Law, Charters and Commerce

Law in the Free Cities runs in layers, from the dockside up to the Council itself.

The Layers of Law

• Local law — each city, town, and port keeps its own magistrates for everyday matters. Harbour law is the part of it that governs the waterfront, the docks, and ships in port.
• Charter law — a settlement's charter fixes its standing and obligations; disputes under it can be appealed upward, as far as the Council.
• Trade law — the common code governing dealings between members, enforced chiefly through the Iron Scales Assembly.
• Prize law — the specialised branch covering privateering and captured ships, handled by the prize courts, most visibly at Blacktide Haven.
• Maritime custom and treaty — on the open water, where no city's writ runs, there is only the sea-lane treaties, patrol agreements, and the separate Inner Sea treaties with the elves.

The Charter

The charter is the basic instrument of the confederation: a written grant that fixes a settlement's standing, rights, and obligations. It is issued or confirmed by a sponsoring city or the Council and recorded in the Council's keeping; disputes under it may rise on appeal as high as the Council itself.

Guilds That Cross City Lines

• The Iron Scales Assembly governs certified commerce in the chartered cities. In a chartered city, uncertified trade is simply illegal.
• Prize law, administered through prize courts, governs privateering and captured ships — a privateer's charter is only fully valid once countersigned at Ardaene or by the Council.
• The Dawnbreakers Brotherhood licenses mercenaries and registers military contracts; a contract sworn before the Brotherhood is treated as a contract sworn before Mordaveth.

Defence

Each Free City keeps its own forces; chartered settlements maintain local security under their charters; dependent towns lean on their sponsoring cities. In a true crisis the members can raise joint fleets and militias — the confederation's oldest and most reliable instinct.