A summary of the rules in MD

So what do the judges in MD do if they don’t make rules?

Judges in MD currently have a number of Irrevocable Decision Warrant’s. This allows them to make a decision in a case for a specific situation. Unlike a typical precedent we have decided that the ruling made in them cannot be overturned. However this ruling only applies to the specific case that they are ruled in. The precedent still acts like a standard precedent and if there is a material difference then this precedent may not hold in a standard case.

Item description for warrant:

Allows the owner to take any decision regarding any conflict, with or without giving any explanation. Is covered by Mur in the way it will be worded, announced or applied. Once used needs to be sent back to Mur.

Recently nad was warned by the judges with one of these warrants (see Announcement 4101) with the warning:

Based on the facts that Mur had stated multiple time that depletion is not an abuse and that Marind Bell has no official rule(s) or law(s) stating that depletion in Marind Bell is not tolerated and can constitute an abuse, nadrolski is hereby warned not to ban players from grabbing Marind Bell’s shared tools on the ground of depletion. Next time he bans a player with the reason “depletion”, nadrolski will suffer a punishment which will be set at that time. Also, because of the above said precedents, every time nadrolski is using the grabban spell, he must state a reason in chat. Failure to do so will result in disciplinary actions.

The most important feature here is that this ruling does not make a rule. The warrant does not let them do this, but states an outcome from a specific situation which Mur called a conflict. In this case the person this ruling applies to is Nad. Mur and I will not overturn this ruling but if another person does similar then we might take a different approach regarding the warning.

Similarly this ruling is applying to something that has not been dealt with by a higher court. No authority group have made a ruling relevant to the case and therefore this is a perfect situation where a warrant may be used. A judges warrant cannot be used to try and overturn an already decided situation by Mur or I. However again it could be used in a similar situation where the decision had not already have been made.

To use the example above, Mur and I couldn’t alter the above decision for Nad but could make a different one the next time this problem came around (provided it wasn’t Nad again). And similarly, if Mur or I had made the above decision instead of the judges then they would not be able to overturn our decision but could make a different one the next time the problem came again (again provided it wasn’t Nad).

Decisions are made to specific cases, they create a precedent that may be followed but does not have to be if there is deemed a material difference.