Laws & Freedom: In Practice

At the top level there exists the foundational rights that the Liminal State laws must not violate. These are inherent, universal, and inalienable rights belonging to every sentient being, simply by virtue of being sentient, and are detailed under current international law as The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) [note that the Liminal State recognizes the language replacement of “Human Being” with “Sentient Being,” and enforcement is upheld to this standard]. Any references within the Liminal State documentation to “people” assumes “Sentient Beings.”

The following are expansions and additions to the UDHR under the Liminal State:

1. All people are inherently equal and must be treated with absolute equality in all public, business, and government matters.
   1. No laws may be enacted that affect a subset of the population.
   2. Any laws enacted that regulate businesses must be applicable to all related businesses (ie: no law may only affect TikToc, though a law targeting all social media would be allowed).
   3. All businesses must serve all people equally.
      1. Only by virtue of the citizens (via their power vested in the government) are businesses authorized to exist and operate, therefore business are prohibited from serving a subset of the population.
      2. Non-emancipated citizens may have additional rights and protections.
2. The interests of the Liminal State will be prioritized as:
   1. Citizens
   2. All people
   3. Ecosystems/All living things
   4. Everything else
   5. These shall not be prioritized to the exclusion of the others, but rather in concert and consideration of the others.
3. The Liminal State will protect the people’s privacy.
   1. There will be no use of general surveillance of the citizens.
      1. The Liminal State, or any third party acting on behalf of the Liminal State, may never use general surveillance or general data collection of the citizens under any circumstances.
         1. Personalized data may only be collected in connection with the delivery of public services, law enforcement, and to carry out administrative responsibilities (ie: voter rolls, driver license issuance, benefit distribution, birth and death certificates, etc.), and only at the time service is rendered
            1. No citizen shall otherwise be compelled to provide personalized information.
            2. All personalized data collected will be protected from any external access or searches.
            3. All internal access or searches will be for official purposes only.
               1. Access and searches will require the confirmation from three authorized people.
               2. All access and searches will be logged and immutable.
         2. Non-personally identifiable information may be collected from citizens in aggregate as part of normal government functions, such as issuing census reports, population information, and other statistical data.
      2. The Liminal State shall always work to collect less or no data rather than using lawful justifications to collect more.
   2. Businesses may not sell personally identifiable information, or any information (in part or aggregate) that could be used to personally identify individuals without the citizens prior knowledge and approval.
      1. The government will maintain an opt-in database for citizens that will obfuscate personally identifiable information for participating citizens.
         1. Businesses will be able to use this database to verify age, city, or other general information about citizens to remain compliant while providing their services without having to collect this data from the citizens directly.
         2. The database will be protected from being wide-searchable by the government or businesses, and will be modifiable only by the citizens themselves.
      2. The collection of data must always be an opt-in feature.
      3. The government will maintain an opt-out database on behalf of the citizens that wish to have their information removed from business databases, and in which businesses must regularly check to remain compliant.
   3. Citizens may not publish individually identifiable information about other citizens without that person’s prior permission.
   4. Non-citizens or businesses or other entities not registered within the Liminal State may not collect nor publish any information about Liminal State citizens.
4. The freedom of the citizens’ speech shall not be limited by the government, except under special circumstances:
   1. Speech that incites violations of law, violates the rights of others, or violates any foundational rights under the Liminal State shall be prohibited.
   2. Defamation, fraud and perjury are prohibited.
   3. Further restrictions to speech may be applicable when the audience includes or could include non-emancipated citizens.
   4. Additional restrictions apply to businesses and other entities serving the citizens.
5. In addition to all the foundational rights concerning the law and justice, the Liminal State makes further guarantees to citizens and non-citizens alike.
   1. The Liminal State will only use compassion, empathy, and rehabilitation in conjunction with violations of the law. Physical,  mental, or social punishments will never be used to correct behavior.
      1. The first step in rehabilitation will be to determine why the individual violated the law and get them whatever help is needed to ensure it doesn’t happen again (rehab, counseling, financial services, etc).
   2. The Liminal State will foster compassion and empathy rather than vengeance and punishment in regards to victims, and society will initially shoulder the costs of any crimes suffered by victims in exchange for their compassion and empathy.
      1. As society will overtly be paying for the costs of crime, society will determine the restitution owed to the victim and from the violator.
      2. The Judicial Branch will guide and moderate the determined restitution.
      3. The violator will be obligated to repay that restitution back to society.
      4. There are no standard or mandatory minimum sentences in the Liminal State. Violators of the law will be allowed back into society once they have demonstrated to the Liminal State and the citizens that they will no longer be a detriment to society and have demonstrated a willingness and ability to repay any restitution.
   3. Prison will be reserved for only the very few individuals that cannot be rehabilitated and where there is no technology yet available to protect society from them.
      1. Prisons will be transformed so that those incarcerated can live as comfortably and freely as possible, without endangering society. Prisons will no longer serve as punishment or deterrent, but rather the last recourse when rehabilitation fails.
      2. Only the Liminal State can, as the representation of order in society, take responsibility for its citizens' welfare and safety. Therefore there will be no private prisons in the Liminal State. In the extreme situation where someone has been deemed unfit to return to society and therefore society must strip that person of certain freedoms, then that society, via the government, must take responsibility for that person’s continued wellbeing.
   4. Law enforcement will not speak to anyone arrested without a lawyer present.
   5. Non-emancipated citizens will never be tried as adults (any apparent adults that haven’t taken the test will be required to test first).
   6. To ensure the very best legal representation for all defendants, regardless of situation or status, there are no public defenders in the Liminal State. All lawyers, allowed to practice by virtue of the permissions granted them by the Liminal State, will provide counsel to defendants.
      1. A lottery system will be used among all available lawyers in the district to determine which lawyer will represent a defendant.
      2. Lawyers of defendants will be paid a fair, set, wage by the Liminal State.
      3. Defendants may choose to employ other/additional counsel at their discretion and expense.
   7. Non-citizens will be afforded the same protections and rights as a citizen when violating the law.
      1. All non-citizens will be obligated to test and see if they qualify as emancipated (although still not citizens), to determine if they will be treated as non-emancipated or emancipated individuals under the law.
      2. Non-citizens will be afforded the opportunity of asylum, depending on the violation of law, their expected level of safety if deportation is employed, their ability to add to society if admitted, and other factors.
   8. Lawyers are authorized to practice law by virtue of the Liminal State, which gives judges and the Justice Branch direct authority over lawyers for misbehavior, bad representation, etc.
6. The press shall be free of any government influence except where there is critical public interest. The critical public interest must be defined prior to state instantiation or after with a standard public vote.
   1. An example exists in regards to limited public commodities regulated by the Liminal State, such as the electromagnetic spectrum, in which any delegation for public use must conform to the same rules that are foundational to the Liminal State. In addition to these fundamental rules, programming that takes advantage of these public commodities will also be restricted in the following ways:
      1. “News” programs will convey accurate, non-partisan information.
      2. Partisan views shall be clearly labeled as opinion and must not be construed as news.
   2. The citizens may also restrict what content is available in general or specifically to non-emancipated citizens within their community through a standard vote.
7. As there is no division between the roles of the Liminal State and the citizens, the Liminal State will not restrict inside government information from the citizens by default. Exceptions to this may be employed in specific situations as follows.
   1. All information collected or produced on behalf of the Liminal State, excluding personally identifiable or other specifically protected information, will immediately be made available for public consumption.
   2. All interactions between government officials will be video recorded, streamed and archived for all citizens to access immediately and indefinitely.
      1. An exception exists for any recordings of non-emancipated citizens, in which case the recordings may be limited to guardians and necessary officials (ie: classrooms - with recordings/streaming available only to parents and school officials, and law enforcement in the case of a suspected crime).
      2. An exception also exists in the case of any law enforcement activity which include suspected crimes - only upon conviction shall any information regarding a crime and details of the convicted individual(s) be made public, and only then when necessary as provided by law.
         1. For government accountability, a minimum of three independent non-governmental organizations will have full insight and be compelled to regularly review recordings and be aware of every person held in suspicion of a crime, their location, etc.
            1. If enough public support does not organically provide the necessary funding, the government will fully or partially fund these organizations as necessary. Regardless, the government will have no involvement in their operations.
            2. These organizations exist to ensure public visibility into otherwise hidden detentions, but as this process is necessary to maintain privacy of those not convicted, they may never release information outside of the specific and highly regulated routes provided to ensure government accountability.
         2. Law enforcement representatives of a detention facility shall immediately notify families of anyone detained.
         3. The detained shall not be moved or spoken to until they have been assigned to and spoken with a lawyer.
         4. Rehabilitation experts shall immediately begin working with the detainee to assess their situation.
   3. All Liminal State workers, speaking in their official capacity or while on duty, are forbidden from making knowingly false or misleading statements.
      1. Liminal State workers at all levels are encouraged to speak with the press
      2. There will be no direct or indirect interference by anyone within the government to suppress this protected speech.
      3. There will be no consequences for any government workers speaking the truth with any other citizen.
   4. The financial information of all government workers will be publicly available at all times.
      1. All government workers will be paid exceptionally well, compared to the private sector
      2. In exchange for lucrative salaries, government employees may not hold other jobs or have any other sources of income. The finances of all direct relationships, including parents, siblings, spouses, and emancipated children, will also be made public.
      3. All direct relationships of government employees will have access to the same blind investment pool as government employees.
      4. Former government workers are forbidden from working for any company that had direct involvement with their branch(s).
8. All laws that are passed last for a period of 10 years by default. In the ninth year they will again be available to vote on, except they will automatically renew unless the public votes using the 80% rule to remove it. This subsequent vote to keep the law is called a no-confidence vote.
   1. Laws may explicitly specify a shorter time period prior to renewal, with the limit being five years. The year before expiration still requires a no-confidence vote.
   2. No law may explicitly last longer than 10 years.
   3. Any laws written to last less than five years will automatically expire after that time and do not go up for a no-confidence vote.
9. Any population that wishes to be incorporated within the Liminal State may do so with an 80% vote of the existing Liminal State voters and an 80% affirmative vote by the total proposed new population
   1. This requires a total of at least 80% of the new population to vote yes, not an 80% yes from a smaller pool of voters that does not include the entire population.
   2. All the rules that apply to voting within the Liminal State must apply to the new population for the vote to count.
   3. The Liminal State will monitor the vote and all activities leading up to the vote to ensure it meets its standard.
10. Any population that wishes to secede from the Liminal State may do so with an 80% vote of the total seceding population (this action requires the entire seceding population to vote, not the 80% rule, and this does not require nor allow for a vote against this action by the non-seceding population).
    1. The seceding population must be composed of a contiguous area containing at least 1.5 million people when on a continent, or an island or any non-continental area of any size.
    2. Should a successful vote of secession take place, there will be a 10 year overlap period where the seceding area formulates its statehood and the Liminal State and the seceding area negotiate trade, immigration, and other necessary terms of the future mutual relationship.
    3. These same rules apply when an area within the Liminal State wishes to be incorporated into another existing nation instead of forming their own.
       1. Additionally, the other nation must first wish to incorporate the seceding area, using whatever methodology that government uses to make these decisions.
       2. The Liminal State will monitor the vote and all activity leading up to the vote to ensure it meets all the standards as a vote within the Liminal State.