Made to Swear Fealty

[Tim McDaniel]

On Mon, 9 Jun 1997, ND Wederstrandt <nweders at mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
> Stefan li Rous asked:
> >What "court of inquiry"? What exactly is a "court of inquiry"?
> 
> A court of inquiry is (for the SCA) when the Board convenes a Board
> to investigate a complaint that it deems a sizable or contoversional
> event to have Board action taken.

Not quite.  Below is Governing and Policy Decision 3 (G&PD #3).  The
Board may direct a kingdom to set up a board, as I think it did with
the mysterious Atlantia case, or so my dim memory recalls.

> I want to state that I do not think that this topic should be
> discussed on the Net.

What's the half-life on this issue -- hasn't it been almost 20 years?!?
Tho I'll grant that the two principals are still active (last I heard)
...



3. COURTS OF INQUIRY AND CHIVALRY (August 1979, revised July 1988 and
July 1989)

  1. No court of inquiry or chivalry shall be established at the
corporate level of the Society.  Any courts within the Society are
presumed to be within the medieval context of the Society and pertain
only to conduct within the structure and definitions of the Society.

  2. The primary purpose for these courts within the Society is for
the investigation of questions and issues, much as a "Commission" in
the 20th Century; for opening communications on issues; and for the
clarification of issues.  Only secondarily are courts considered to be
for the purpose of trying members of the Society for alleged behavior
or incidents.  No courts of the latter type are to be established by
any branch below kingdom level.

  3. No court shall be held within any kingdom on individual behavior
that falls within the jurisdiction of a civil or criminal court
maintained by the nation or other political division where it takes
place, nor shall any recommendation about individuals be made on such
issues.  However, the Board recognizes that a given action may have
implications both in law and in the Society's rules of courteous
behavior, and will recognize a court which restricts itself to the
latter as long as the act in question occurred in a Society context.

  4. If a court concludes that the appropriate action is one reserved
to the Board, the judgment should be issued in the form of a request
that the Board exercise the reserved power in question.

  5. The Board of Directors remains the ultimate level of appeal for
all issues and all members of the Society.  (See By-Laws II.C. and
Corpora III.B.2)

-- 
Daniel de Lincoln
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com
tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.