---
# System prepended metadata

title: Space Law

---

# Space Law

<style>
#doc.markdown-body { max-width: 60%; }
</style>

## Some reminders
- Security is expected to make a best faith effort to understand [Standard Operating Procedures](https://hackmd.io/u_o-_zOSR8OevPLG1W_Nng?both) as relevant to them. Expectations on brigging procedures, use of lethal force, **arrest procedures and rules of engagement**, and similar are contained within.
- **Undetainable threats, per SoP, *may* be shoot to kill/neutralize with means necessary.**
    - Changelings in specific may be assumed to escape confinement.
    - As a reminder, if someone is either seen teleporting **and** is resisting arrest, **or** teleports out from confinement/arrest to escape, they count under this. Same if they are unstunnable, almost unstunnable, or would put officers in **extreme danger** to engage nonlethally.
- **Use lawyers when you have time. They're there for a reason.**
- For minor, nuisence-based crimes like Harassment, Disturbing the Peace, etc, be reasonable. If you go out of your way to be a dick, expect a quick jobban.

## Interpreting the Law
- When choosing between different infractions of differing severities for the same crime, always choose the most severe one (e.g. While someone who has committed murder has technically also committed assault, you'd charge them with murder instead of murder + assault)
    - Similar crimes that only differ in severity but are the same idea will generally have the same sub-code, with only the category code being different (e.g. 101 vs 201 vs 301 vs 401)
    - Use good faith in charging for crimes - if uncertain of a higher or lower severity, err on the side of caution rather than chase a long/severe sentence.
- Take intent and malice into account when sentencing. Many of these laws do not always need to be enforced to the letter, and variance is okay. If someone is apologetic, they should probably be treated less severely than someone who has no remorse, etc etc.
- Use common sense.
- In cases where a credit fine is offered, security should opt for that over brigging unless there is a reason not to (see: repeat offenses, etc).
- The Head of Security and Captain have ultimate authority over law interpretations, unless it is **clear** that they themselves are intending to trample upon these laws without justifiable reasoning. While neither of them are entirely above the law, it is expected that their authority is respected up until it is no longer reasonable to.
    - **See Mutiny clause in main rules.**
    - This applies to the warden and regular officers if those people are not present, or if they allow it.  See below.
- **Do not jump to the maximum sentence or beyond without good reason, like someone being clearly obnoxious/malicious/refusing to stop.**
- Security is allowed and encouraged to find alternative punishments where reasonable. Not every infraction requires an arrest. Things like making a vandal clean up what they did, having someone return stolen items, etc. That said, they should not indefinitely ignore crimes and the people committing them - remember your job.
- If you are using the maximum sentence as a guideline, if a time is specified, that **overrides** the recommended sentencing time unless otherwise stated. Anything else is assumed to be added.
    - e.g. recommended 1-5 minutes, maximum for severe cases demotion - this means you can brig them for 1-5 minutes and/or demote them if following maximum.
- For things like assault/theft, each person assaulted/each area stolen from is one instance of the crime, respectively.
    - Stealing 3 things from a room/department is still one count of theft. Hitting a person 3 times doesn't give you 3 charges of assault.
- If a fine is provided, **the fine replaces any brig sentence, if applicable.** You cannot demand to pay a fine to not have security take something stolen from you or to ignore contraband. ~~Unless they're corrupt, ofcourse.~~
- **Modifiers - Repeat Offenses** - If someone is clearly continuing to do something that got them arrested and is not stopping, security may escalate to means necessary to stop them, including permabrigging until they agree to compromise.
- Permabrig prisoners should be moved to the transfer/escape shuttle for detainment at Central Command if possible.
- **Demotion** should generally be cleared with their head of staff first, unless they will clearly be a threat in their current department.
    - Their head of staff (and in cases of 300's, security) are free to demote them at will regardless if it is determined they will be dangerous or highly counterproductive to keep in their current department.

## Martial Law
Entities possessing a threat large enough that law may not be reasonably enforced are considered dangerous to the crew and station as a whole, and are to be neutralized with any means necessary.
- Blobs, swarmers, out of control self-replicating technology
- Xenomorphs, zombies, dangerous biological infections
- Nuclear operatives, hostile mercenaries and strike forces
- Wizards, and generally insane maniacs rampaging with magical abilities (shaft miners sometimes fall into this)
- Entities purely on the station to kill (slaughter demons, etc)

## Laws

- Handy chart of severities and escalation for ease of use.

|    |1xx|2xx|3xx|
|---|---|---|---|
|x01|Resisting Arrest|Sparking a Manhunt|Escape from Permanent Confinement|
|x02|Trespassing|Major Trespass|Infiltration|
|x03|Vandalism|Sabotage|Grand Sabotage/Terrorism|
|x04|Minor Assault/Battery|Major Assault|Attempted/Murder|
|x05|Negligence|Major Negligence|Manslaughter|
|x06|Insubordination|Failure to Execute Order w/ Serious Consequences|Mutiny|
|x07|Disturbing the Peace|Inciting a Riot|Rioting|
|x08|Petty Theft|Theft|Grand Theft|
|x09|Minor Contraband|Contraband|Major Contraband|
|x10|Obstruction of Duty|Illegal Blocking of Areas|---|
|x11|Indecent Exposure|---|Sexual Assault|
|x12|Harassment|---|---|
|x13|Operating Under the Influence|---|Brainwashing|
|x14|Excessive Force/Illegal Detainment|Exceeding Official Powers|Wrongful Execution|
|x15|---|---|Kidnapping|


### 100's

|Code|Crime|Description|Suggested Sentence|Maximum Sentence|Fine (If Applicable)|Notes|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|101|Resisting Arrest|To not cooperate with an officer who attempts a proper arrest.|1-5 minutes|N/A|25-100 credits|Insults, talking back, saying no, etc, is not resisting. Trying to run/dodge handcuffs (assuming you had reason to cuff them in the first place) or screaming bloody murder over the radio is.|
|102|Trespasssing|To be in an area which a person does not have legitimate access to, without permission from those who do have access.|1-5 minutes|N/A|25-75 credits|This is mostly applicable if the person refuses to leave, or makes a problem of themselves on purpose.|
|103|Vandalism|To deliberately damage or deface the station. Damaging simpler robots counts towards this.|2-5 minutes|Demotion|25-75 credits|Destruction of cyborgs counts under sabotage.|
|104|Minor Assault/Battery|To cause injury to another employee. Brandishing a weapon with intent to harm another. Touching people when asked to stop, persistently.|3 minutes, confiscation of any tools used|Demotion, 5-7 minutes|N/A|If any reasonably dangerous weapon is used, this is upgraded. This is for small fistfights, etc.|
|105|Negligence|To engage in negligent behavior leading to minor injury or damage, without deliberate intent. **Ignoring one's job while needed.**|Warning|Demotion, 1-5 minutes|75 credits|Minor damage, easily fixable, failing to place wet floor signs which slip people, forgetting to do a small part of a job that tangibly and negatively impacts others. Higher charges may apply if more significant issues result from it, or if it is deliberate. **Leaving lockers unlocked.**|
|106|Insubordination|To ignore or disregard a superior's valid order or directives.|Warning|Up to 5 minutes and/or demotion|25-100 credits|If the order is stupid, or is illegal under space law, the order can be safely ignored without persecution. If the order is within your job description, you should do it or resign. If someone causes serious damage through this, see the next higher infraction.|
|107|Disturbing the Peace|Intentionally and publicly engaging in erotic acts, leaving copious amounts of garbage everywhere, causing ruckuses whereever you go. Generally benign but unsavory practices that are more annoying than dangerous, that have escalated far enough for security to intervene.|Warning|1-10 minutes|25-100 credits|The maximum sentence is intentionally highly varied here. Judge based on what they did - a suggested sentence for major or repeat offenses should be around five minutes.|
|108|Petty Theft|Picking up insignificant objects from a department that you weren't allowed to take, etc.|Return of the item stolen|1-5 minutes, Demotion|25-50 credits|Upgraded to Theft in certain cases - read below.|
|109|Minor Contraband|To be in possession of contraband that isn't dangerous to other members of the crew.|Warning, up to 5 minutes, confiscation of contraband|N/A|25-100 credits|**See Contraband Policy**|
|110|Obstruction of Duty|To negatively interfere with the duties of the crew.|Warning|1-10 minutes|25-100 credits|Potentially a higher level crime depending on what they did. Usually a verbal warning is enough, but feel free to brig people if they keep at it.|
|111|Indecent Exposure|To be intentionally, publically, and willfully nude|1-5 minutes|N/A|25-75 credits|Gear harnesses are only legal on those without visible genitals. (See: Fur thick enough to cover everything + not visible on a glance.) **Normal (demi-)humans do not get protection from this clause even if they do not have genitals.** Wear your clothes!|
|112|Harassment|To persistently insult, stalk, ridicule, or otherwise intentionally be obnoxious to another crew member.|1-5 minutes|Demotion|25-100 credits|Following someone around for no reason and refusing to stop, constantly barraging them over radio after an incident has passed, spreading rumors intended to bring harm, having other crew gang up on someone. *Mimicing one's identity.* **Do not apply this law if it is a minor case of hurt feelings - people should simply man up, if that is the case.**|
|113|Operating under the Influence|To operate heavy machinery, or sensitive/dangerous equipment while under the effects of drugs or alcohol.|Detain until sober|Demotion|N/A|If you're too drunk to talk straight, you're probably too drunk to handle weapons, pilot mechs, do surgery, etc. This can probably be alleviated in an emergency if they do their job right.|
|114|Excessive use of Force and/or Illegal Detainment|Arresting people on false, misleading, grossly misrepresented/exaggerated charges. Detaining people with no valid reasoning. **Blatant disregard for SoP rules of engagement,** outside of emergencies.|Warning|Anywhere from 1-5 minutes to Demotion|N/A|Gunning down a non-violent criminal who has not resisted arrest, etc etc. Lethalling someone without authorization and on flimsy reasoning counts as wrongful execution or manslaughter depending on intent and severity.|

### 200's

|Code|Crime|Description|Suggested Sentence|Maximum Sentence|Fine (If Applicable)|Notes|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|201|Sparking a Manhunt|Running from security/evading arrest in a way that makes them chase you for more than a minute or two puts you liable for this charge.|Up to 1 minute per 2 minutes running from security.|N/A|N/A|They have to qualify for resisting arrest with whatever they did for it to qualify as sparking a manhunt. Sitting in the bar refusing to come in by themselves to security quietly is not making security "manhunt" them, rather than things like maintenance chases. For this crime, suggested sentence is truly suggested - it is up to security to determine when to throw the book with this.|
|202|Major Trespass|Trespassing in a dangerous or highly restrictive area.|5-10 minutes|N/A|N/A|Bridge, Toxins Lab, Atmospherics, Engine Room, Brig, etc. Intent and reasoning matters!|
|203|Sabotage|To deliberately cause damage to the station in a way that will cause harm or greatly hinder productivity.|5-10 minutes|20 minutes|N/A|Shocking doors. An **isolated**, **small** explosive charge. Deliberately breaching an area without reason. Anything bigger, repeated (e.g. planting X4 everywhere), or otherwise causing large amounts of carnage is considered Grand Sabotage/Terrorism.|
|204|Major Assault|Causing serious injury or assaulting another crewmember with weapons.|5 minutes, confiscate weapons|10 minutes|N/A|Fistfights getting out of hand, running someone down with a toolbox/extinguisher, a shot or two with a regular laser gun, etc. Did not put the victim into critical condition.|
|205|Major Negligence|Being negligent in a way that causes serious/harm to others.|5 minutes|10 minutes, demotion|N/A|Overdosing someone with medicine through carelessness, depressurizing an area by leaving airlocks open, leaving dangerous equipment out which are then stolen.|
|206|Failure to Execute an Order with Serious Consequences|Refusing to follow a lawful order from a head of staff that results in serious damage, like death or destruction.|5 minutes|10 minutes, demotion|N/A|Blatantly ignoring orders to say, stabilize the supermatter, burning all the tech points on useless nodes in an emergency, etc. The maximum sentence can go way up in this case, as most of the time the person can likely be charged under sabotage as well.|
|207|Inciting a Riot|Inciting violent or otherwise highly disruptive protest.|5 minutes|10 minutes, demotion|N/A|Telling people to greytide the brig because someone got arrested, calling for a revolution, etc.|
|208|Theft|Stealing significant or important/dangerous objects from a department without permission.|5 minutes|10 minutes|N/A|Things that are limited in availability. Dangerous objects like guns. Looting engineering of their upgraded RCDs. Breaking into the RD office for the intellicard, etc. Even if an object is replaceable, the thief can be charged with Theft instead of Petty Theft.|
|209|Contraband|Possession of dangerous and illegal objects. See contraband policy.|5 minutes, confiscation of objects.|N/A|N/A|**See contraband policy.**|
|210|Illegal Blocking of Areas|Blocking off and obstructing areas without valid reasoning.|5 minutes|10-15 minutes|N/A|Walling up areas, barricading off areas, etc, with no or flimsy reasoning. What they did/why they did it matters, if they're belligerent there may be more escalation than even the maximum sentence. If injury or death resulted from it, apply manslaughter/murder and major negligence respectively.|
|212|Harassment|Repeated, constant, and obnoxious attempts to aggravate another.|5 minutes|10 minutes, stripping of any access/equipment used. **Injunctions, separating the involved parties until cooperation.**|N/A|This is **not** the hurt feelings law. This is for cases of repeated, nonstop targeted radio harassment, someone stalking another around to aggravate them, falsely spreading **harmful** rumors ("x is a hostile agent", "x killed someone", etc) in order to cause drama against another. This is for **repeated** cases, whether simply asking someone to stop does not suffice. Injunctions are a tool here (i.e. ordering someone to stay off radio or cease contact). This is one of the few cases where security is expected to continually escalate confinement times and injunctions until the behavior is stemmed. **On an OOC note, security players found to be abusing this clause to police simple cases of 'hurt feelings' will be dealt with harshly.**|
|214|Exceeding Official Powers|Abuse of authority, whether existant or nonexistant.|5-10 minutes|Demotion|N/A|A head of staff trying to order around another department **in an obnoxious, continual manner** without a clear emergency. **Illegal arrests and searches, or those done with little to no valid reasoning.** Someone with access **pushing the rightful employees of an area out to do it themselves, without reason.** Access regulations are very loose; Just because you are allowed access to an area does not automatically mean you are the sole authority there. Also applies to **heads of staff/otherwise giving out illegal or clearly unreasonable orders.**|

### 300's

|Code|Crime|Description|Suggested Sentence|Maximum Sentence|Fine (If Applicable)|Notes|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|301|(Attempted) Escape from Permanent Confinement|Breaking out or getting broken out of permabrig.|N/A|Transfer/Cyborgification|N/A|How they escaped, station chaos/security level, and if they are a repeat/violent offender should be taken into account before making the decision to transfer/borg.|
|302|Infiltration|Breaking into or otherwise illegally accessing an extremely dangerous area.|10 minutes|15 to 20 minutes, Permabrig|N/A|What they were breaking in to do should be taken into account. AI upload, AI core, Vault, Armory, etc comes to mind.|
|303|Grand Sabotage/Terrorism|Acts that **lethally endanger the majority of the crew.** Plasma flooding, sabotaging station air distribution, explosives meant to take out important areas of the station/large explosives in general, killing large amounts of crew, etc.|Permabrig|Transfer/Cyborgification|N/A|If someone is killing everyone they see without being under the effects of brainwashing/similar, security can safely neutralize on the spot and ask questions later. Same with someone mass bombing, if waiting would result in more danger.|
|304|Attempted/Murder|Intentional attempt whether or not successful to kill another crewmember.|15-20 minutes|Permabrig|N/A|Reasoning should be taken into account (e.g. did person keep aggravating the attacker, etc etc). If it is an accident (i.e. fight gone wrong), see manslaughter. Whether or not it was premeditated should be, too. The sentencing suggestions are highly varied, so use good faith.|
|305|Manslaughter|Directly causing the death of another without premeditation or intent.|10 minutes|Up to permabrig|N/A|Includes fights gone wrong (critted someone, did not mean to finish them off, etc). Permabrig is still allowed with varied sentence timing based on circumstances and why they were doing whatever they did to cause the death in the first place, as well as how risky something is. This also covers death(s) through severe incompetence, although in those cases only one manslaughter charge should be applied for everyone dying vs say, 5 manslaughter charges for screwing up 5 surgeries.|
|306|Mutiny|Attempting to illegally overthrow the station's command structure, usually violently.|15-20 minutes|Permabrig, Execution, Cyborgification|N/A|Removal of offending crew to permabrig/death is valid if they will continue to be threats. **Given that rulewise, security is allowed to mutiny in specific cases, IC enforcement of this will obviously be varied.** Try not to make your entire security team loathe you, lest you end up with the ones who prevent mutiny helping overthrow you. Remember that in cases of severe strife amongst command/towards command, contacting Central Command is a valid option. **This also covers extremely violent rioting, usually when security/command are being incapacitated.**|
|307|Rioting|Violent, usually organized disruption to station affairs and operations.|10-15 minutes|Permabrig until safe*|N/A|There is no maximum sentence; If someone is continually a threat, permabrig until they agree to stop. **Riots in permabrig may be treated as escaping from permanent confinement.** If it gets to the point of death or beyond, you can probably classify it as mutiny instead.|
|308|Grand Theft|Theft of extremely valuable items like the Hand Teleporter, Captain's Antique Laser, etc.|10 minutes, return of item|20 minutes|N/A|This is no longer an immediate permabrig offense - if they are truly a threat, they'll probably have violated multiple other 300's anyways, or repeat offenses clause.|
|309|Major Contraband|Possession of highly restricted and dangerous objects. See contraband policy.|10-15 minutes, confiscation of items|N/A|N/A|**See contraband policy**|
|311|Sexual Assault|Unwanted and forced sexual advances, including rape.|Permabrig|Execution|N/A|Adminhelp in case of OOC noncon, as well as if someone is intentionally thrusting their ERP drama into station affairs. Security is not required to be merciful to intentionally disruptive scenes where the people involved are deliberately calling for help to cause drama. **At the same time, remember our rules on ERP, use good faith, do not "validhunt" when it comes to this if someone clearly wants a private scene and is not making it a public issue.**|
|313|Brainwashing|Brainwashing a crew member/mind control/etc, usually for illegal activities|See notes|N/A|N/A|Brainwashing ouside of emergencies is **illegal.** Sentencing depends on what the person was brainwashed to do, malice, etc - anywhere from a few minutes for someone having a fetish/sexual scene with consent from both parties, to **forced deconversion for things like a revolution, cultists, etc,** to permabrig for brainwashing people to commit violent crimes. Mindshields will revert most forms of non-magical/alien brainwashing. Holy water works for cult inductions. Security should, in most cases, actively revert brainwashing if known. **Lethal force is permitted if removal of brainwashing is considered too dangerous at the time to attempt.**|
|314|Wrongful Execution|Executing/lethal force that results in death to someone without authorization **as well as** a **valid offense**.|Demotion + 10 minutes|Permabrig|N/A|This covers someone using wanton lethal force resulting in death for no reason, excuting without authorization and/or reason, etc. **Severe offenses should result in a murder charge - this is the charge for *flimsy*, not non-existant reasoning.** Security is expected to use best-faith to self-audit.|
|315|Kidnapping|Illegally abducting and holding another captive, usually in a perilous situation.|5-10 minutes|Anywhere from 20 minutes to perma|N/A|**Taking hostages count here, and is considered to be towards the severe end of this.** This covers anything from maintenance abductions, locking someone in a room (likely without a radio), holding someone hostage as leverage, throwing someone through an one way portal to a place they can't easily return from, etc. **Interrogation should include intent and reasoning for the action, and that should be taken into account for sentencing.** How long the victim was trapped should also be taken into account, as well as other factors like if they had contact with other people (someone doing the "weld person in locker and drag them around" realistically can be let off with even a warning or just a few minutes, while taking someone hostage with threats of death or welding them into a room for a long period of time without a radio is towards the heavy end of the spectrum). Keep in mind the kidnapper also is being charged with any other regulations they have violated in the process.|

### Modifiers

|Situation|Description|Modification|
|---|---|---|
|Re-Education|The removal of hostile brainwashing such as conversion into a revolution or a cult.|Nullification of all charges for behavior from their time inducted into said element, usually immediate release.|
|Self Defense|The **reasonable** protection of oneself, one's colleagues, and one's workplace. Intentionally getting into or sparking fights does not count, as well as cases of gross over-escalation (killing someone for a mild strike, etc).|Nullification of charges involved, usually immediate release.|
|Cooperation with prosecution/security.|Being helpful to the security team, revealing important details during questioning, providing names of other perpetrators|-25% to sentence time.|
|Surrender|Confessing what you've done and taking the punishment, and surrendering to arrest. Getting arrested without putting a fuss is not surrender - you have to do this of your own accord. This somewhat counts for cases where someone has been resisting arrest and decides to come quietly, but less so.|Usually -25% to sentence time. Should be taken into account for interpretation of charges and punishment in general.|
|Immediate threat to prisoner|The singularity is eating the brig, a cell got bombed, etc.|If you can't relocate them to a safe area, non-permabrig prisoners should be released entirely.|
|Medical reasons|Prisoners are entitled to medical attention if sick or injured.|Suicide doesn't count. Medical personnel can be called, or the prisoner can be escorted to the medbay. The timer continues to run during this time.|
|**Repeat Offender**|If a convict reoffends in the same way (**especially** if they are blatantly being annoying on purpose or clearly doesn't care), they may receive a harsher punishment. A permabrig sentence isn't out of the question (at the discretion of security's leaders) if someone is constantly making security arrest them.|Additional brig time, usually up to and including doubling of their last sentence. Use common sense for this. Permabrigging until they agree to compromise isn't out of the question for multiple repeats.|
|**Aiding and Abetting**|Knowingly assisting a criminal is a crime. This is including but not limited to: Interfering with an arrest, stealing a prisoner in transit, breaking them out, harboring them to hide them from security, healing up someone shooting security, etc.|Up to and including the same sentence as the person they aided.|
|**Escaping from Confinement**|Escaping from a brig sentence is an immediate timer reset.|Sentence timer reset.|

## Contraband Policy

When dealing with contraband laws, intent and reasons provided for having something should be taken into account.
Each section contains examples, but not the absolute list of what is considered contraband. Security is allowed to interpret as needed.
- If someone does anything bad with said contraband, they are obviously charged for that too. Getting found with a powersink might not be a permabriggable offense, but being suspected of using it sure is!
- Contraband is allowed inside certain departments. e.g. chemistry having narcotics for so-claimed research purposes without distribution, science having dangerous gear inside (which they legally acquired), etc. Running around the halls with it in open display, is another case.
- Provided the correct reasoning, contraband may be excused - Having weapons out in an emergency like a shocktrooper boarding, utilizing chemicals as stimulants in emergencies/times of need. For these cases, the contraband policy is more aimed at passing things out willy-nilly.
- Prior permission may be sought from whomever is in charge of security to have permits for these items provided valid reasoning.

### Level One

Devices considered disruptive and mildly harmful to possess without reasoning.
- Butcher knives outside of the kitchen
- Running aroud in high grade armor outside of emergencies (cargo passed out SWAT suits again!)
- High grade narcotics like methamphetamine, crank, bath salts, etc being distributed.
- Space lube and similarly disruptive chemicals. People spamming "cheese" reactions everywhere, etc etc.
- Stolen technology disks
- Low level and non weaponized slime cores
- Unmarked "floor pills".

### Level Two

Devices which are dangerous to possess without reasoning.
- Blatantly mislabelled chemicals/medicine
- Poisoned food, similar
- Guns
- Stunbatons
- Harmful or unmarked low-yield grenades (small explosives, etc, not falling into level three)
- The CE's PDA password
- Dangerous melee weapons the user has no need of (energy cutlass, spears, etc).

### Level Three

Devices which are highly dangerous to the crew as a whole to possess without authorization.
A scientist having a TTV outside of science for example, still counts under this unless they are strictly transporting it from place to place.
- High yield explosives
- Dangerous, militarized grenades ("Hellfoam", gaseous incendiaries, biological/chemical foam, etc far beyond a small explosive/some hot air)
- Theft of the Nuclear Authentication Disk, or worse, somehow having an actual nuke
- Upload boards/circuits
- Syndicate contraband clearly used to kill, with examples being the iconic energy sword, .357 revolvers, power fists, etc
- Power sinks, similar mass-sabotage devices
- Spells like Disintegrate
- Harmful magical tomes and artifacts (heretic blades, tomes, living hearts, etc)
