The Star Wars universe is definitely a world of might makes right. I’ve not seen very much in the way of law enforcement officers, save from New Republic soldiers meting out justice when one of their own is killed.
Bounty hunting, bringing people in alive or dead, is treated as a legitimate business.
I know that Ahsoka was put on trial by the Jedi Council and removed from the Order when she was thought to have committed an act of terrorism that cost lives, but acts like this seem to be the exception. Is there a police force in Star Wars? Do people go on trial for murder?
The civilized planets like Coruscant, Naboo, or places like Cloud City have security forces in charge of keeping their laws. Places like Tatooine, Endor, or Jakku are the wild west pretty much.
The Old Republic, Galactic Empire, and New Republic had overall laws but they were mainly only upheld on planets that they completely controlled like those named above and mostly about things like spice, slave trading and cloning.
As noted, a lot of the action takes place on planets that are lawless frontiers, or outright wildernesses. A lot of it takes place during the reign of the Empire, which was a fascist government that suspended a lot of laws that it found inconvenient, and which didn’t have a lot of concern over due process. And the prequel era stuff is mostly following Jedi protagonists, who are a legitimate legal authority under the laws of the Old Republic.
As a casual viewer who is gradually watching more of the animated shows …
Obvious and understood that the Emperor was objectively evil … but for citizens living in the galaxy was life under Sith rule better or worse than after the Rebellion side was in control? What about the rule was so bad to justify rebellion other than some heavy handed but ineffectual security personnel?
Would Jedi rule have been a better world on the ground?
Listen, don’t mention Alderaan; I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right. So, it’s all forgotten now, and let’s hear no more about it.
Well, the general suspension of democracy, of course. Brutal religious persecution. Multiple genocides. The institution of race-based chattel slavery. Also, you notice how everyone on the bridge of a Star Destroyer is a human? That’s not an accident.
In real life, the bounty hunter profession survives but is more frequently called bail bondsman. The profession itself is about making sure fugitives who skipped bail appear in court - no different than a sheriff re-arresting an escapee. Even back in the wild west, the bounty didn’t technically give carte blanch to kill someone - they weren’t hit jobs; however just like any other arrest, you are allowed to act in self defense. Unless witnesses were present…
So when Lord Vader placed a bounty on the crew of the Millenium Falcon in the second movie, remember that they were fugitives from the law, as Lord Vader had personally witnessed their criminal acts (such as armed insurrection) at the battle of Yavin and more immediately at the Battle of Hoth. Notice that Lord Vader gave the order to capture the rebels (“I want that ship”), and did not actually kill them once they were captured at Bespin.
Given that Lucas based a lot of the costumes on Japan, got a lot of inspiration from The Hidden Fortress, and made Yoda talk in Japanese sentence structure, it’s probably reasonable to assume that he got some aspects from feudal-era Japan.
Officially, there was a fairly decent criminal code in Japan and something like a court. But, given the accounts that I’ve read of Samurai simply walking up and chopping peoples’ heads off, I suspect that it largely only applied to the people in the Samurai class and less so to commoners (especially, in more out of the way locations). I would expect that it was more like European feudal times and how they treated villeins, serfs, etc.
And in fact, when we’re told the reason why The Mandalorian is pursuing a particular quarry, it’s usually because they’ve skipped bail. Though he also brings in some who owe someone money, or some for whom the reason isn’t specified.
One assumes that, in the eyes of the law, the guild officially only does the bail-bond work, but everyone knows that they’ll take any job you’re willing to pay for.
My impression was that many of those things were done as war crimes. And horrific war crimes, including genocide as group punishment were committed. As part of war and zero tolerance for rebellion or any spark of.
But the hypothetical is if there was no rebellion and no reaction to it? Suppression of democracy yeah but even here on earth we some who care less about democracy than stability safety and prosperity.
Was the race based chattel slavery done as a matter of group punishment as a war crime or inherent?
What would that universe be like with Jedi power unopposed as “peacekeepers”?
The Empire supported unabashed human supremacy. So, as long as you were human and willing to stay squeaky clean, you were likely to be fine . . . unless you fell afoul of the various local planetary governments or overlords. Who often set their own rules, above and beyond the rules of the Empire.
Like IRL, if you had enough money or influence, laws were . . . fluid. Because the people enforcing said laws were often benefiting from the status quo, and had no reason to enforce the laws to their own detriment. As an example, in the Vader comic, he raids an Imperial ship carrying confiscated credits in order to fund his own agenda (leaving out more spoilers).
How broadly are you defining rebellion? In the Rebels cartoon, Ezra’s parents were disappeared for running an anti-Imperial radio broadcast. They weren’t planting bombs or shooting Stormtroopers, just criticizing the government. At one point early in the formation of the Empire, Tarkin put down a peaceful, pro-democracy protest by landing a Star Destroyer on them.
The thing about authoritarian governments in general is that people with wealth and power get to do whatever they want. So, you’ve got wealthy Coruscant industrialists bribing Imperial troops to “remove” troublesome natives from valuable land, so they can come in and strip mine it. Or you have imperial governors imposing ruinous taxes on their populations, above the normal Imperial taxes, and just pocketing them, and the Empire doesn’t really care so long as their cut isn’t affected. And that’s before you get the straight-up comic book villain stuff, like kidnapping people for medical experiments, or using civilian vessels for target practice just for the lulz.
The Star Wars films are part Western, part Akira Kurosawa samurai film, and part classic WWII war film. So the action tends to take place in wilderness, frontier outposts, failed states, and disputed territories where the rule of law is subject to the whim of local warlords, crime bosses, or Imperial garrisons that largely operate autonomously under their local governor or “moff”. Mostly as an interesting backdrop for gunfights, lightsaber duels, and space dogfights. The main law enforcement-like activities we see deal with piracy, smuggling, political terrorism, espionage, bounty hunting, etc.
Naboo’s disastrous trade negotiations not withstanding.
Maybe Disney+ will come out with a police/legal procedural show about working lawyers on Coruscant or Corellia.
Things at the level of China in Hong Kong (eg newspapers shut down and editors jailed) are bad but seem less than what I’d expect as epitome of evil. More traditional autocracy.
And war crimes are all too common by many governments.
These bits are a different class of loss of basic rights. Thanks.
I asked here because it sure seems that there is little much better on the ground in the worlds we see after the Rebels have won. Still pretty much might makes right fiefdoms and criminal gangs running the shows. But not centrally sanctioned genocides or systematic discrimination.
No problem, the issue is that a lot of details are buried in all the other, non-movie media, and sometimes, just looking at the ‘core’ works, it’s hard to make a really fair evaluation.
One of the fun things, for example, in playing Star Wars - the Old Republic MMO, is that you can have members of the Republic who are fully dark side / evil, and members of the Sith Empire who are light side / good. You don’t have to play into the easy archtypes.
The greatest issue with the Empire, in many ways is Palpatine. Depending on the version you want (some previously cannon but no longer, and lots of dispute due to the hate shown in the last movie…) the Empire is morally / psychically / intellectually dependent upon him for unity and direction. Even after the loss of the second Death Star, the Empire had the resources and power to credibly control the Core… but failed.
Much like the historical Sith Empire, it fell apart into constant infighting for power and control, with multiple admirals, officers and the like each trying to direct the remnants. While the Rebellion / New Republic had factional issues of it’s own, it had at least a minimal capacity for compromise. I think it’s clear though that the New Republic would eventually have the same gridlock issues seen in the prequels. (or in the current US gov’t for that matter).
Still - while the Old / New Republics are deeply flawed, and the Jedi of the Old Republic were absolutely part of the problem and not the solution, they generally operated with what the Western World would consider as ‘good’ intentions, while the Empire was about power and control at all costs, with fear as the first, rather than last choice.
Now I have only seen for original three movies (aside from a scene here or there by accident), but based upon American history the reason for the lawlessness in that universe is a lack of mustaches. ALL of our best lawmen had big bushy mustachios; Bat Masterson, Seth Bullock, Wyatt Earp and his brothers for example. Even Teddy Roosevelt had a mustache from when he was police commissioner in New York and Wild Bill (who wheeled and shot his own deputy when he heard a revolver cock behind him) was well known for his upper lip hair.
If more (any??) characters from the Star Wars universe wore mustaches it would have been a more civilized and law abiding place.
Heck, what even is murder in a galaxy with so many species and advanced droids? Who gets to decide killing a Wookiee is murder and killing a womp rat or tauntaun or protocol droid isn’t? Don’t even get me started on clones…