Jurisdiction and Inter-Province Law

Back in Part I we explored the roles and relationship between the Emperor and the Elder Council — Now we get in to the tricky logistics of the jurisdiction within the Empire. From what I can tell the Elder Council rules not only over the broader Empire as a whole, but more specifically the capital province of Cyrodiil.

To use another modern real-world comparison, jurisdiction of law is usually divided up in to three levels — Federal, State and Local. Federal powers generally override state powers and state override local, but some powers can be shared between different levels of parliament/congress (known as “concurrent powers”) and certain levels may have specific areas of law where only they can legislate (“exclusive powers”). Translating for Tamriel, imagine that “Federal” would be the Empire, “State” would be the Provinces, and “Local” would be the smaller districts within each province: For example, in Cyrodiil it would be the Counties, Skyrim the Holds and Morrowind the Great House Districts. In the case of Cyrodiil, the “State” and “Federal” parliament equivalents are one and the same — The Elder Council acts as both, skipping the “State” level altogether.

For the purposes of consistency, I’ll be referring to “federal” law within the Empire as Empire Law, “state” law as Province law and “local” law depending on the nature of the municipality (For example, in Skyrim “local” law would be Hold Law, in Morrowind House Law, etc). Please note that these are not necessarily the terms that would be used in lore, they’re simply what I will be using to differentiate between different jurisdictions within Tamriel.

With that knowledge under our belt, let’s take a step back for a moment and look at what we’ve learnt of the governmental and legislative hierarchy of the Empire so far:

Here’s a diagram I whipped up for your viewing pleasure

Please note that I’ve only included the provinces of Cyrodiil, Morrowind and Skyrim simply because they’re the provinces with the most information readily available. The other provinces would of course sit at the same level of the hierarchy — consider Morrowind and Skyrim two examples of Province law.

A few things worth noting:

• Ashlanders aren’t included in the hierarchy, despite them having their own tribal laws and customs. The only reason why I’ve excluded them is because neither the Emperor, the Elder Council or any of the Great Houses of Morrowind recognise their power as legitimate. The best example I could make would be comparing the situation to that of the Native Americans or Aboriginal Australians during colonisation. Their forms of governance over their people would constitute a separate hierarchy altogether.
• It’s not entirely clear what the role of the High Chancellor is, but since the closest real-world approximation would be a prime-ministerial role and the fact that High Chancellor Ocato acted as a de-facto leader of the legion I think it’s safe to assume that a High Chancellor would have more power than the other 29 chancellors of the chamber, hence why I have distinguished the position from the rest of the Elder Council.
• I’m uncertain whether the King/Queen of Morrowind would be higher up the hierarchy than the Tribunal — I’ve stumbled across a few contradictory sources on this matter (how much political influence the tribunal has in the late 3^rd Era — particularly after the armistice — seems debatable). Read the terms of The Armistice for more details. I’m almost certain I’m missing something that a better lore-master would know off the top of their heads!

In the event that there is no heir to the throne to succeed an emperor, the top of the hierarchy changes somewhat. Under the terms of the Elder Council Charter, a position known as the Potentate takes over as a temporary emergency head of state:

High Chancellor Ocato convened the full Elder Council in an unsuccessful bid to select a new Emperor. Without an Emperor, the Empire beyond the reach of Cyrodiil began to splinter. Ocato reluctantly agreed to become the Potentate under the terms of the Elder Council Charter until Imperial rule could be reestablished, but a reluctant leader is rarely a strong leader.

—Rising Threat, Volume III

Without a copy of the charter itself, the terms of establishing a Potentate are uncertain. One possibility could be that the High Chancellor is to take over the role or resign so another can take his or her place to do so, alternatively the Potentate may be elected by the Elder Council.

So, what does this all mean?

Firstly, the jurisdiction of The Empire in the 3^rd era is massive. With a few exceptions outlined in treaties such as the armistice with Morrowind, The Empire has seemingly full legislative control and incredible influence. Of course, the line between specific Empire and Province powers is rather blurred. The Levitation Act of 421, however, gives us some hints. Note that Morrowind takes place in 427, six years after the Levitation Act came in to effect. This suggests that the Levitation Act is purely Cyrodilic provincial legislation rather than broader Empire law. It wouldn’t be surprising if the majority of criminal offences fell under the jurisdiction of each individual province, save for high treason and similar crimes against the empire.

But what about Skyrim? If the Legislation Act was passed for by the Elder Council for Cyrodiil, then why don’t we see levitation spells in use? There are three possibilities:

1. By the events of Skyrim the Elder Council has passed an empire-wide equivalent of The Levitation Act, effectively overriding the provincial Levitation Act and applying it to the few provinces still loyal to the Empire.

2. Skyrim has passed its own provincial legislation banning the use of levitation. This wouldn’t be exactly unlikely, due to the Nords’ distrust of wizards and use of magic. If this is the case, it may have been in effect prior to or introduced sometime after The Oblivion Crisis. I personally think this is the most likely scenario.

3. Levitation in Skyrim is legal and is used, we just never see it. It’s a quirk of game design in the same way that we don’t see children in Oblivion — that doesn’t mean that there were no children in Cyrodiil during the oblivion crisis. It’s simply out of mind, out of sight, and from the developers’ point of view since the last game didn’t include it they may not have considered it necessary to explain its absence. Sorry to break the fourth wall there, so to speak!

EDIT: Anonymous_Mononymous points out that:

“[The Levitation Act] wasn’t confined to Cyrodiil: it applied to all Imperial provinces, and Morrowind was specifically excluded because of the right to self-governance granted by the Armistice.”

I somehow completely overlooked this possibility. /u/Anonymous_Mononymous is almost certainly correct. A Short History of Morrowind notes that:

“Almost four centuries after the coming of the Imperial Legions, Morrowind is still occupied by Imperial legions, with a figurehead Imperial King, though the Empire has reserved most functions of the traditional local government to the Ruling Councils of the Five Great Houses…”

It’s extremely likely that legislating on the use of magic within Morrowind falls under “most functions” outlined above — We even have precedent with the upheld ban of necromancy within the region.

That’s just levitation though — what about the multitude of other offences that exist within the Empire? Tomorrow we’ll explore a multitude of both Empire and Provincial crimes — why they exist and the punitive process. We’ll also continue to compare Tamrielic legal doctrine with real-world examples and discuss the influence of magic on the law.

CONTINUED IN PART III — Crime and Punishment in Tamriel (Tomorrow!)