"Who can say that a man's - or woman's - liege will always rule justly? Is not corruption rampant in this land? Better for the choice to be made by one trusted and impartial." Which is to say, better for the bribes to go to the church.

"Well, a lot of the lieges were recently replaced and one might hope they were replaced with well-chosen and incorrupt gentlefolk."

"We are writing laws that may hold for all time. It would be foolish to count on the beneficence of those recently elevated to extend in perpetuity through their descendants." Case in point: One duke is already dead and his heir remains a moron until the queen accepts this committee's recommendations.

She nods along with Taldaris.

He realizes, too late to fix it, that he has severely misjudged the situation with the Duke's brother. He's going to need to tread very carefully outside this committee.

"It seems to me that even among the Lawful and licit gods, some churches may be far more suited than others to judge such cases. Iomedae's church is certainly competent to judge such cases, though it seems to be a bit short of personnel at the moment, likewise the Church of Abadar, but I worry that a typical priest of Erastil may not have the context to make an accurate judgment. I think, if we choose to go this route, it would be best to list specific gods whose priests should be entrusted with these judgments."

Josep pictures the sailor-cleric from yesterday's meeting of the Trade committee, or the Calistrian from the Family committee, judging a succession case and shudders. 

"Yes, I think I agree. Although I worry that this may impose too great a burden on such clergy. They all seem in rather short supply in these troubled times."

"I would propose that we require it to be judged by deliberation among a group of men," she says, "not a single person, one to be chosen by the liege-lord, one by the crown or by an official the crown chooses to try such cases, one by each claimant, and then three chosen by the churches of the gods neither Evil nor Lawless - perhaps the three gods with the greatest churches in the liege-lord's lands?" 

Wait, that's Pharasma, oh no! "Or perhaps if we are worried about clerics of Gozreh, those either Good and not lawless or Lawful and not evil? We could also enumerate churches but I would be worried about leaving some out."

They spend the rest of the committee meeting enumerating ancient traditions (and "ancient traditions") that seem likely to be relevant.