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There are a lot of Amentan countries. Vanda Nossëo representatives are dispatched to all of them. These Elves (two with black hair, one with silver) take a shuttle down from the lightleaper to a country called Calado, and radio ahead to request permission to land at a elegant modern spaceport.
okay by comparison Voa and Tapa look like thriving modern democracies
The green wants a lawyer who does not have bizarre alien morality, as she feels unable to trust people with bizarre alien morality and the lawyer is supposed to be trusted to be on her side.
...there aren't lawyers who've passed the relevant law exam and who believe that reds aren't people. In fact, believing something like that would probably disqualify you from passing the law exam because people who believe things like that should not be allowed anywhere near a position of power.
Then they aren't taking their idea that she's got a right to counsel that is on her side in their "adversarial 'justice system'" particularly seriously.
She has a right to counsel that is accredited in the relevant legal system and entirely committed to providing her with the best defense permitted by law. She does not have a right to counsel who agree with her about the ethics of her conduct; the adversarial justice system was reinvented sixteen hundred times and in none of them has that been how it works.
She is not saying they have to agree with her about the ethics of her conduct, she is saying she can't trust them and therefore the system can't work like they want it to if they are a morally incomprehensible alien instead of a person with normal amounts of difference in perspective, because morally incomprehensible aliens may take anything she says at random about anything whatsoever, and decide it's an atrocity and sabotage her case or hurt her or her daughter over it or something.
She is allowed to request a different lawyer, but the different lawyer will be appointed from the pool of lawyers who passed the relevant exam.
"Uh," says her social worker, "we've explained that we are exactly like you except for believing that reds are people. Do you have trouble understanding the idea 'like us except for believing that reds are people', or do you not believe it?"
"I don't believe it," she says. "I had a roommate who studied something she called 'plant cognition' and this is weirder."
"I see."
The court dutifully presents her with a selection of accredited attorneys. If she picks one that attorney can represent her in place of her current one.
"Look," one says, "our legal system doesn't use the concept of 'personhood' the same way I imagine Amentans do, having only one species. We use it to mean anything that is intelligent enough to communicate preferences and that reads to a subtle artist as having internal experiences. Reds are intelligent enough to communicate preferences and they read to a subtle artist as having internal experiences, therefore killing reds is prosecuted as murder. If you want, you could call the thing our courts care about 'consciousness' and the thing you care about 'personhood'. I believe you that reds do not possess personhood as you understand it, but they possess the traits which make it illegal to kill them, and therefore it is illegal to kill them."
"Our law allows prosecuting the killing of beings that relevantly register if it occurs in connection with our activities, anywhere in the multiverse."
"My job is to give you the best legal defense possible. When we represent someone who is unambiguously guilty of the crime they are accused of, that involves filing procedural complaints and trying to affect sentencing. It's very common in my line of work to be in a position where trying to get the defendant off doesn't make any sense but there's a lot that can be done to reduce their sentence."
All of them explain to her that typically when you stab somebody to death with a sword your lawyer does not try to get you off, but tries to make sure all your rights are respected and negotiate for a shorter sentence.
"Doesn't it matter at all that it's not illegal in Rivik? Everybody's heard 'you have to read up on the law' but nobody has heard 'you have to read up on alien law when interacting with non-aliens in case they care if you overwater your herbs or something'."
"Do you arrest soldiers and executioners and tell them they commited murder? People used to spank children, when you land on those people do you kidnap every parent around - of course you do, you don't care if the kids have anyone looking after them at all -"
"If a war starts as a consequence of our arrival, we do arrest the responsible parties. The consensus is that empirically the best way to reduce child abuse is media campaigns and that arrests cause more harm than good, but if the evidence shook out the other way I imagine that policymakers would give it serious consideration."
"Are you saying you think you will somehow reduce incidence of people 'murdering' reds by abducting me? That's insane. Everyone's going to blame the red."