I recently read Barry Longyear's Infinity Hold series and really enjoyed it. Longyear's earlier Circus World series is one of my favorites, and I've read it more than once. Both series contemplate what kind of society will develop when a narrow slice of humanity is marooned on a distant habitable planet and left to develop their own solutions.
In the Circus World series, a traveling circus troupe crash lands on a deserted planet, and their descendants maintain some traditions based on circus culture. What I remember of the story is that all social interactions are based explicitly on reciprocal trade. If you are wandering alone along a remote path, and happen upon a bunch of people preparing a meal, you might tell a story or perform a magic show in exchange for partaking of what they have.
The Infinity Hold series starts in a very different place. The newly marooned are convicts and ex-prisoners, abandoned on a remote planet, in analogy to the way Australia was populated in the 19th century by the British. But this has apparently been going on for some time, and at this point, existing gangs have staked out territory and prey on newcomers. The story follows a particular band that grows and develops from a group that realizes that they'll have to stick together to have any chance of surviving the environment and not being killed or enslaved by their predecessors.
The story is, rather explicitly in my view, an exploration of what I call (based on Rand) "lifeboat ethics": How should our rules of behavior change when we're in an emergency situation? In this case, the new refugees have limited resources, a ticking clock to get to a better place, and enemies all around them. Additionally, everyone knows that their neighbors are killers, addicts, thieves, rapists, and various other miscreants, but if they don't cooperate, they'll probably all die.
Once the newcomers are dropped on the new planet (Tartaros), several gangs form, some fighting takes place, but it grows dark before things get very bad. The main character, Bando Nicos, is part of a small bunch that coalesces with a few larger gangs, and puts off discussions of organizing till they survive the night, and the first attack. They manage to ambush an overconfident mob of experienced folk, which seeds a core large enough to be stable.
Their victory leaves them with some prisoners, some of whom share some details about the enormous desert they are stranded in, and which directions lead to certain death versus the possibility of fighting another gang for the chance to survive. Some people don't believe the hints and break off from the group to head for what looks like a green destination, but which the prisoners have said is a mirage.
Once they're ready to move, the first political choice comes to the fore. Some of the gang members have been detailed to guard the prisoners, but having a shared history behind bars, they object to the idea of keeping prisoners. There's a vote of all the remaining members of the gang, and it's agreed by a wide margin that they will not hold prisoners. The prisoners are given a choice of joining the gang, walking into the desert without supplies, or being killed. This isn't much of a choice, and everyone joins.
After a couple of days of walking, Nicos realizes that they're going to have to become a fighting force if they're going to survive the roving bands, and eventually make it across the sand to where the stationary gangs hold and defend territory. He identifies Bloody Sarah as the best person to train them, and since her military exploits are well known, it's an easy sell. When he proposes before the next day's march that they get organized, there is general squabbling and dissension, which is settled by a proposal that they have an election. Since the gang is about 80% female, Nance Damas (the only woman whose name is put forward) wins. Darrell Garoit is a lawyer who also ran for the job. Nancy's acceptance speech is short and sweet:
"Sarah Hovit is in charge of the army, so she is in charge of you. You elected me, so you are in charge of me. I am in charge of Sarah. I have appointed Darrell Garoit my number two, and when I'm not around he's in charge.
"We have a fight coming up, and we have to work like hell to prepare for it. You now belong to Sarah Hovit. Anyone who has a problem with that can leave now. We aren't going to hold anyone prisoner."
Immediately after the vote they start walking again, and practically right away there's a fight. Nance shows her ability to delegate by telling Nicos to find out what happened and "settle it". Nicos appoints Martin Stays his deputy, and goes to where the fracas took place. After sending the rest of the column away, Nicos asks the two who were fighting what happened. The fight is based on a long-running feud, which Nicos settles by saying that nothing before the landing counts as a cause of action. "It's done past." One of them complains that he was cut by the other in this fight, and argues for retribution. Nicos finds out that he was the one who took a run at the other guy, and says
"You went for him with your fists and got cut. You asked for it. Don't go for him again and you won't get cut again. Now bandage up, shut up, and put it to rest. If it happened before the landing, it's done past, dead. If you can't put it to rest, I'll put it to rest for you."
When the leadership group is talking later, it turns out that Stays has been recording the rules and decisions that have come into existence.
1. Each person is responsible for his own sustenance. This also means that stealing is a crime.
2. Each person is free to follow whatever leader he or she wants.
3. Policies can be changed by the leader and by majority vote.
4. Policies changed or affirmed by majority vote become laws, and are changeable only by majority vote. (See law #1)
5. The leader of the gang is elected by plurality vote.
6. The leader has the power to appoint subordinates.
7. Each appointed officer has the power to appoint subordinates.
8. The "No prisoners" law includes not forcing anyone to serve in the army.
9. Not serving in the army is grounds for expulsion from the Razai. (The gang has a name now.)
10. Fighting to the death is allowed as long as the fight is confined to the combatants.
11 Any crimes or issues that originated before the landing are done past. Any kind of retribution based on such crimes is a new crime.
Laws:
1. No Prisoners.
There's then a short argument among the Razai as to whether there's a good theoretical basis for this set of rules. Stays defends it as expedient, and argues that theory isn't a helpful basis for what they're doing.
They've happened on the basis for the common law. Judges make decisions. If they work, they survive, and are enforced by other judges. If they don't work, the people can choose a different approach.
The other thing that's starting to become apparent is that these rules are focused on keeping the group moving forward. They don't have time, as Bando will explain later, to follow all the legal niceties that one would want to have in place for a stable society where people might want a thorough investigation or careful consideration of comparative faults. They have to keep marching, they have to find food, they have to become a fighting force, or they'll all be dead or someone else's slaves.
A short while later, Bando and Stays get called to the back of the column where they need to resolve a crisis. Dick Irish, who was Bando's closest companion on the flight to Tartaros, has killed Freddy. Freddy had broken Dick's arm in a fight on the ship. Since Freddy was Black, Bando recruits Marrietta as a new deputy to ease tensions a tad.
The crowd is restive and the sides are divided by race, a habit from the prisons they've all come from. Marrietta is taking care of crowd control, trying to calm everyone down, so Bando can find out what happened and restore peace. She starts by telling the onlookers to skedaddle, but they insist they have a right to observe. (rule 12) She acquiesces, but creates a new rule (13):
"You all can stay and watch, but ... no threats. If you threaten something, what you say is exactly what you goin' get. If you threaten to kill [Bando], you'll be dead before the echo gets back to you."
Banda starts the proceedings by asking Dick what happened. Dick says "Bando, I told you I was going to thin [kill] Freddy once we got out of the ship."
Bando asks Dick whether he'll accept Bando's judgement (rule 14):
"Will you stand by what I decide in this, or do you want us to put up [a judge]?"
"I know you'll do what's right by me."
"Dick, you thinned Freddy, right?"
"Right, but he broke my arm. I owed him ..."
"That was back in jail. This is Tartaros."
"So?"
"So did you hear it when we made the rule? Did you hear it when we said if it happened before the landing, it's done past? Nance was going to have it read out to [all of you]."
"Yeah, I heard it, but that don't make no difference to me. See back in [prison] he broke my arm. I don't-"
Bando summarily shoots Martin, his erstwhile friend. Then Bando explains the rules about murder (rule 15).
"It's payback, just like in the yard. If you steal, payback is you return what you took plus a little. If you can't return what you took, then you return something worth as much. If you can't or won't return the stuff, or stuff worth as much, you get thinned. You lose it all.
"Dick Irish took a life. He couldn't return what he took, so his payback was to give up the life he had."
And he repeats the admonishment about the past. "If it happened before the landing, it didn't happen. Before the landing is done past. Tartaros is a new hand. Play it that way."
Someone asks what happens to Dick's and Freddy's stuff. This is not sentimental, nor greedy, it's a matter of survival. Everyone is short of protective clothing, food, tools, and water. Bando says any surviving family gets to inherit. He asks if Freddy had any relatives. One woman, Ginger, said they had been sleeping together, and Bando rules that that's as close to marriage as anything else they have. And she gets Dick's stuff as well. (rules 16 and 17) "Dick took something from Freddy, and he can't pay it back. So he owes Freddy everything he's got. Ginger gets the lot."
A voice from the crowd asks Bando "Who appointed you judge and jury?" Bando points to the dead body and says "He did." (referring to his opening question at the trial.) Even though Bando, Martin, and Marrietta aren't the only ones in the crowd who are armed, everyone present seems to accept this as justice done.
Martin summarizes for the crowd: "We're not a gang like the others out here. We aren't together because some big gun threatened us. We're together by choice for our own mutual interests. We are a tribe, a society, a civilization."
Other stuff goes on in the story, having to do with the possibility of the survival of the Razai, but I'm focussed on the laws and law-making. The next situation Bando has to deal with involves lawyers, who are widely despised among the ex-cons, including by Bando.
A large crowd has gathered. There was a fight between Mojoa, a Black man, and Herb, a White man. Mojo says Herb tried to kill him. Bando asks Herb for an explanation. Herb has a lawyer, Jason Pendril. Jason says that in view of what happened to Dick Irish, "entering a plea with you may not be the healthiest thing we could do."
Bando says "If your client refuses to say if he did it, I'll assume he tried to kill Mojo."
"That is not how it is done in a court of law, Nicos."
"Maybe it's not how it's done [back home], Pendril, but it's how it's done here. You've been in [prison] awhile. Silence is a plea of guilty there. Silence is a plea of guilty here."
Bando correctly (IMO) judges that the Razai's interests are best served by a speedy process. He does what's possible to incentivize a process that will punish the guilty and free the innocent, but his highest concern is to resolve it quickly, and get them back on the move.
Jason throws up his hands to show his helplessness in the face of such an idiotic ruling. "In that case, of course he enters a plea of not guilty."
Bando asks if the parties will accept his ruling. Mojo says "yes", but Pendril says Herb "chooses to have a jury of his peers decide his guilt or innocence."
On the fly, Bando makes up some rules. The accused gets to pick an odd number for the size of the jury, because "Majority rules, and we don't want any ties."
Jason, in an outraged tone, challenges the idea of deciding a capital case on a majority vote, but Bando points to rules 3, 4, and 5 and says "Majority vote is the way we do things in the Razai." This is the first Jason (or most of the Razai) have heard about the recorded rules, though the Razai will later make many copies and make sure everyone has access.
They ask the crowd for volunteers, and then Bando explains the rules for the jury.
"We are all here for the same reason. That reason is to make certain that Mojo and Herb get exactly what's coming to them. Herb is up for attempted murder. If you get to be part of this jury, your job will be to see to it that Herb gets what's coming to him."
"Remember, if you say Herb is guilty, and we find out later that he isn't guilty, then all of you in the jury who voted for guilty will suffer the fate that Herb suffered." A few of the volunteers melt back into the crowd. "And it goes the same if you vote him innocent and he turns out to be guilty. You will stand the punishment he should have stood."
This is harsh, but the black vs. white dynamic was getting heated, and Jason complained that there were few whites in the jury line. Making it clear to everyone that the jurors' incentive was for truth rather than a good outcome for "their side" was Bando's goal. Everyone takes this incentive seriously, and the rule plays a crucial role near the end of the book when Bando is himself on trial.
Bando then randomly approves jurors with a 3/4 chance, and quickly chooses 13, a number accepted by Jason after the crowd suggests it. Jason wants to question the jurors, but Bando refuses, saying "Here's a definition of justice as it works in the Razai on this desert today. Justice is everybody getting exactly what they deserve as fast as possible."
Systems of justice everywhere have to make trade-offs between expedience and process. At one point, Americans believed that it would be better for 10 guilty people to go free than for 1 innocent person to be incorrectly punished, though we no longer act that way. In Bando's view, justice for the Razai as a whole, and for accusers and the accused, is best served by making the best decision that can be made quickly. Members of the Razai need to be incentivized to keep the internal violence and strife down.
Bando asks Mojo what happened, but he doesn't allow Jason to interrupt, object, or cross-examine. Bando rejects all Jason's pleas that they respect the rules of evidence as not relevant on Tartaros. He eventually tells Herb to keep Jason from interrupting. "If he slows things down to where we have to give the trial to Mojo by default, you are the one who pays."
Bando then asks the crowd if anyone in the crowd saw what happened and wants to be a witness. The attack took place when Mojo was passing through a group of Herb's friends, so they're the only ones who stand. Bando then explains the punishment for testifying falsely, and they all sit back down.
Then Bando pulls a fast one on Jason, and declares that lawyers don't have any special powers. There is no attorney-client privilege. "Your job here is the same as the jury's and it is the same as mine. We are all here to make sure that everybody gets exactly what's coming to them." When Jason accepts that Bands intends to enforce this, he admits that Herb told him that he did it. On that basis, the jury swiftly convicts Herb.
Mojo expects Bando to execute Herb, but Bando isn't having any of that. He killed Dick Irish because Irish's victim was dead and Bando had to act in his place. In this case, he says, Mojo gets to decide what he wants from Herb. He can banish him, take his stuff, or kill him, but he can't torture him or make him a slave. Mojo thinks for a moment, and asks Herb for an apology. Herb gives an apparently sincere apology, and the matter is over.
Bando and the Razai are the big winners here. Peace is restored, Bando's rules are accepted, and everyone sees that justice can be swift and certain, and that threats and violence will be dealt with.
The next case Bando faces (after the plot advances for a bit) is an accusation of rape. The perpetrator claims it was consensual, and that the force was part of the game. While being attacked, the victim had pleaded with several bystanders to help him, but they were all too afraid to help. In prison, that was self-preservation, but here accomplices and unhelpful bystanders are just as guilty. All the witnesses and accomplices agree that the victim was forced.
The perp argues that the penalty should be lower than for murder because the victim keeps their life. A rape victim describes the horror and consequences for her. Bando doesn't want to decide this question, so it's put to a vote, and the vast majority of the Razai determine that the penalty for rape is death. The jury, having heard the accomplices and unhelpful bystanders describe their actions determine that rape was committed, and there's plenty of guilt to go around. The victim executes 5 people and the trial is over.
Along the way, another rule is established: if someone claims to be insane, or to have an irremediable compulsion, they're still responsible for their actions. It's pointed out that there's a support group among the Razai that meets every night, and some people say it helps them not act out their compulsions. No one argues that anyone should be required to attend, but not doing so is choosing to allow your compulsions to control you.
This is only a third of the way through the trilogy, but it's sufficient to establish the framework that I want to talk about. The story continues to be interesting, and the Razai continue to add new rules, and grow as a society. I found the story fun and interesting.
Longyear and his characters never talk about the justification for these rules. The characters explain to each other that the Razai continues to grow by adding members from other gangs because they have "the Law", which guarantees some rights and freedoms, which is clearly preferable to rule by gangsters and mobs. Of course, all the other gangs they encounter hold slaves, abuse women, discriminate on the basis of race, and allow their autocratic bosses to kill and torture arbitrarily.
The basic rules are "no killing", "no stealing", "no rapes". They add "no innocent bystanders". The rules for investigating and determining guilt are the place where it diverges from what we're familiar with. Speed is of the essence, so the investigator runs the trial, and doesn't have to allow any testimony he finds irrelevant. There is no attorney-client privilege, so lawyers are effectively turned into agents of the court. Jurors are picked by lot from those nearby who volunteer. (There is no voire dire.) Refusing to enter a plea (including by escaping) is a plea of guilty.
The punishment for theft is returning what you took, plus a little. The punishment for murder or rape is death, because the perpetrator took something they can't return. The victim can decide the punishment, up to death.
The rules of evidence and courtroom responsibilities reflect the Napoleonic code to some extent, as I understand it. Our idea of lawyers as advocates for each side, whose duty is to argue for their side regardless of who they know is actually culpable is unique in the world. Bando decides that while they're on the march, that's just not sustainable.
The system Bando invents on the fly has good incentives for people before committing acts of aggression: punishment seems to be swift and likely. There's no benefit to claiming external factors were at fault. Bystanders are strongly encouraged to prevent or report acts of violence. We later see that heads of household have no special rights over their spouses or children, so they can press charges or leave.
Of course, in the end, the good guys win, and their system of justice takes over the known parts of the Tantaros. The story comes to a close before anyone has to think about what rules ought to apply once they're no longer in a mad dash to escape the desert and ruthless enemies. The pressure for quick determinations will go away, and the possibility for entertaining additional evidence will rise. Once people settle down and start building productive lives, it'll be harder to draft a jury pool.
I would expect that like the original transported western settlers of Australia, they would find out that nearly everyone was willing to live peaceful and productive lives once taken out of their old context. They might continue to use the framework that got them across the desert, or they might invent something new. Something based on Bando's rules would certainly lead to more peace and sociality than the criminal gangs they had to defeat.
