Earlier this month, EBC reporter UncreatedLemon interviewed Chief Justice Malashaan on his time as a Justice, as well as the law in general.
The Transcript said:1. What was your most interesting case?
Since being a Justice in Europeia, the only legal decision the Court has made has been to deny a request for an advisory opinion due to lack of specific stake, so I'm going to interpret the question in a broader way than I believe you intended. The most interesting legal case I've been involved was was the trial of Ravania for Treason and Espionage in The North Pacific.
2. Please tell me some details about it.
Ravania was a member of TNP's military, and also a member of the UDL. Ravania was unhappy with the direction TNP's military was taking and leaked confidential information from their private forum to some of his UDL friends, which resulted in TNP bringing charges of Treason and Espionage. I'm still not 100% sure how it happened, but apparently my reputation as a legal scholar reached UDL's leadership and they approached me here in Europeia and asked me to act as Ravania's defense counsel. Despite the fact I'm not a huge fan of the UDL, I agreed to take the job, mostly because the facts looked so bad for Ravania I thought it would be an interesting challenge.
If anyone is interested in the gory details, I believe the trial is still viewable on TNP's forum, here. The short version is that I threw everything including the kitchen sink at the case, which resulted in a split verdict - guilty of the lesser espionage offense but not guilty of treason. That was probably a fair result based on the facts.
3. What was the sentence?
Ravania was stripped of voting rights for 6 months in TNP. I think there was a general feeling that the Court was too lenient, and I can't honestly say I disagree. I was expecting at least a period pf full ban.
4. How severe can the law be?
I'm not sure what you're asking here. If you're talking about sentencing in Europeia, that is something of an open question. With regards to forum bans, the criminal code lays out a maximum length of ban that can be applied for each offense. However, it is well established in Europeian law that the Court can issue alternative punishments, and there is yet to emerge an accepted method for comparing such alternate punishments to bans with regards to severity.
There are two main schools of thought: 1) that only the length of bans is set in law, so alternate punishments are unrestricted; 2) that any alternate punishment is nominally equivalent to a certain length of ban, and if the matter arises, the Court and/or public opinion will determine that equivalence. I lean towards the second school of thought, although I have concerns about the wisdom of leaving such a huge ambiguity in our criminal law. I think it would be a good area for legislative discussion and action to provide greater clarity to both the people and the Court.
If your question was more directed towards how severe the Court has typically been historically in Europeia, I think we have a history of lenience, and that's a good thing. Giving people second chances is solidly embedded in Europeian culture, and we've gained from it. A number of people who have contributed greatly to the region are the beneficiaries of having been given a second chance.
5. How long have you held your position?
My appointment to the Court was confirmed by the Senate on May 27 this year, and I was honored to be selected as Chief Justice by my fellow Justices a few days later. I briefly held an Associate Justice position in 2012, but resigned due to real life commitments (I left NationStates entirely for a few months).
6. If you were to smack a percentage on 'crime' in Europeia, what would it be?
Low single digits, 2 or 3% at most. One just has to look through the criminal case archives to see how rare criminal cases are - the last conviction was in September 2012. It does make life on the Court a little boring, but I'm proud that the region has reached a point where criminal activity is not a problem. If you look further back in the archives, you will see there were times when there were multiple criminal trials a month.
7. Would you like to add anything for the readers?
Just to let everyone know that I am still working on an overhaul to how we undertake legal training and education in the region. It is taking longer than I hoped, partly due to my real life commitments, and partly due wanting to make sure everything is ready when we launch, rather than rushing out a half realized idea. The mock trial drafting that is still underway was something of a test balloon for various ideas I have, and it is going fairly well, although it is taking a lot longer than I would have hoped due to numerous stalls. It has certainly provided a lot of useful insights. I hope to have more to say about this in a week or so, plans are certainly solidifying in discussion with the AG, Chairman of the Bar Association, and the other justices. That said I just started real life law school and we now have a criminal trial underway, so I might be a little busy...
8. Do you have a logo for the ministry that you would like submitted with the article?
We don't really have one, but feel free to include the Court's seal: