once.

§2.4.10.2. If the pilot continues to disobey the authority of law enforcement authorities’ representatives, a reasonable force can be used.

§2.4.10.3. In case of successfully resolving the issue by reasonable force without destroying the vessel, the violator is to pay from 500.000 to 1.000.000 SC fine for every point of disorderly conduct.

§2.4.10.4. Assault on civilians or representatives of law enforcement authorities may be punished by a fine up to 100.000.000 SC or by death sentence.

§2.5. Violations of information security regulations:

§2.5.1. Hacking into secure channels on the Neural Net or transferring information from secure channels to third parties.

§2.5.2. Hacking into docking and mooring control systems.

§2.5.3. Hacking into government databases or transferring information from them to third parties.

§2.5.4. All the aforementioned violations are a reason for arrest and future investigation. Violators can be also fined from 1.000.000 to 100.000.000 SC according to the severity of a crime.

§2.6. Corporate violations:

§2.6.1. Any of the aforementioned crimes if performed by employees of a corporation, company or any organized group marked by the same identification tag, are a subject for multiplied fines or sanctions against the whole organization.

§2.6.2. Any of aforementioned crimes if performed by the administration of a corporation, company or any organized group marked by same identification tag, may be a subject to an arrest of all vessels of that organization present in Rheinland space for the time of the investigation as well as a subject for multiplied fines or sanctions against the whole organization.

>>Article Three: Trade regulations

§1. Cargo classified as restricted:

§1.1. Following cargo can be transported only by ships of the Rheinland law-enforcement authorities and organizations listed next to the respective cargo type:

Ageira White Boxes - Ageira Technologies, Deep Space Engineering, Universal Shipping and their affiliates
Armaments - Rheinland corporations
Azurite Gas - ships tagged [*USI*]
Blue Jillies - Rheinland corporations, Orbital Spa and Cruise
Criminals
DT Fuel - Rheinland corporations
Hydrogen Cyanide - Rheinland corporations
Light Arms - Rheinland corporations, ships tagged EFL|
Military Salvage - Rheinland corporations, ships tagged B|-
Military Vehicles - Rheinland corporations, ships tagged EFL|
Munitions - Rheinland corporations
Nuclear Devices - Rheinland corporations
Plutonium - Rheinland corporations
Prisoners
Side Arms - Rheinland corporations, ships tagged EFL|

§1.1.1. Following organizations are considered as Rheinland corporations: ALG Waste Disposal, Daumann Heavy Construction, Kruger Minerals, Republican Shipping and their affiliates.

§1.2. A small amount of weapons and ammunition may be transported for the purpose of a crew and passenger defense. Freighters and transports with cargo size of less than 2500 units are allowed to carry 1 cargo unit of Munitions and Light Arms or Side Arms. Gunboats, permitted civilian carriers, yachts and transports with cargo size of 2500 units and more are allowed to carry up to 3 cargo units of Munitions and Light Arms or Side Arms. Liners are allowed to carry up to 5 cargo units of Munitions and Light Arms or Side Arms.

§1.3. Restricted cargo transported without a license is declared as contraband and will be handled according to §2.1.4 of Article Two, however fine is set as half of the sum defined by §2.1.4.2.

§1.4. Transportation of more than 100 persons is restricted only to liners and ships of size up to 3.000 cargo units.

§1.4.1. Fines for violations are set as half of the sum defined by §2.1.4.2. of Article Two.

§1.4.2. All ships caught within Rheinland space violating this regulation will be detained and passengers will be reloaded in space if a ship of law enforcement authority suitable for their transportation is available. Alternatively, detained ships may be either returned to the spaceport where they loaded passengers or to the nearest station or planet. After that, captains of these ships are obliged to unload all passengers and then undock for leaving check to make sure no one stayed aboard. In extreme cases, law enforcement units are authorized to use necessary force. If such an event happens, responsibility for any possible injuries of passengers lies fully on uncooperative captains.

§1.5. Temporary restrictions until further notice (see NeuralNet links for details and handling guidelines): None at this moment.

§2. The supremacy of Rheinland corporations in Rheinland space and measures to maintain it:

§2.1. Administration of mining fields: Rheinland corporations maintain the right to modify, trade, lend, gift, and sell the rights to their respective mining fields to any party.

§2.2. In the Munich system, all mining fields are administrated of the Daumann Heavy Construction.

§2.3. In Omega-7 system, all currently-known mining fields are divided between Daumann Heavy Construction, Kruger Minerals and the Independent Miners Guild. Newly-discovered mining fields however may be claimed by any licensed corporation.

§2.4. Only vessels belonging to the company that administrates the area, in addition to Rheinland law enforcement vessels, can patrol and/or mine in said areas. This holds true unless an agreement has been reached between the visiting vessel and the area’s administrator.

§2.5. Area administrator has the right to forbid entrance completely to the said zones to any entity, group, company, corporation or individual except members of the Rheinland law enforcement and ships of Rheinland corporations and their affiliates. This must be announced in Rheinland Government Channel. In specific situations temporary on-spot entrance denials may be issued by the owner party vessels without the formal announcement in the government channel.

§2.6. In case of violation by ship which is not allowed to enter the area, the violator will be ordered to leave the area once, then reasonable force may be used. Repetitive violators may be also fined up to 50.000.000 SC fine.

§2.7. If ore theft is revealed, stealing party is obligated to pay equal to stolen ore’s worth compensation to the field administrator which will calculate exact value according to market prices.

>>Article Four: Directives for foreign capital ships and law enforcement vessels

§1. All Battleship, Carrier and Cruiser class vessels that do not belong to the Rheinland law enforcement are banned from Rheinland space unless they are permitted by a High Command member of the official Rheinland's Law Enforcement, or by the Bundestag, or listed in the exceptions below.

§1.1. Rheinland corporations and their affiliates are allowed to use the "Bustard" Civilian Light Carrier.

§1.2. The "Corvo" Civilian Deep Space Explorer is not considered as a capital ship.

§2. Violators of §1. may be fined up to 15.000.000 SC fine for Cruiser class vessels and up to 30.000.000 SC fine for Carrier and Battleship class vessels and are to be escorted out of Rheinland space by the shortest way. Ships which won't comply may be destroyed.

§3. Any vessel that doesn’t belong to law-enforcement authorities may be ordered to move away from planetary orbit.

§4. All foreign police, military and intelligence agency spaceships of any size are banned from Rheinland space unless permission to enter is given by a High Command member of the official Rheinland's Law Enforcement or the Bundestag.

§4.1. Following organizations are considered as foreign police, military and intelligence agency:

Bretonia Armed Forces
Bretonia Intelligence Service
Bretonia Police Authority
Confederal Gallic Defense Forces
Crayter Republic
Gallic Royal Enclave
Liberty Navy
Liberty Police
Liberty Security Force
Liberty Separatists
Kusari Navy
Kusari Police
Kempetai
Office of Confederal Intelligence

§4.2. Violators may be fined up to 10.000.000 SC fine and are to be escorted out of the Rheinland space by the shortest way. Ships which will not comply or commit violation repeatedly may be destroyed.

§4.3. Following organizations are permitted to enter Rheinland space for the purpose of trading with freighters, liners and transports, which may be accompanied by escort of the same affiliation. For the systems of Hamburg, Hudson and Bering specifically there are no limitations and may use a ship of any size: Crayter Republic, Liberty Separatists.

>>Article Five: Enemies of the state and undesirable entities

§1. A number of organizations is declared extremely dangerous and all the members of those organizations are to be arrested or eliminated:

Coalition for repeated acts of terror
Corsairs for repeated acts of piracy
Das Wilde for treason
Gas Miners Guild for support of criminal and terrorist groups, allying with Red Hessian Army and attack on the Fulda Border Station (see war declaration)
Landwirtrechtbewegung for repeated acts of piracy and terror
Red Hessians for repeated acts of piracy and terror
The Order for repeated hostile acts against MND and cooperation with terrorist organizations
Unioners for sabotage and repeated acts of piracy and terror
Xeno Alliance for repeated acts of piracy, terror, and genocide

§2. Any aliens identified as Nomads as well as any other alien life forms or sentient beings are to be treated with caution and to be destroyed if any hostile intentions are experienced.

§3. Providing any help to any member of the above-mentioned organizations is punishable by fine up to 50.000.000 SC, imprisonment or death sentence according to circumstances and severity of the crime.

§4. Following entities are not welcome due to their dubious reputation:
[color=#BFBFFF]

Blood Dragons
Farmers Alliance
Gaians
Gallic Brigands
Golden Chrysanthemums
Hellfire Legion
Lane Hackers
Liberty Rogues
Mollys
Outcasts

[indent]§4.1. If ships of mentioned entities are found in the Rheinland territory, their cargo may be confiscated and are to be escorted out. Ships which will not comply or repeatedly return may be destroyed.

>>Article Six: Restricted areas and security zones

§1. Entry to following areas is allowed only to ships of the Rheinland law-enforcement:

§1.1. Sectors A-B 4-5 and the entire area of the Westerwald nebula in the Frankfurt system.

§1.2. Sectors G-H 2-4 in the Hamburg system.

§1.3. Thuringia system in its entirety.

§2. Unauthorized entry to restricted areas or revealing any information related to them is considered as a serious crime which is punishable by fine up to 25.000.000 SC, imprisonment or death sentence according to circumstances.

§3. The area of 10 kilometres around the Omicron Rho jump hole, which is located at the border of sectors E3-F3 in Sigma-15 system, is considered as The Core's Security Zone where The Core is allowed to enforce its laws. The Rheinland law-enforcement is allowed to patrol in this zone and act in situations when both Rheinland and The Core laws are violated simultaneously.

>>Article Seven: Modular bases

§1. All modular bases within Rheinland have to be registered in the Modular bases registry before the construction begins. The registration fee is 50.000.000 SC.

§1.1. Every organization or individual, which wants to construct a station in Rheinland, has to answer the following points truthfully:
§1.1.1. Name of the base
§1.1.2. Name of the station administrator
§1.1.3. Affiliation
§1.1.4. The purpose of the station
§1.1.5. Existing trade agreements
§1.1.6. Location of the base

§2. Any deviation in the information provided by paragraph §1.1. and its subsections is subject for an official investigation and may be sanctioned.

$3. Affiliation rules:

§3.1. The affiliation of the station administrator has to be at least neutral to the law-enforcement authorities.

§3.2. The affiliation of the station administrator has to be hostile to the Rheinland unlawful groups.

§3.3. Paragraphs §3.1. and §3.2. apply also to the station security members.

§3.4. Conditions mentioned in paragraphs §3.1. and §3.2. have to be proven if the station is owned by the non-Rheinland entity or upon request of the law-enforcement authority.

$4. The law-enforcement authority has the right to restrict the trade to any station if it's necessary to interrupt the violating of Rheinland laws. Any contraband found available to be sold on the station is a reason for the start of official investigations and may be sanctioned.

§5. A violation of the Rheinland laws may result in suspending or revoking of the permission.

§6. Trade agreements with restricted goods have to be approved by the Rheinland Bundestag.

§7. Criminal database:

§7.1. If an entry in the criminal database declares a member of the security of the station as criminal, the fine for amnesty is to be paid either from the violator or the station administrator.
Failing to do so may result in a revoking of the permission and/or the removing of the violator from Rheinland space.

§7.2. In case the arrest warrant is issued, the station administrator has to replace the member of the security of the station.

§8. Responsibilities of the station owner and administrators:

§8.1. The station administrators have to ensure that the official law-enforcement authorities (BDM|) have docking rights all the time.

§8.2. The station administrators have to ensure that trading on the base is not in any violation of the Rheinland Laws including not supporting any illegal, criminal or terrorist groups or individuals.

§8.3. Construction of weapon platforms must be approved by at least one of the official law-enforcement authorities or the Bundestag before construction begins.

§8.4. Construction of manufacturing facilities which produce cloaking devices, hyperspace jump drives or hyperspace survey modules must be approved by at least one of official law-enforcement authorities or the Bundestag before construction begins. The law-enforcement authority has the right to specify conditions for distribution or sale of manufactured equipment which must be adhered.

§9. Construction of base without proper registration as well as any other law violation related to modular bases is punishable by fine up to 250.000.000 SC fine or by eviction and deconstruction of the structure by law enforcement forces.