Northern Districts of Barrayar
| Northern District | |
|---|---|
| Category | Feudal monarchy |
| Location | Northern Continent |
| Number | 60 (as of 3003) |
| Areas | 100,000 km2 - 250,000 km2 |
| Government | District Count |
| Subdivisions | Varies |
A Northern District is an area, located in the Northern Continent, of the Empire of Barrayar that shares sovereignty with the Imperium central government. Since the reign of Dorca Vorbarra, there are sixty Northern Districts. A Barrayaran subject is a citizen of both the imperial entity and of his Northern District of domicile. District domicile and residence is flexible and few government approvals are required to move between Districts. Northern Districts vary from the modern to those with large backcountry populations; some provide modern social services, such as medical care and education, while others are more restrictive or old- fashioned. The degree of industrialization also varies widely.
The Barrayaran legal system allocates certain powers to the central government and places some limitations on the Northern District governments. Tasks of public security, public education, public health, transportation, and infrastructure are primarily district responsibilities, although some of these have significant imperial funding and regulation as well.
The District Count is the sole and ultimate ruler of his District. In each of the Districts Counts exercise many of the functions traditionally associated with sovereignty. In the first instance the Counts —rather than the Emperor — collect taxes, administer justice, and claim responsibility for the material and moral welfare of their subjects. Many of the Districts have their own parliamentary bodies representing the estates of the territory. General support for unitary inheritance preserves the Northern Districts to be partitioned. Each Count runs his District on his own, and Districts' organisation and operations are not the same across the continent, although some common models can be found, such as the granting of charters to major cities.
Northern District governments are power originating from the relevant Counts and from the Emperor through their individual legal systems. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the Imperial government playing a much larger role than it once did. For example, the Imperial government, which includes the Council of Counts, can regulate monorail traffic across District borders, but it may also regulate monorail traffic solely within a District, based on the theory that wholly intra-district traffic can still have an impact on inter-district communications. Northern Districts may be divided into further territorial levels, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign; the administrative structure varies widely by District.
Local Count's Justice is also run by and for the District Count, who exercises it either by Count's Voices and by Count's Courts. District Counts are free to organize their individual governments any way they like, so long as they conform to the sole requirement of the Empire general legal custom that they are the ultimate rulers. In practice, each District has adopted a similar system of government generally along similar lines as that of the Imperial government. District Counts can also organize their judicial systems differently from the Imperial judiciary, as long as they protect the duty to procedural due process. Most have a trial level court, an appellate court and a Cassation Court, as well as a Count's Voice system.
Counts' power, however, is not unlimited. The Council of Counts, although it is reluctant to do so, may intervene in disputes between Districts and even between Counts and their subjects. If a Count is excessively autocratic or tyrant in his behiavour, the Council may take harsh measures as exiling or even removing him. Districts are required to give at least faith and credit to the acts of each other's bodies, which is generally held to include the recognition of legal contracts and criminal judgements. Other legal acts are often recognized District-to-district according to the common practice of comity. A District must extradite people located there who have fled serious District charges, if the other District so demands. Districts may also enter into agreements between two or more other Districts. Such agreements are frequently used to manage a shared resource, such as transportation infrastructure or water rights. Northern Continent governance, in the policy areas not pertaining to the Government of the Empire, is carried out by the common agreements over policies or through the open method of coordination.
Contents
Historical evolution
From an historical point of view, all Northern Districts originate from the earliest fiscal/administrative boundaries; after the collapse of the early interstellar colonization, original boundaries collapsed as well. While some Districts originate as independent realms, brought to the heels only by the unification wars, some others originate as Districts Palatine, i.e. an area ruled by a hereditary Count possessing special authority and autonomy from the rest of the Empire (or Vorbarras' possessions); it thus implied the exercise of a quasi-imperial prerogative within a District. The Count of a District Palatine swore allegiance to the Emperor yet had the power to rule the county largely autonomously of the Emperor. A District Palatine were different from both feudal possessions held from the Emperor, which possessed no such independent authority, and from independent Districts, which were completely independent. In general, such Districts Palatine were on the periphery of the realm ruled by the Vorbarras. Originally such a rulership was not hereditary, but in practice the hereditary rule of a District Palatine became the norm short after its introduction; ruling houses, however, maintained close ties of allegiance with House Vorbarra. A prominent Count Palatine family is House Vorrutyer; Count Pierre Vorrutyer was the main ally of Emperor Dorcas Vorbarra in the unification wars and in the immediately following period.
With the complete unification of the Northern Continent under the rule of the Vorbarra Emperors, the formerly independent Districts had their status assimilated to those of the Districts Palatine, in order to weaken the desire of rebellion among newly-defeated Counts (Vorrutyer Law, which pairs with the Vorloupolos Law). Today, all Northern Districts are considered to be Districts Palatine held in feudal tenutre by District Counts.
Counts
Only the Counts exert feudal control, government, protection and administration of the District of the title, with an extension that varies depending on the time and circumstances. For the administration of the District is never allowed the allocation of the powers of legislation, administration, jurisdiction of the imperial agencies and institutions.
Within his district, a Count's power is absolute: His word and his parole are law, and every public official is his servant, sworn to obey his orders: his jurisdiction is his personal property. Within their districts, Counts have a monopoly on both legal and effective force.
In particular, each Count has the duty/right to enforce law and security through his own forces and finances. Each Count is permitted a maximum of twenty Armsmen allowed to carry weapons and serve as bodyguards and security force, although Counts can deploy armed police forces. The Armsmen are often recruited among the most brilliant Imperial officers and soldiers originating from the District, but the entire organization both of administration and the security apparatus is entirely under the Count's own discretion: he has the right to run his District as he sees fit, unless reined in by the Emperor or his brother Counts. Each Count can create local laws, structure District government to suit himself, impose taxes, provide public services, and so forth.
Hereditary and political matters
The hereditary axis of a Count is on three different levels.
The first level, which is essentially governed by public law, concerns the transmission of the right of government. The Government of the District is indivisible and inalienable and, therefore, the Count cannot in any case divide public law functions across multiple successors.
The second level consists of essentially private law functions, but closely linked to the government of the District. Each District has, within its territory, some estates owned by the ruling Count. They are considered not belonging to the functions of government, and therefore the Count can dispose of by private law transactions. These estates could be subdivided across multiple successors.
Finally, every Count, as well as any other person of the Empire, may possess personally, personal properties and real estate. The Count, as well as any other person in the Empire, may have personal property through customary instruments of private law.
A Count has to formally appoint his own successor, who usually is his eldest living son. The chosen heir must be formally presented to the Council of Counts and approved by a simple majority of present members. If the Count fails to appoint an heir, or some dispute over the named heir surfaces after the Count’s death, the Council of Counts shall settle the matter. It is keen to underline, however, that a Count doesn't have to be the previous Count's son: the Barrayaran history is plenty of nephews, cousins, skips to other lines, complete breaks due to treason or war or even other reasons. The sole limitation faced by Counts is that although they get to choose their successors, they must not choose another ruling Count or a different district Count's Heir on pain of having the Council and Emperor reject that choice immediately.
A Count's heir speaks with the Count's authority and under his own responsibility and, in the absence of the Count, can vote in the Council of Counts. He may also pronounce justice in the District, if authorized to do so. A female relative cannot be named a Count’s heir, though she may act as guardian (with voting rights) for an infant heir, if there are no other male relations to do so and if authorized by the Emperor.
In their capacity of House Chiefs, Counts are the ultimate civil authority - with the exception of the Emperor - for what regards civil cases of their own House's members. Moreover, they are the ultimate civil and criminal authority for what regards cases within their own Districts.
Law enforcement in traditional districts
The Northern Continent is a feudal society and District Counts jealously guard their independence, rights and privileges. District- and lower-level police forces are under the District Count's own control. The municipal and district guards, whatever organized, are treated as a non-military police force: therefore maintaining an armed and uniformed corps is not a violation of Vorlopoulous' Law.
The district police is simply a Count's own police force, strictly forbidden from any military-type activity. Every District also has a District Militia under the individual Count's direct control, in order to smash any internal subversion and to quell riots: these troops are authorized under Vorlopoulous' Law and may act as hostage-rescue intervention force, as well as a small counterinsurgency force. Under serious circumstances, District Militias have to be able to provide operational support to ImpSec or other Imperial Service units. Sometimes, mainly in traditionally-minded Districts where the Vor landed gentry is still rooted, the Militias take the form of a sort of yeomanry. In a general meaning, every city has a municipal guard, subordinated or not to the its own District command (if existent), according to local government traditions, as well as a central organization for specialized services, which could be placed even under a City Guard direction. An example of Municipal Guard is the Hassadar Municipal Guard, in the Vorkosigan District.
A Count is due fealty from all the people of their district, including the policemen. The difference between a district guardsman and an Armsman is that an Armsman is specifically oath sworn to the Count, while a guardsman, as everyone else, just has the normal duties of everyone in the district.
Between District police services there are several inter-District contacts, as well as traditional rivalries due to both traditional enmities between Districts and to modern-day professional competition. The main and foremost forum devoted to policy coordination is the Justice and Internal Security formation of the Council of Government Delegates of Their Lordship the Counts.
For specialist services, which drain massive resources, there are some common organizations: the Common Police Sub-orbital Aviation Service (CoPSAS), Common Blue Waters Surveillance (CoBWaSUR) and others. These are organized as inter-District cooperations, rather than as government-provided services.
Although uniforms vary according different Districts, rank insignias (and often also titles) are the same of the Imperial police services and of the armed forces both in civilian police forces and in District Militias. There is no District using ranks above State Councillor, 2nd class (corresponding to Imperial Service Rear Admiral/Major General).
Organization of police services
District Counts are absolutely free to organize their own governments and security apparatus according the way they deem to be the best. However, usually District law enforcement follows similar organizational patterns: the main detective agency is the District Bureau of Investigation, however named, a District-level detective agency. They are plain-clothes agencies which usually investigate both criminal and civil cases involving the whole district. They also provide technical support to local agencies in the form of laboratory or record services.
A District bureau is a District's equivalent to the central bodies of the Imperial Police Force. Such bureaus investigate all manner of cases assigned to them by their District's laws and usually report to their District's Prosecutor, or in some cases to their Count. These bureaus can also exist either independently or within a department of public safety (which is an umbrella agency coordinating and/or controlling the various law enforcement agencies) or a District police force (which is a general law enforcement agency). Some, densely populated Districts, such as Vordarian District or others, have well-organized all-encompassing police corps, while other Districts, less populated, like Vorkosigan District, maintain police services only for major communities, occasionally providing support to minor communities in need.
District Militias
The District Militias are preventive District forces responsible for maintaining public order within each District, and are subordinate to the District Count. Although District Militias could trace their origins back to the immediate aftermath of the planetary unification, or even at the time of the Independent Counts, they were established in their current form following the great turmoil of 2960s in order to deploy a territorial militia to crack down limited insurgencies without calling the standing Imperial Service and they are authorized under specific Emperor's Decrees. Each District has its own District Militia, with different formations, rules and uniforms. The Militias are distinct from the Internal Troops, which collaborate with, and Service Security; the District Militias are also reserve troops and ancillary forces of the Imperial Service: in time of war or other emergencies the Militias can be absorbed back into Imperial service, under the supervision of the Service Security, which is in charge of conducting control activities. Most Militias are organized as ground units, but air and naval units also exist. When on Imperial duty, jurisdiction for crimes against civilians is within military courts; when they are on District duty, the jurisdiction is within District Courts.
The function of the District Militias is to serve as a conspicuous public order force: the District Militias of any state are organized as a military force and have a military-based rank structure. Training is weighted more heavily toward riot control and rural manhunt matters, but counterinsurgency training is also carefully included. Arms and equipment of state forces include machine guns and armoured cars, in addition to other items generally associated with police.
The District Militias, ancillary forces and Imperial Service reserve, are subordinate to the District Counts for all their duties. District Militias are often commanded by honourably retired military officers originating from the District, but that is not strictly mandatory; being legally authorized military (or at least paramilitary, for the stablest Districts) formations, both High and lesser Vors can serve within them without facing any treason charge. The Commandant of a District Militia is usually a Colonel, and the District is usually divided into regions. District Militias are often organized into Battalions or Squadrons, Companies or Troops, platoons, and subdivided into Squads. Major units are based in major urban centres, and their companies and platoons are distributed according to population density.
Special ranks of District Militias
District Militias are always commanded by a Colonel, but often they are by far larger than a Regiment ever could be. Therefore, top ranks (Commandant, Deputy Commandant and Chief of Staff) are still considered as Colonel, but enjoy of a superior position than "ordinary" colonels which could be present in the District Militia. When absorbed back into the Imperial Service, "special" Colonels are considered as mere Colonels.
Open method of coordination
The open method of coordination is a means of governance in the Northern Continent, based on the voluntary cooperation of its Districts. The open method of coordination is a light but structured way Northern Districts use to cooperate at continental/planetary level. This method helps to build consensus on solutions and their practical implementation.
The open method rests on mechanisms such as guidelines and indicators, benchmarking and sharing of best practice. This means that there are no official sanctions for laggards. Rather, the method's effectiveness relies on a form of peer pressure and naming and shaming, as no participating District wants to be seen as the worst in a given policy area; of course, if it is deemed that a policy is not in the interests of his District, each Count may exit from the policy coordination or by the method altogether.
The open method of coordination works in stages. Firstly, a board made up by participating District Counts (or their representatives) or in some cases the Council of Counts agrees on broad policy goals. Secondly, participating Districts then transpose guidelines into internal policies. Thirdly, specific benchmarks and indicators to measure best practice are agreed upon. Finally, results are monitored and evaluated. However, the open method of coordination differs significantly across the various policy areas to which it has been applied. It is a decentralised approach through which agreed policies are largely implemented by the participating Districts and supervised by the board or the Council of Counts. The Government of the Empire has primarily a monitoring role; in practice, however, there is considerable scope for it to help set the policy agenda and (albeit to a lesser extent) persuade reluctant participating Districts to implement agreed policies. Under the open method of coordination, experts from District governments meet 6 to 8 times over 18 months to exchange good practice and produce policy manuals or tool-kits.
The actual method of coordination are based principally on jointly identifying and defining objectives to be achieved, jointly established measuring instruments and benchmarking, i.e. comparison of the Member States' performance and exchange of best practices (monitored by the Government of the Empire).
The Government of the Empire is responsible for organising the coordination processes, hosting most of its meetings, reimbursing travel expenses, and supporting participating Districts with research and studies. The Government does not chair coordination meetings or decide who participates; it is the responsibility of District governments to designate the members of each group, who elect their own chair at the first meeting. The group decides if and how to involve additional experts. The Government of the Empire also produces reports on the implementation of the processes.
Justice and Internal Security formation
The main and foremost forum devoted to policy coordination is the Justice and Internal Security formation of the Council of Government Delegates of Their Lordship the Counts. The Justice and Internal Security formation develops cooperation and common policies on various cross-border issues. This formation is made up of justice and internal security officials from all the Northern Districts. In general, justice oficials deal with judicial cooperation in both civil and criminal law, internal security officials are responsible for migration, border management and police cooperation, among other matters. The JIS formation is also responsible for civil protection and usually meets every two months. All Districts participate in the implementation of the measures which are deliberated by the Counts themselves.
The Council of Government Delegates of Their Lordship the Counts proposes to the Council of Contus to adopt legislation aimed at guaranteeing a high level of protection and security. It is responsible for internal immigration policies, judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, civil protection and the fight against serious and organised crime. The Council is also in charge of facilitating and strengthening coordination of Districts' actions in the field of internal security. It does this by seeking to enhance police and customs cooperation.
Northern District Law
The sixty Northern Districts are suzerain powers with their own legal systems. They retain full power to make laws covering anything not pre-empted by the Imperial prerogatives, statutes, or interstellar treaties ratified by the Empire.
All Northern Districts have a judicial branch that applies and interprets both state statutes and regulations, as well as ordinances. Normally, District Counts or, on their behalf, District supreme courts (if present) are the final interpreters of District law, unless their interpretation itself presents a Imperial supremacy issue, in which case a decision may be appealed to the Supreme Court of the Empire. The right to petition the District Count is not universal, nor granted to everyone by the Imperial Law; one way to get it was to have one’s father die in military service. Every District, if it desires so, can establish more favourable laws, however. In Northern Districts the criminal procedure is very varied because each Count deals with its own traditions and preferences, but there are some common models.
The so-called "Organic Model", which includes a mostly inquisitorial proceeding, provides that Village Speaker (or Town Magistrate: the local representative and chief official) Speaks also serious crimes as a court of first instance; its judgements may be appealed to the District or Circuit Magistrate as a court of appeal and second instance, and then to the Count or to his Voice, who is the final appeal instance. Against Count's judgement, no appeal may be enacted under the local District law.
