Laws

Laws

Power structure laws

Economy laws

Human rights laws

The numbers in green refer to the number of alternative laws currently available to be enacted in that sub-category.

Laws represent legal reforms in the country creating different political, economic, and social conditions for its population. Each country will at all times have one active law in each category. At the start of the game, all countries have laws close to the actual situation in those countries in 1836. Over the course of the game, many of those laws will be changed under internal or external pressure. Each interest group will either endorse or disapprove of some or all of the laws, and will potentially start movements and even revolutions to try to change the laws of the country to their liking. Specifically the law on slavery can be changed by the diplomatic play ban slavery.

Laws affect the country and its population in various ways, with effects ranging from a simple change in numbers to fundamentals such as the system of governance. Many laws will create and/or change the nature of institutions such as school system and colonization. The laws of the country defines the amount of authority available to the player, with the general rule of thumb that more authoritarian laws provides more authority.

The current set of laws and potential changes to laws can be found in the politics tab.

Enacting laws

At the checkpoint, one of the 4 options (success, debate, advance, stall) happens.

Enacting a new law is a process that takes several steps. First, a law needs support to be chosen. Either at least one interest group in the current government needs to be in favour of the law proposal or there has to be an active movement to support the law. If a government is considered illegitimate (below 15% legitimacy) they are completely unable to pass any law. If an enactment process has already started, it will make no progress at all. Next, it progresses through enactment with a periodic chance to be enacted, advanced, debated, or stalled. Finally, the law is enacted or its enactment can be abandoned. Only one law can be in enactment at a time.

Law support

Support for a law can come from an interest group in the government, a movement, or directly from the ruler's ideology. Interest groups' ideologies and their leaders' ideologies affect which laws they support along a 5-point scale from strongly disapprove to strongly approve. Interest groups support any law that is preferred over the current one; similarly they oppose any law that is less preferred over the current one. Interest groups in government (along with movements and ruler's ideology) provide the initial success and stall chances to a laws enactment, so having more interest groups in government gives more options for laws to enact, but also makes it potentially more difficult to enact those laws unless the interest groups are ideologically aligned.

Aside from providing support, interest groups gain or lose approval based on current laws and proposed changes. Changes have five times the effect on approval, but that effect decay over five years. Thus, a quick way to appease an unhappy or angry interest group is to propose a change to a law they approve of. Even without the intention to actually enact it, it can provide time for other effects to wear off or take place.

Enactment process

Once a law is chosen for enactment, it begins progressing towards a checkpoint. Enactment can be cancelled at any time, and until the first checkpoint is reached there is no penalty, but after that, cancelling a law change prevents attempting it again for a year. The default time between checkpoints is 180 days, and this is increased or decreased by various factors, such as legitimacy or surplus authority.

At each checkpoint, one of the four things can happen: Success, Advance, Debate, or Stall.

• Success means that the law has passed; it immediately comes into effect and the process ends.
• Advance triggers some kind of a positive event that usually increases success chance and sometimes offers a choice between a high increase of success chance and a medium increase in success chance plus a different bonus.
• Debate triggers an event that can be either a positive or a negative, often offering some kind of a trade-off between increasing the success chance for a price or decreasing the success chance.
• Stall triggers an event that usually reduces the success chance, sometimes with an option to take a smaller reduction and a different penalty.

Interest groups in government and movements that support the law contribute their clout and support, respectively, to Success chance, while those who oppose it contribute to Stall. Interest groups in opposition don't contribute directly, but can join or start a movement, especially if the law change radicalizes them. Angry interest groups and radicals can even threaten a revolution, demanding to pass, restore, or stop passing a law.

The chance to advance starts at twice the chance for success minus the stall chance, and the chance for debate is the difference between the other three options and 100%. If the chance of debate would go to less than 0%, instead an end-of-discussion factor is applied to scale the lower chances so the sum chance remains 100%.

Law categories

There are three major categories of laws with seven sub-categories in each, which themselves contain up to half a dozen specific law options.

Some laws require a specific technology to be unlocked, and some have other requirements – for example, it is not possible to have multiculturalism while the country practices slave trade.

Power structure laws

Main article: Power structure laws

• Governance Principles – The foundational principles and authority by which your country is governed. Determines who the Head of State is.
• Distribution of Power – How political power is distributed. Determines who the Head of State is accountable to.
• Citizenship – Extending the rights of citizenship.
• Church and State – The relationship between physical and spiritual governors.
• Bureaucracy – How your country is administered.
• Army Model – How your army is organized and regulated.
• Internal Security – Keeping your own affairs in order.

Economy laws

Main article: Economy laws

• Economic System – The fundamental principles of your economy.
• Trade Policy – Laws governing trade and the exchange of goods across borders.
• Taxation – How the state raises revenue by taxing its citizens.
• Colonization – Your stance on establishing colonies to supplant and conquer decentralized nations.
• Policing – The priorities of the national police force.
• Education System – For when the children are done with chimney sweeping chores.
• Health System – Laws about the government's involvement (or lack thereof) in providing healthcare for its citizens.

Human rights laws

Main article: Human rights laws

• Free Speech – Laws regulating free speech and right to public assembly.
• Labor Rights – The rights of workers.
• Children's Rights – The rights and protections afforded to children.
• Rights of Women – The legal regulations of the fairer sex.
• Welfare – Government assistance for the income deprived.
• Migration – Controlling the flow of people.
• Slavery – People as property.

References

1. To update page content see reference files in folder /Victoria 3/game/common/laws:
   1. Each law type has its own txt file (named after the law type).
2. To update flavor text see reference files in folder /Victoria 3/game/localization/english:
   1. For laws flavor text see reference file laws_l_english.yml.
   2. For modifiers flavor text see reference file modifiers_l_english.yml.
   3. For institutions flavor text see reference file institutions_l_english.yml.
   4. For inventions flavor text see reference file inventions_l_english.yml.