The Right of Protection

(Author’s Note: Every so often, I may post some background on a key part of the universe that could use further explanation but I couldn’t find a way to shoehorn it into the text -- FB)

An excerpt from “Rights and Responsibilities” 37th edition

The Right Of Protection:

The Terran Federation formed from the remnants of the Terran Empire, a neo-feudalist reaction to the Collapse that shattered interstellar travel. Under the Empire, feudal relationships were normal, where citizens would pledge themselves to lesser nobles, and lesser nobles up the line, until the Emperor. Nobles were expected to take care of those underneath them, through a sense of noblesse oblige (the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged.)

This was not always honored. This could become fraught with peril, as nobles literally had the power of life and death over their subjects. One of the ways that this power was fenced in was the Right Of Protection.

A person could make a request to another Noble to intervene in a matter between the requester and the 2nd Noble. If the Noble granted the request, the requester would transfer their allegiance to the new Noble, and the old Noble could not act against them without violating the Empire’s laws.

This was rarely requested, and usually having one or more of your subjects actually succeed in petitioning for a Right of Protection was a sign that things weren’t good in your area, and usually would be used against them in social circles.

This is a risky venture. The requester must make the request directly to the new Noble, and state why they are doing so. The Noble cannot set terms on it, they must accept the terms as a whole, or reject them as a whole and turn them away immediately. It’s safe to say if your existing Noble finds out that you want to leave, they’ll take punitive measures to punish you for daring to defy them.

The Right Of Protection still exists today in the Terran Foundation, as a way of pledging one to the complete service of another. The granter of the Right then assumes all rights and responsibilities of and FOR the requester. For example, a bankrupt Merchant House may request protection to a bigger merchant house. Essentially, until such time as the granter dissolves the agreement (either stated in the original request, or until such time the granter believes the debt of protection is resolved), they are legally allowed to make all decisions both personal and business for the requester, (for example, to pledge the requester’s property towards their house’s debt)

Some neoliberal activists call the Protection “voluntary Slavery” and are seeking its abolishment, but at the current time, there is not a widespread movement to abolish such things, as it is considered a way for one who has fallen into debt or a personal problem to return their way to being a productive member of an interstellar society, under the guidance of those more worthy.