The rules and customs adopted by the
toren species since their uplift in the twenty-first century A.D. Unlike
human national laws or the rules set down by the various
Children of Athena, there is no universally-accepted codification of toren law, though many similarities exist across
clans and polities.
Property Rights
Torens, known across the Starweb as scavengers, have a very generous view of what constitutes abandoned property, often boiling down to any object left behind by another person without immediate plans for retrieval or resumption of use. Such objects can be appropriated by anyone who happens upon them.
For expensive items or land, a grace period is extended, though owners would do well to watch for shifty scavengers trying to jump the gun. Symbols such as clan marks can be used to indicate a place or thing has not yet been abandoned, or to declare it abandoned without a grace period; these are often adopted by other cultures living in close proximity to torens. A red X is a common indicator that something has been abandoned and is now free for the taking.
Claims on natural resources such as asteroids and planetary land follow a homesteading doctrine, where they are only recognized if they are actively being worked or otherwise put to physical use. Abstract claims filed without ever visiting the location in question and then traded between speculators are not considered valid, causing no end of squabbles between torens and more finance-oriented cultures such as American-style capitalism.
Once title is gained over a place by mixing one's labor with it, it is retained until abandonment or transfer to another owner. Limited forms of absentee ownership can appear here;
terraforming, for instance, is usually considered to give property rights across the world in question, including those parts not under active settlement, since the terraformer has altered its entire atmosphere and surface.
Intellectual property is recognized in that credit should be given to its creator and money can be charged to buy copies, but any form of rent extraction or software-based content control is considered abhorrent--scavengers need their equipment to work right or people may get hurt. This is not to say torens don't keep secrets, but any piece of information put out there on the
starnet is considered fair game for use and duplication by anyone who may see it.
Politics
Torens tend to avoid close involvement in the affairs of other-species societies, reasoning that if they remain studiously neutral they are unlikely to make enemies of any feuding nations. Perhaps as a result of their observations cleaning up other people's messes, most torens consider warfare inevitably destructive to all parties involved, and so their laws prescribe elaborate ways for resolving inter-clan disputes without mass fighting. (Even mercenary-minded
War Lads rarely fight each other.) These include duels, debates, and bloodless drone battles, and often occur when multiple groups of torens seek to scavenge in the same area.
Interpretation / Practice
Among torens who practice the old clan-based ways, the clan leader is usually the ultimate arbiter of the law within their group, though there are means by which a majority of clan members can install a new one. Planet- or
habitat-based toren societies sometimes take cues from other species and devise more formal court systems and frameworks to support becoming part of international agreements. In the absence of this, legal proceedings are usually ad-hoc, between plantiff/prosecutor, defendant, and each side's allies before a neutral arbiter. Creative legal arguments to escape consquences via a favored interpretation of the law does not go over well. After all, toren law is more "guidelines" than actual rules.
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