A few dozen to two hundred or so people who share common interests make temporary homes close to each other and gather every day in a shared work-space to work on a project. It continues until the work is complete or enough people abandon the project for one reason or another. They're not so formal as Grand Moots. For example, Seeker called a Lesser Moot and got people to start building a lot of starships - bigger than the one he made for himself. He left, but the Starship Moot surely continues even now, and it will probably reform once the Grand Moot is finished, too.

So it's a little like a convention or a conference.

I've never been to a convention or conference. You all probably work together more than we do. There is a definite mood to Moots that is absent in daily life, though. It can be invigorating in small doses. Tiring in larger ones.

Well, I hope all the planned Moots are productive and don't tire anyone out too badly.

Seeker addresses Amseli,

I have discussed privately with other Elders some of the things that will be decided at the Grand Moot. One thing we are uncertain how to approach is controlling the behavior of Draak visiting Amentan countries. I am confident that River and Bloom will not make trouble, but they were both carefully selected.

If a Draak commits inexcusable crimes in Amentan territory like unprovoked murder or grand theft or willful and deliberate spreading of pollution, we will not care if they are caught and executed. They will deserve it. However, any case of laws being enforced on Draak less clear-cut than that has potential for... Discontent. I am well aware that this is a problem. I would like to discuss what satisfactory solutions would look like to Tapa.

Well, first we might need to assess what constitutes a provoked murder...

Self-defense would be the most likely case. If one is being attacked, one will obviously defend themselves to the best of their abilities, whether that means running away or trying to kill before you are killed.

If one is being harassed but not dangerously or lethally so, such as being poked with a stick, it is unlikely they would go straight for a kill but very likely they would escalate, perhaps with a warning scratch or bite, and that escalation might lead to a death. Deliberately killing after clearly light harassment when the Draak was not in danger would be unprovoked murder.

If an Amentan tried to steal some Draak's property and the Draak tried to stop them from doing that, not all Draak would restrain themselves and merely injure thieves, and the thief might die even if they were not setting out to kill. That would be provoked murder under Tradition, and generally allowable for us, but perhaps not for you. 

If a Draak reacts in surprise or instinct to something and this leads to a death, for example accidentally knocking someone into the path of a vehicle, that would be an accident, not unprovoked murder.

We have a concept of 'diplomatic immunity', I wonder if it would suffice to cover this sort of thing.

I don't think I've read about that, please explain a bit further?

It's intended to allow ambassadors to work even in hostile countries; there are generally some limits on it but they're pretty similar to the ones you outlined, and other crimes are punishable only by expulsion from the country. The complications I foresee are that it's typically provided reciprocally, and that without our own ships we can't actually expel a Draak back to your planet.

Not without the cooperation of some other Draak, at least. Whatever governmental body we formed could without issues guarantee that they would remove a Draak that Amentan governments wished removed, with some penalty for non-compliance. Reciprocity would be... Plausible. No executions by the government, merely removal of Amentan citizens...

I predict some growing pains if we are to begin prosecuting Draak for murders internally, however. The only police action by higher authority we have ever known was the execution of one who was performing biological experiments and not containing them anywhere near well enough, and outright refused to stop, or to do them in an isolated and secure area, and said that the Elders had no authority over them. And occasionally, mandating that fines of gold be paid from one Draak to a harmed party.

Another option that would encourage good behavior, if not guarantee it, is security deposits. Visitors must give up something, and it will be given back when they leave... If they were well-behaved. Losing something you value is very aversive.

We'd be able to implement that, certainly, and it could take the place of fines for crimes that usually carry that penalty.

This seems like a good general potential policy to discuss at the Moot, though the details of course must wait.

To summarize: With exceptions for certain major crimes, Draak visiting an Amentan country would not be punished under your justice system. Instead, Draak visitors would give into trust some amount of Treasure when they arrive, to be retrieved when they leave. Those who get into trouble would lose the trust deposit, some or all of it depending on the degree of crime. At the Amentan country's request, the Draak government would remove any Draak you wish removed. We will probably punish them, too, if they did something foolish - and capturing and temporarily holding a Draak in non-tortuous conditions long enough to allow a proper pickup would be fine. The government itself could also give into trust a great amount of treasure which would be forfeit if the government failed to keep its deal. 

Does that sound accurate, pending more detailed discussions?

That sounds accurate. We'll need more specifications for how Draak are best detained, though hopefully it won't come up.

I too hope it won't come up. We will be able to provide that information after the Grand Moot. The last immediately obvious concern I have is a Draak that considers themselves innocent resisting detention-pending-removal, or failing to recognize police as the authority they are, and killing police officers in the process of doing so.

Yes, you're pretty intimidating and our police are trained for taking in fellow Amentans.

I could design items that are unmistakably of Draak origin and would loudly announce in the Song that this person is an authority and they are permitted to kill you if you do not let them detain you. Perhaps that would work?

It might - if there were only a handful and our Draak visitors moved around, not every police department will have one, and of course you know more than I do about how reliably it would work if used.

I would add indicator lights, and I think such a broadcast would be felt by your minds too. The message might get lost if the Draak is disoriented or high or in a lot of pain or panicking, but that's true of shouting too. And I have been studying mass production, it's possible I could make a production run of identical devices... We would be upset if a non-authority got their hands on one and abused it.

There's plenty of precedent for devices that only certain authorized agencies are permitted to have.

As to Amentan visitors in Draak lands, as I said a diplomatic immunity arrangement is easy enough, and I think we could find political will for punishing crimes against Amentan visitors, though it would have to be a very simple criminal code.

How simple? Most of our laws only get too essentially complicated when they're related to how people live and work, tourism can be stripped down a fair bit.

...It would have to be very simple, at least at first. Simple enough to be read in ten minutes and understood by a two year old.

That's - hm. Our notion of law involves some laws that can be summarized simply but often have embedded long elaborate definitions of all the concepts used and when they do and don't apply.

We would want the long elaborate definitions kept to an absolute minimum. Draak are not used to rule of law in a strict sense. Our existing laws are things like "Tell an Elder if you find Blueblight and don't go near it." We mostly don't think in words. If one violates a law in an edge case caused by ambiguous concepts or uncertain definitions in good faith and without actual intention to subvert the law it gets treated as a non-violation.