Sort of.
This almost belongs in the über-thread, if LOTR had been written by someone else. Apparently, although it’s partially tongue-in-cheek, it can be used to illustrate existing principles of property. It seems this is not the first time literature has been used to illustrate law.
Property Law in the Lord of the Rings
Excerpt:
I don’t have the lawyer-latin chops to go to town here, but I’d think Frodo would have a good tort against Gandalf for not disclosing to Frodo his suspicions about the Ring and said ring’s adverse affects on its owner. Sure, the ring passed from Bilbo to Frodo, but Gandalf had knowledge of its defects that he didn’t disclose to Bilbo or Frodo, and certainly knew quite a bit about how harmful the Ring was that he didn’t let on, except in typically-Gandalf forbodings. I don’t think that letter to Butterbur let’s him off the hook.
Come to think of it, Butterbur better watch out for process servers, from both Gandalf and Frodo’s lawyers.
I’m just gonna sit tight and wait for** Elendil’s Heir** to chime in (too bad he’s not Isildur’s Heir…:p).
Interesting stuff. Of course a lot of the conflicts in LOTR would be covered (if at all) by the laws of war, which before the Geneva Conventions pretty much amounted to “If you can take it by conquest, go right ahead.” I don’t think Morgoth or Sauron gave much thought to anything else.
My Lord,
In our submission, the case advanced by my learned friend on behalf of his client, Mr. Gollum, fails on one key point. If I can refer your Lordship to Paragraph IV of my learned friend’s brief we find the statement: “Because Gollum’s possession of the Ring is open and notorious…”
Not only is this statement not borne out by the evidence led by my learned friend, we believe we have proven beyond a doubt that Mr. Gollum’s possession of the Ring was in fact secret and unknown. His unusual living arrangements, beneath a mountain for well over four hundred years, plus his use of the Ring for concealment purposes when foraging for little goblins (we pass over the obvious issue of goblin-cide as not appropriately dealt with in these proceedings, which deal solely with possession of property) are clear indications that Mr. Gollum went out of his way to keep his possession of the Ring secret.
As well, we would refer Your Lordship to the Proceedings of the White Council, Third Age 2953, where no less a person than Saruman the White gave his expert opinion that the Ring had been carried down the Anduin River and into the Sea, where it would rest until the ending of Middle Earth. Granted, Mr. Saruman’s motives in putting forward that position may have been questionable, but the fact is that his opinion was accepted as a reasonable explanation by some of the other members of the Council. While their opinion is not binding on this Honourable Court, we submit that it is highly persuasive evidence, by some of the wisest beings of Middle Earth, that the fate of the One Ring was unknown. This point should be taken as effective rebuttal of the allegation of open and notorious possession by Mr. Gollum.
I now turn to the issue of costs, My Lord.
Let’s get a list of the possible legal issues before we start on the specifics:
IIRC, Sauron embedded a little bit of his “essence”, or “soul”, if you will, which is why he dies when the ring is melted down. The ring was involuntarily parted with at the end of the 2nd Age. (Stolen by an invading Human/Elven Army.)
This would be like Chinese Paratroopers stealing my kidney.
Sauron wants his kidney back.
That’s just silly. The One Ring wasn’t the only one in existence; for that matter, the Three, the Seven, and the Nine weren’t the only other ones either. There had been many essays in ring-craft. Gandalf had two hard data: Bilbo’s ring turned its wearer invisible, and it seemed to lengthen life. Not being an expert in ring-lore, he probably didn’t know whether the many lesser rings had those powers, he certainly observed that Bilbo’s ring didn’t seem to do much else. He had been assured by an actual expert in ring lore that the One was lost. What exactly would he have been warning Frodo about?
Clearly Maggot didn’t care; he considered it youthful hijinks, as may be observed by his not setting the dogs on Pippin & Merry when he could have.
Yeah, there’s nothing that can’t be made better by adding lawyers… :dubious:
I must recuse myself. Having listened to the Music of the Ainur, I know how a lot of this will turn out.
In the real world, a clear distinction is made between humans and animals, so that humans have rights and duties that animals do not have. For example, humans can both murder and be murdered, while animals can do neither.
In Middle Earth, the lines are not so clear. Should elves, dwarves and hobbits be treated as having the same rights and duties as humans? Probably yes, because they seem to have at least equal mental capacity. What about orcs? Are they enough like humans, or should they be treated as animals? We’d probably need expert advice on orc psychology here. And what about the ents? Can tree-like beings be give the same legal status as humans?
Mental Image No. 1: Cute li’l chubby Hobbit Shirrif in a Tyroleon Hat with small feather serving process at the Gates of Mordor.
“Open up! Open up, I say! I know your in there! I can hear you breathing!”
Lord of the Rings: the Court Case was in the original thread, penned by little ol’ me right on the bottom of page one. 
How does Sauron’s survival impact the case? That is, was he DEAD at the time of the “theft” by Isildur? He had no heirs to make a claim on the ring. The fact that he was re-embodied by the Third Age complicates things, but if you spend a thousand years as a ghost, can you really complain of theft?
Depends - what’s the statute of limitations in 3rd age ME WRT claiming lost or unclaimed property, and does it cover the disembodied (he’s not dead - or it is arguable anyway)? I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that it is pretty long, owing to longer lifespans of some inhabitants.
At first I thought there might be a tiered system depending on the race/type of entity, but then I wondered if Middle Earth would have equal protection and all that. I guess it depends on jurisdiction…(but I’m getting in way over my head, here).
Oh, yeah, suuuure Gandalf didn’t know about the ring. “Don’t take me for some conjurer of cheap tricks!” OK, fine, lets take him at his word. He’s 2000 years old in ME, a Maia from the Undying Lands, a member of the Wise and a card-carrying member of the White Council. And he knows all about the Three, the Seven, the Nine, because, well, pretty much all the Wise do. And he is already carrying one of the Three, so its not like he’s never seen a Great Ring before, he’s a Keeper of one. And even if he didn’t know about this ring, it seems easy to make a case that he ought to have known, which carries a bit of implied liability when his competence fails and innocent mortals get hurt. Hell, he even works under no less than three assumed names, so he’s obviously a shifty fellow, so why should anyone believe him when he claims innocence?
We’ll see what the jury says. Didn’t know, my arse.
A friend of mine wrote Sauron The Musical for a SF/Fantasy convention around 20 years ago, which embodied this premise. I wonder if I can get hold of it, and permission to publish … back soon.