"Mm," she hums, as she neatly enumerates the reorganization of the committee, the president's statement of wanting to focus on implementation of abolition, and then 'Delegate Agramunt reads technically accurate minutes. Delegate Voshrelka decides to begin recording her own.'

Nuria giggles. 

"Thank you, Fiducia. Now, with the Chair's permission, I would like to present proposals for implementing the goals we agreed upon yesterday, which I hope and expect to meet with the approval both of this committee and the wider convention." He has enough copies to pass around to everyone as he reads aloud, and a few extras because he didn't know how many new committee members they'd be adding.

In defense of the intrinsic dignity of all reasoning beings, and in affirmation of the fact that every person is born free, we hereby declare:

First, that every halfling born in Cheliax, as every other person born in Cheliax, is born free.

Second, that every halfling now held in bondage in Cheliax, or in any of her possessions or territories, or in any other lands held as of this day by Her Majesty Aspexia III of Cheliax in her own person, is henceforth and forevermore a free citizen of the Chelish nation; And, furthermore, that any halfling owned or held in bondage by any Chelish citizen or by any subject of Her Majesty Aspexia III of Cheliax, is likewise free.

Third, that no free halfling in Cheliax or in any of her possessions or territories, nor in any other lands held as of this day by Her Majesty Aspexia III of Cheliax in her own person, may ever be taken into bondage; And that the abduction or false arrest of any such person be punished as fiercely and certainly as the abduction or false arrest of any other citizen of Cheliax.

Fourth, that no citizen of Cheliax, nor any subject of the ruler of Cheliax, may ever again own or hold in bondage any halfling as a slave, nor purchase any enslaved halfling in foreign lands except for the purpose of manumission; Nor may any citizen of Cheliax or subject of the ruler of Cheliax take any part in the foreign trade of slaves except for the purpose of manumission.

Fifth, that any citizen of Cheliax or subject of Her Majesty Aspexia III of Cheliax, who after the due promulgation of this decree keeps or attempts to keep in bondage or slavery any number of halflings, shall be punished as fiercely and certainly as if they had abducted or attempted to abduct any other free human citizens of the same number; And that likewise any person who after due promulgation of this decree keeps or attempts to keep in bondage or slavery any number of halflings within Cheliax, or within any of her possessions or territories, or in any other lands held as of this day by Her Majesty Aspexia III of Cheliax in her own person, be likewise punished as fiercely and certainly as if they had abducted the same number of free humans.

Sixth, that as all halflings are born free and are by their nature intrinsically free persons, that for halflings to be property is impossible; And that therefore no compensation shall be given by the crown or government of Cheliax to any person who falsely claimed ownership of any number of halflings for their liberation.

And a second one,

In affirmation of the right of all persons to pursue prosperity, we hereby declare:

First, that all halfling slaves liberated by decree [on this day, or insert appropriate reference to emancipation proposal if this does not pass on the same day] must be duly compensated for their wrongful slavery.

Second, that such compensation shall be taken from their former masters, as the principal perpetrators of that wrong.

Third, that in addition to the compensation described here, all liberated halflings shall be allowed to keep their clothes, and any articles that were previously reserved for their personal use and upkeep.

Fourth, that for those masters in possession of land, the compensation shall be [one acre, or two acres] of land to each halfling [perhaps add here, unless that should leave the master with fewer than fourteen acres, in which case all land in excess of fourteen acres shall be divided evenly among the halflings, and the halflings shall be additionally compensated in coin as described below, adjusted proportionally for the amount of land which they were granted.]

Fifth, that for those masters in possession of insufficient land for just compensation, the compensation shall be [one, or five, or some number greater still] pounds of silver, or equivalent metal coin; and if any master should have insufficient coin, he shall be obliged to sell what luxuries and treasures he owns until he has sufficient coin, and obliged to sell any of his possessions required to complete that sum, [perhaps add, except for those essential to his livelihood or upkeep,] or to take out fair loans as required to complete that sum.

Sixth, that if any halfling is found to have died suspiciously between the passage of this decree and the completion of its enforcement, or found to have died as a result of the actions of their former masters, compensation shall be given to that halfling's family equal to twice what is decreed here for a single halfling; and that if no surviving family can be found that compensation shall instead be given to the Crown.

Seventh, that all compensation given to any halfling per this decree cannot be returned to that halfling's former master, by any means or for any reason, including through successful suit or any trade, or in repayment of loans issued to the halflings by the former master, for a period of at least one year. [Perhaps remove this point, as it may be unenforceable and further may make the plight of those freed halflings worse.]

"Now, there are some potential difficulties with these proposals that I'd like to indicate and debate here. First, the emancipation and abolition proposal refers in some places to 'any other lands held by Her Majesty in her own person.' This means, I believe, Isger, though it's possible there are other places that she rules that I'm not aware of. It may be the case that this convention isn't empowered to write laws for Isger, only for Cheliax, in which case we'd regrettably have to drop that part. It's also possible that the particular wording of the sixth point would be overly provocative. We could just say 'No compensation will be given' without the bit about intrinsically free persons, and it would have the same effects, and might be more likely to pass. Third, the prohibitions on the slave trade were not, technically, included among the points we agreed upon yesterday. I think they will have the support of the rest of you and of the convention, but if anyone cares to object, I will acknowledge that I overstepped my mandate slightly here. Fourth, the President of the convention may rule that we do not have the power to pass individual laws here, only a complete constitution, in which case all of this will need to be rewritten later to be incorporated into such a constitution. Also, the proposal for compensation is obviously incomplete in many of the details, which we will have to come to some agreement on."

The compensation proposal is guaranteed to be a nightmare. Not for her, she doesn't own slaves, but if you take a hatchet to a significant fraction of the economy the results are never good, and if you accompany that with a massive new liability it does not get better. Giving them land grants somewhere might be a good idea; this isn't. However she does not really want her first contribution to the slavery committee to be trying to roll back yesterday's feverish haze of abolition proposals; the floor will do that for her.

(She has an additional question but that one can wait until she and the orc baron can speak privately.)

"I approve of additionally barring participation in the slave trade; the committee may not yet have contemplated it but our leanings are fairly obvious and I think it'd be an oversight to exclude it. With respect to compensation, my foremost desire is to avoid the failure of the harvest. I am worried that an acrimonious midyear division of land may lead to a failed harvest and a famine. Possible solutions are to promulgate this law after the harvest, or to declare it to take effect then, or to demand compensation be in coin rather than in land, or be in the form of grants of land not currently farmed due to losses during the war."

"I second the notion that if there are to be land grants, land not currently farmed is the preferable way to go about it."

"I agree that that might be less disruptive, if there is enough of it available. However, in practice this means compensation by the crown rather than by the former masters. I don't know which would be more palatable to the convention." Not that he expects the compensation proposal to pass the floor in any form. The mildest form, perhaps, but he suspects the committee won't accept that.

"...I can't help but notice that this only says 'halflings' everywhere? I would like language that does not allow some future ruler of cheliax to enslave my people on the grounds that we are not halflings." 

...damn it. He was hoping that nobody would notice that, or that anyone who did notice - like the duchess - would not object.

"Ah. I admit, I had given no thought to the strix in this proposal, focused as I was on the existing institution of halfling slavery." And orc slavery. "I am not sure how enslaving strix would...work... would you not simply fly away?"

"Our flight isn't magic. We're as vulnerable to being strategically crippled as anyone."

"Halflings, itarii, and any individuals with the ability to talk, or who would have the ability to talk if not for injuries, or who would grow into someone who can talk. Replace 'halflings' with that. It gets you what you want. Other than that it fits."

"It seems beyond our remit to end the practice of keeping bound outsiders. Or at least if we conclude we ought to do that we ought to do it after deliberation and not by accident."

"Very well, Duchess. Then do you have a way to stop them from enslaving orcs other than by putting 'orcs' and every other species we can think of on the list of people they're not allowed to enslave, and then have them enslave half-orcs?"

"I think there are two approaches. One, as you say, is  to just try to make this definition more precise: I'd try 'living beings of races which when in ordinary health and at maturity can talk without the aid of magic'. This prevents enslaving rare species we might not think to list, which is a virtue; it also commits us very broadly, considering how many kinds of creatures are out there. Some kinds of birds talk, but not very well, and only to repeat what has been said, and I think our state would be in error to punish the keeping of such a bird as slavery. We may decide to do so anyway because every legal boundary is unsatisfactory in some way, but I think we'll ban some things that are fine.

The other, more conservative approach, is to ban those forms of slavery actually present in Cheliax that we know about, and then oblige anyone with an ambiguous case to petition this body or some successor body for clarification. I think both of these approaches have some merit and we could debate their relative merits."

Permira if you think this example is winning you sympathy from Ramirez you could not be more wrong.

" 'Let none be enslaved who is a free chelish citizen', perhaps, but that is simply handing the matter to whichever committee determines citizenship..."

"'Let none be enslaved who is free' is a tautology, and not a useful one."

And that's why he didn't say that.

"We have a number of members here prepared to testify as to halfling slavery; that it is Evil and that it is amenable to immediate redress. That makes it the most appealing place to start for abolition, and means we can be more confident those laws we have written will have their intended effect. If we intend to also end many other forms of slavery we might be well advised to similarly get some advising from the people subject to those: both about what it's like and about what would be needed to address it adequately."

Yes, and it seems their current expert on orcs is very carefully drafting the law to pass over other orcs, so finding someone else with an opinion on the matter is probably important.

“Agreed. More perspective from those on the other side of bondage is likely to be helpful. As to a wording that could encompass more than just painful specificity of which species we do not currently want to be enslaving - ‘sapient being born of this plane and capable of understanding language’? This avoids fussing about if they can or cannot speak, and sidesteps the outsider issue.”

"I do not know what is meant by 'sapient,' but putting the line at understanding language seems to make the problem the duchess described with the exotic birds worse, as it would include not just rare birds but dogs as well. Perhaps that is your intent."The other druid seemed to think all animals are people. It really would not surprise him if this one did to. "If so, I can draft another proposal to liberate the hounds, but I cannot say that I would vote for it, and I would strongly oppose tying it to the existing proposal. I do not believe the floor any more eager to free the dogs than I am and I would not see hundreds of thousands of smallfolk remain in bondage one day longer because we on this committee overreached."

"She isn't trying to free the dogs, don't be mean." Liushna really hopes Voshrelka isn't trying to free the dogs and she's not putting her foot in it. 

"Perhaps I'm mistaken. Had the suggestion come from the other druid I would be much more sure of my guess."

Eyeroll. “Delegate Liushna is correct, I am not attempting to release all animals from bondage, thank you. The avoidance of that rests in the word ‘sapient’, meaning ability to think, reason, reflect on memories, and generally possessing wisdom and intellect most animals do not have. It’s an old word, I admit, so I understand if its definition escaped you.”

"In another committee I serve on I was reminded that most of the people of Cheliax are accustomed to the laws being complex so that the complexity can deceive them, and that writing in the ordinary register of lawmaking will tend to suggest, to them, some elaborate deception. I'm not delighted at the prospect of trying to write all laws such that a farmer would have trouble misunderstanding them, but I do think for something of great importance and great practical interest we want to use words everyone understands."

"Mm. And I suppose defining it beforehand for the education of everyone wouldn't make it seem any more approachable, if they must digest a dictionary to understand the written law." Sigh. "I think it's still worth it for the flexibility of letting judges say whether or not specific species count as sapient, but your point is taken. Thank you." Stupid humans unable to keep a word definition in their collective memory for more than a couple decades...

“Can we not just say person? Obviously that leaves room to argue about what counts but I don’t know that there’s any phrasing we could use that wouldn’t.”