On Sun, 7 Oct 2018, Aris Merchant wrote:
> I know we used to have a Bill of Rights in Rule 101. It might be neat
> to add that back again. Does anyone (particularly anyone who around
> when we last had it) have any comments on the idea of bringing back
> legal rights?
My "if I ever get around to an Agoran PhD" subject would be a legal
history of the R101 Rights. It never dominated play, but here and
there over its lifetime there a very interesting stare decisis of
"constitutional-style" rights adjudication built up.
It was repealed in a moment of "let's stop being so serious for a
bit and go back towards this just being a boardgame-thing" but
other than just some itching for change there was nothing wrong
with it and plenty to like.
When I wrote the repeal-of-rights, I purposefully took every right
and put it somewhere in the ruleset (I think!) though not phrased
so strongly as "rights". Since they didn't sound so absolutely-
protective, I think their power/purpose may have decayed or drifted
a bit (but to the extent the language is still there, the precedents
from when they were rights may still stand).
-G.
