Dragonstar: Imperial Law
Law (Starfarer's Handbook)
When the Empire was founded, the Imperial Council drew up an extensive set of laws to govern the populace of every planet under its domain. The enforcement of these laws is generally left up to the viceroys who govern each planet or outpost. Most of these laws are designed simply to maintain the peace, which is really the whole reason the Empire was born. Without going into elaborate detail, these laws include the expected prohibitions on assault, murder, theft, and so on.
There is one tenet emphasized by every court and every institution in the Dragon Empire. It's called the principle of active morality: People are to be judged by what they do, not what is in their hearts.
There are all sorts of spells, both divine and arcane, that can tell whether someone is evil or good, inclined to follow the rules or to wreak havoc. The principle of active morality says that you can’t hold someone's inclinations against them. The only thing that matters, as far as the law is concerned, is what someone does.
We even have this principle drummed into us in the Legions. There are evil men in my unit—that's pretty much inevitable. We've taken orders from drow whose souls are blacker than their skin. At the same time, my company chaplain is the kindest, most good-hearted person I've even known. The point is, it takes all kinds. We don't have the luxury of choosing the moral inclinations of those we serve with, or those we serve. And that was the crux of the issue facing the dragons when they made this law: They had to unify, and to do so, they had to find a way for good and evil, law and chaos, to coexist.
Now, having said that, magic is used all the time to divine moral alignment. I know for a fact the chaplain has checked out every soldier in my unit. Paladins, priests, and diplomats—everyone who can uses their power to reveal the souls of others. But they can never use it to justify their actions, and they can never use it in court.
Imperial Law (Guide to the Galaxy)
The Imperial Charter, a document drafted and signed by the grand dukes when the Empire was founded, sets forth the laws governing the relations of the royal houses and the administration of the Empire. It codifies the rights and obligations of the emperor, the imperial councilors, the grand dukes, the rest of the nobility, and the ways they can and cannot interact with one another. The Imperial Charter says very little about the rights of the common folk or laws governing everyday life and activities in the Empire. Instead, these are considered sovereign laws, or those that each royal house is expected to establish and enforce within its domain.
The few exceptions to this rule are imperial laws designed primarily to keep the peace—the Empire's whole reason for being. The principle of active morality (above), for example, was first outlined in the Imperial Charter, and it therefore trumps any sovereign laws a royal house attempts to pass and enforce. Whether in the Domain of Deserene or the Domain of Mazorgrim, indiscriminate killing based solely on alignment is illegal. Likewise, imperial law prohibits such crimes as murder, assault, and theft. However, these terms have very specific, technical meanings. For example, "murder" is defined as the unjustified and intentional killing of another sentient. So, while such acts are illegal everywhere in the Empire, the individual houses—and even individual nobles—can define "justification," "intent," and even "sentient" with a great deal of autonomy. In general, it is much easier to be convicted of murder in the Domain of Deserene, where the laws are very tight, than it is in the Domain of Noros, where they are exceedingly lax.
As a result, issues such as gun control, fair trade practices, tax codes, property, and countless others are treated very differently from one imperial domain to another, and within limits, from one star system to another. The latter is especially true on the frontier: In most domains, laws on the colonized Outlands worlds are much more lax than in the Empire proper. Frequent travelers, especially those whose livelihoods depend on their ability to operate effectively in many different domains, must often be well educated in local laws.