Civil Code 2020

Civil Code 2020

Explanatory notes

This Civil Code is meant to codify civil law in the State of r/SimDemocracy. This is not intended as a complete list of torts, and we have sought to allow common law to have a role in civil proceedings.

Part 1 – Civil Process

Article 1 – Civil Jurisdiction

§1. Entities of SimDemocracy may only have claims filed against them for infractions committed within r/SimDemocracy and its associated territories.

§1.1. In the event that any SimDemocracy entity has committed an infraction that directly affects another in SimDemocracy outside of its normal territorial jurisdiction, (as defined in §1.1 of this article) they may have claims filed against them regardless.

§2. Claims may also be filed for actions taken within direct messages.

Article 2 – Burden of Proof

§1. The burden of proof in all civil cases is the balance of probabilities.

§1.1. The balance of probabilities is to be defined as "An assertion, based on evidence, being more likely to be true than false".

§2. For a defendant to be found liable in a civil hearing, the plaintiff must prove on the balance of probabilities that their claim is truthful.

§3. A rebuttable presumption is taken as true until proven false. It may be rebutted on the balance of probabilities, unless otherwise specified.

Article 3 – Civil Process

§1. The plaintiff shall seek charges most applicable for the facts presented.

§2. In a case where one action fits many torts, all may be pursued by the plaintiff.

§3. If a tort is not appropriate for a given action; yet may qualify as another tort regardless; the judge may inform the plaintiff to refile their lawsuit under the more applicable tort.

§4. If there are multiple torts committed by an accused person; they may be tried in a single civil hearing.

§4.1. The remedy is to therefore individually determine if the accused is liable for every tort; and the remedy is to be all of the remedies for all of the charges added together.

§5. Either party may settle the matter outside of court for damages contained within the sentencing specifications.

Article 4 – Civil Liability

§1. If a tort has been committed under an order from a higher authority; then the person ordered to commit such a tort is not to be held liable; rather the authority responsible for the order to commit a tort is to be held liable.

§2. If a tort has been committed by an employee in the course of employment, the employer is to be held liable.

Article 5 – Legal Entity

§1. A legal entity in SimDemocracy is defined as anything that meets the following categories:

• A group or individual that is capable of having an economic or political stake in SimDemocracy and its territories.
• Any group that is able to speak as a collective and have interests thereof.
• Any group or individual that is able to violate, follow, or take action with regards to SimDemocracy’s laws.

§2. Legal entities may enter into contracts, loan and borrow money, own assets, divide and distribute portions of itself to others (with the exception of individuals and Government entities) and sue.

Part 2 – Remedies

Article 6 – Remedy Specifications

§1. Remedies of damages shall be given in the amount of Tau and the amount of time in weeks and months to pay said amount.

§2. Damages shall be defined as an amount of Tau deducted from a user’s Discord-based account.

§2.1. The court may not discriminate between individuals or parties for not participating in the economy.

§2.2. In the event that an individual or party has a debt to another, they are still obligated to pay it through whatever means necessary.

§3. Remedies issued by a court shall take force the day it has been declared to be in effect.

§4. If no time has been specified in which a remedy issued by the court comes into effect in the verdict or the settlement; the order shall take force after 24 hours of the time the remedy was issued.

§5. Statutory defenses contained in Part III of this Code shall be mitigating factors in considering remedies.

§6. An injunction may be a remedy in all torts.

§6.1. The presiding judge shall decide if the actions described warrant an injunction.

§6.2. It should be likely that harm will befall the plaintiff if an injunction is not granted.

Article 7 – Damages

§1. In the initial announcement of a suit, the plaintiff shall have the opportunity to seek damages.

§2. Damages shall be defined as financial compensation given to the plaintiff, from the defendant, to reflect the effects of the defendant's actions on the plaintiff.

§3. Damages shall be available if the defendants actions have caused an undue financial or social effect on the plaintiff.

§4. Damages shall be calculated by the plaintiff.

§5. The presiding judge shall decide on the final amount of damages to be inflicted upon the defendant if found liable.

§5.1. The final amount of damages shall not exceed the amount stated in the plaintiff’s announcement.

§6. All provisions regarding money and damages, including this Article, shall not apply when there is no economy in SimDemocracy.

Article 8 – Rules for Remedies

§1. The court shall rely on their best professional judgment to rectify the commission of a tort, within the bounds set by legislation; the remedy offered should be fair and proportional to the tort committed.

§2. While determining the remedy, the court is to base it on the severity of the tort, the social harm caused, the damage caused to the plaintiff, and any defenses invoked.

Article 9 – Liability for entities

§1. If a defendant has been held tortiously liable, they shall be liable for one or more of the following:

§1.1. Damages to the plaintiff,

§1.2. A public apology to the plaintiff in the form of a post on the SimDemocracy subreddit or its associated Discord server, and

§1.3. Compliance with an injunction or court order.

§2. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the Code or common law, all torts may incur liability under §1.2 and §1.3 of this Article.

Article 11 – Payment of legal fees

§1. The losing party of a civil case shall be ordered to pay all of the winning party’s legal fees.

§2. If the presiding Judge or Justice believes the winning party’s legal fees are unduly or unreasonably costly, they shall have the power to reduce or nullify the amount of legal fees paid by the losing party.

Article 12 – Ignorance of Law

§1. An entity that is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating the law merely because it was unaware of its content.

Part 3 – Statutory Defenses

Article 13 – Necessity

§1. Necessity may be a possible defense where a tort has been committed in order to prevent greater harm.

§2. In order for the defense to be applied, the defendant shall prove that:

§2.1. The social harm of the tort they sought to avoid is higher than the social harm of the tort they have been charged with,

§2.2. They had no reasonable alternative,

§2.3. They have ceased to engage in the prohibited conduct as soon as the danger passed,

§2.4. That they did not themselves create the danger they sought to avoid.

§3. If the defense is applied, the remedy for a tort may be nullified entirely.

Article 14 – Consent

§1. If the plaintiff affected by the tort done by the defendant has voluntarily consented to it, the defendant is not liable.

§2. If a given person voluntarily consents to the act before its commitment, and then withdraws their consent, then the defense shall still apply.

Part 4 – Torts

Article 15 – Civil Harassment

§1. Harassment is the intentional continued interaction with an individual or group by another individual or group that causes the plaintiff to become intimidated, feel pressured, or generally uncomfortable.

§2. Remedies available for harassment are to be a restraining order not exceeding 3 years

Article 16 – Defamation

§1. Defamation is the act of knowingly communicating false statements about a person or entity in order to injure them

§2. A user may only be found liable for defamation if they intend harm and know that the statement is false.

§3. Statements made in jest or sarcastically without malicious intent are exempt.

§4. Statements that are misleading or present incomplete truths are not defamatory unless accompanied by defamatory intent.

§5. Statements made with the reasonable belief that they were true are exempt from defamation claims.

§6. Disseminating defamatory statements without knowledge of their defamatory nature are exempt.

§7. Statements that are fair comments or criticisms of public officials are exempt.

§8. The damages available for defamation shall be payment for any salary or business lost if applicable.

Article 17 – Wrongful Dismissal

§1. Wrongful dismissal is the termination of an employee who did not warrant termination.

§2. The defendant must prove just cause for the termination.

§3. Damages available for wrongful dismissal shall be payment for any salary or business lost.

Article 18 – Withheld Salary

§1. Withheld salary is to be a lack of payment to an employee of a legal entity.

§2. The legal entity must have not paid an employee for seven days following the expected payday.

§3. Damages available for withheld salary shall be payment to the plaintiff of up to double the salary withheld.

Article 19 – Breach of Contract

§1. Breach of contract is to be the infringement on the terms of a legal contract.

§2. Damages for breach of contract shall be payment to the plaintiff up to double the demonstrated value of the contract.

Article 20 – Impersonation

§1. Impersonation is to be acting in order to mislead a legal entity of their identity or powers.

§2. Remedies available for impersonation shall be an injunction against the impersonating actions as well as payment for any salary or business lost if applicable.

Article 21 – Violation of Privacy

§1. A violation of privacy shall be defined as releasing non-public information of a given legal entity without consent of the entity themselves.

Article 22 – Torts under Common Law

§1. A plaintiff may sue for a tort recognized under common law.

§2. If there is no appropriate statutory or common law tort, a plaintiff may propose for a new tort to be recognized under common law.

§2.1. In the announcement of the suit, the plaintiff must specify their proposed tort and the remedies sought.

§2.2. In their verdict, a judge may choose to recognize the proposed tort under common law or not. If they do recognize the proposed tort, they shall also specify the name of the tort and a definition in their verdict.

§3. All torts under common law may be subject to appeal and review by the Supreme Court.

§4. This article shall not be construed to affect the statutory powers of the Senate, who may choose to codify common law torts into the Civil Code, and who may choose to repeal common law torts at their discretion.

Article 22a – Uncompensated Expropriation

§1. Uncompensated expropriation is to be the direct or indirect expropriation of private property, which has not been abandoned and could not reasonably be expected to be expropriated, by the State without fairly compensating the affected parties.

§2. Remedies available for uncompensated expropriation shall be fair compensation for the private property and/or business lost.

Article 22b – Breach of Police Accountability

§1. The following shall constitute a breach of police accountability:

§1.1. Failing to follow procedure as required by law in exercising emergency and ToS banning powers,

§1.2. Exercising powers of the SDBI in a way that constitutes gross misconduct, and

§1.3. Breaching a duty of care owed to the public to ensure proper standards are enforced within the SBDI and that unlawful orders are not issued.

§2. Only the SDBI Director and the Attorney General shall have a duty of care under §1.3 of this Article.

Article 22c – Breach of Civil Rights

§1. A breach of civil rights is committed when a government employee or employees, or a governmental body, violates a citizen’s or a group of citizens’ constitutional or statutory rights, and does so with intention or recklessness.

§2. A person may be held liable for breach of civil rights even if they were not acting in an official governmental capacity if they nevertheless exercised powers associated with their current or former governmental position.

Part 5 – Contracts

Article 23 – Contract Definitions

§1. A contract is an agreement between two or more legal entities to enter into a legal relationship.

§2. A legally binding contract consists of:

§2.1. An offer,

§2.2. Acceptance of that offer and,

§2.3. Intention to be contractually bound.

Article 24 – Legal Contracts

§1. (Repealed)

§2. Contracts breaking any current laws shall be considered null and void.

§2.1. A mistake in the contract shall constitute grounds for invalidation of the contract provided the mistake concerns significant properties of the document.

§2.2. Fraud shall constitute grounds for invalidating a contract provided that one of the parties has been misled by the other party into concluding the contract through intentional misrepresentation.

§2.3. Threat shall constitute grounds for the contract's invalidation provided one of the parties has been forced by the other party or by a third party to enter into the contract through provoking reasonable fear.

§2.4. Where a contract is recognized as null and void or is invalidated each party must give back to the other party everything it has received therefrom.

§3. The contracts may only be modified, dissolved or terminated by mutual consent of the parties or according to legal requirements.

§3.1. A contracting party may seek compensation and or the termination of a contract when one or more of the parties has infringed on its rights or not performed its obligations by filing a civil lawsuit under Article 19