Pretty much anyone in an adeptus or of high enough status has immunity from local planetary laws and customs (even this isn't perfect defense with the shoot first ask questions later and the innocence proves nothing mindsets of the setting) but no one is above the laws of the Imperium. However it would be a political and bureaucratic nightmare to go after particular people. It can even be tricky for Inquisitors to take down some people without suffering political backlash of some sort.

Also immunity wouldn't mean anything to a fanatical cleric with a flamer who thinks you are a heretic so why would it mean anything to a fanatical arbitrator with a shotgun who thinks you are a criminal. The 40k universe does not come across to me as a place where yelling "you can't do this I have legal immunity" would do any good when facing down an official of any major organization that is armed, fanatical and thinks you are guilty of something.

An armoured man covered in gore steps out of the burning cathedral. When the [fanatical cleric with a flamer who thinks you are a heretic] and his soldiers accost him, he simply claims diplomatic immunity in the name of the feared Inquisition and waits for a few days in custody until he is freed by a mysterious benefactor.

A terrifyingly augmented Magos cuts down every worker of plant 421-75-9, accusing them of Tech-Heresy. do you really think a single Arbitrator will dare threaten or kill such an obviously important personage?

No. They'll just get him to a trial and get rid of the problem by passing up their chain of command - a process that will let their "victim" leverage his own immunity and get his own side involved. Voila!

Remember that the horribly convoluted Imperium will always help - and that anyone with Immunity has enough resources to avoid the "summary execution" side of things for the few hours necessary to leverage his immunity.

A terrifyingly augmented Magos cuts down every worker of plant 421-75-9, accusing them of Tech-Heresy. do you really think a single Arbitrator will dare threaten or kill such an obviously important personage?

No. They'll just get him to a trial and get rid of the problem by passing up their chain of command - a process that will let their "victim" leverage his own immunity and get his own side involved. Voila!

Remember that the horribly convoluted Imperium will always help - and that anyone with Immunity has enough resources to avoid the "summary execution" side of things for the few hours necessary to leverage his immunity.

Since arbitrator/Enforcer/PDF soldier No. 35 never saw a magos of his damned live, yep. He would shoot with all he's got on the towering tentacular monstrositycovered in blood that gets in his face.

That's not for nothing that modern day police enforcement has got orders that everyone must adhere to or else they get killed. Not sure the arbites and the local police in 40k all have got that kind of safety for not shooting "friendlies".

Arbitrators apply Imperial Law and Imperial Law isn't just to the adeptus, but to everyone in the Imperium. Hell, it's like saying "Hey, you're an outcast that never lived in the imperium, so you can shoot imperial personae without me acting". Its a question of jurisdiction: if you touch the subject of Arbites protection and jurisdiction, whoever you are, you'll get them after you.

Of course, as has been said a few times either by myself or Skarsnik, there is political power at play in theses things, as much (and a little more) than there can be in our modern democracies, but that's all.

Have you guys read the splat book for the Aribites in first edition? If not, very much worth it, loaded with great seeds for adventure and interesting tools and scenarios as well as great character expansions to build off of. The Book of Judgement. Worth the buy.

But my understanding of Arbites is they are very similar (since they are based off of) Judge Dredd. Technically they have authority over anyone breaking the Imperial law and the 1.0 book gives several examples of when or why they intervene. One such example was a gang was murdering each other in some petty gang war, the Arbite might find it revolting but does nothing to stop it, if one of the bullets from the gang war hits a lowly office clerk of any branch who was simply carrying scrolls to a building, the Arbiter is now behooved to judge and punish.

It gets fickle where and when the exact jurisdiction kicks in. As other pointed out prior, it can be stretched or hindered based on politics but a Judge is nothing to scoff at. In 1.0 it makes mention that even Inquisitors sometimes had to be wary of purists Arbites, similar to how Inquisitors have to be wary of other Inquisitors.

Have you guys read the splat book for the Aribites in first edition? If not, very much worth it, loaded with great seeds for adventure and interesting tools and scenarios as well as great character expansions to build off of. The Book of Judgement. Worth the buy.

But my understanding of Arbites is they are very similar (since they are based off of) Judge Dredd. Technically they have authority over anyone breaking the Imperial law and the 1.0 book gives several examples of when or why they intervene. One such example was a gang was murdering each other in some petty gang war, the Arbite might find it revolting but does nothing to stop it, if one of the bullets from the gang war hits a lowly office clerk of any branch who was simply carrying scrolls to a building, the Arbiter is now behooved to judge and punish.

It gets fickle where and when the exact jurisdiction kicks in. As other pointed out prior, it can be stretched or hindered based on politics but a Judge is nothing to scoff at. In 1.0 it makes mention that even Inquisitors sometimes had to be wary of purists Arbites, similar to how Inquisitors have to be wary of other Inquisitors.

I really loved the descriptions of the various crimes and their punishments in that book. Very enjoyable.

Have you guys read the splat book for the Aribites in first edition? If not, very much worth it, loaded with great seeds for adventure and interesting tools and scenarios as well as great character expansions to build off of. The Book of Judgement. Worth the buy.

Maybe for the fluff, but the equipment section is pretty broken...

Have you guys read the splat book for the Aribites in first edition? If not, very much worth it, loaded with great seeds for adventure and interesting tools and scenarios as well as great character expansions to build off of. The Book of Judgement. Worth the buy.

Maybe for the fluff, but the equipment section is pretty broken...

Yeah, I was actually really disapointed in the gear list. But the elite advances, some of the new skills and talents were really cool and fun. Especially the section dedicated to helping the GM and player run a court for arbiters to prosecute or defend a suspect. Overall, it was an awesome read, but you're correct, too much focus on poisons and other little things like that.

Also remember in DH1 there were the Mortiurge, Aribities who handle the "problem" cases of law and order and handle the Judgement themselves making sure the evidence shows them right.

That Magos or Cardinal who you can't arrest, well they might get taken out by person or people unknown

Pretty much anyone in an adeptus or of high enough status has immunity from local planetary laws and customs (even this isn't perfect defense with the shoot first ask questions later and the innocence proves nothing mindsets of the setting) but no one is above the laws of the Imperium. However it would be a political and bureaucratic nightmare to go after particular people. It can even be tricky for Inquisitors to take down some people without suffering political backlash of some sort.

Also immunity wouldn't mean anything to a fanatical cleric with a flamer who thinks you are a heretic so why would it mean anything to a fanatical arbitrator with a shotgun who thinks you are a criminal. The 40k universe does not come across to me as a place where yelling "you can't do this I have legal immunity" would do any good when facing down an official of any major organization that is armed, fanatical and thinks you are guilty of something.

An armoured man covered in gore steps out of the burning cathedral. When the [fanatical cleric with a flamer who thinks you are a heretic] and his soldiers accost him, he simply claims diplomatic immunity in the name of the feared Inquisition and waits for a few days in custody until he is freed by a mysterious benefactor.

A terrifyingly augmented Magos cuts down every worker of plant 421-75-9, accusing them of Tech-Heresy. do you really think a single Arbitrator will dare threaten or kill such an obviously important personage?

No. They'll just get him to a trial and get rid of the problem by passing up their chain of command - a process that will let their "victim" leverage his own immunity and get his own side involved. Voila!

Remember that the horribly convoluted Imperium will always help - and that anyone with Immunity has enough resources to avoid the "summary execution" side of things for the few hours necessary to leverage his immunity.

Using the Inquisition in a discussion of law in the imperium is a bad example considering, on paper at least, the inquisition can pretty much ignore all the rules anyway. However, I would say it depends. Did the gore covered man have proof of inquisition authority or that those he killed were heretics, does he immediately drop his weapons and surrender or does he try to leave because he has better things to do than jump through hoops to get his identity confirmed? Might just be easier to kill the priest and go about his business. How fanatical, zealous and quick to anger is the responding priest, did the gore soaked man's actions desecrate the temple he was in by spilling blood there, how much power/respect/renown did the people he killed have within the local ministorum? I think depending on the personalities involved and how they each choose to respond to the situation it could very easily turn into a fire fight.

If the plant was completely an ad mech run facility then no because tech heresy in an ad mech facility is the ad mech's problem. Its their right to discipline their own workers however they see fit as long as productivity can be reasonably restored and there is some evidence to explain the production drop. I doubt the arbites would even be contacted as it would be an internal matter. Murder of citizens is not arbites business most of the time anyway unless it interferes with the tithe or threatens the world in some greater way or involves the death of adeptus personnel. If the plant is not ad mech owned and contributes to the tithe or is operated by another adeptus then most definitely the arbites would get involved and would also certainly have the right to shoot that tech priest if the tech priest doesn't surrender immediately and/or provide proof of the supposed tech heresy. Also if they have reason to respond at all I'm pretty sure the arbites would send more than one officer to deal with something capable of slaughtering dozens if not hundreds of people and therefore very likely would be led by a judge or Marshal of high enough influence to say screw keeping the psycho tech priest alive. If we are talking about a minor plant privately owned by a noble or trade house then local law enforcement would respond. Again detainment would be the goal and in this case might be passed to the ad mech or the arbites for investigation since adeptus personnel are meant to be somewhat above local law and custom but if the magos refused or was hostile they would be obligated to try to stop him as the assumption would be that he was lying and was actually some kind of traitor or criminal.

In all these situations there might be fallout from killing the Magos/inquisition agent especially if evidence is found that those they killed were actually heretics like they claimed but there could also be fallout from letting them just leave since there is no way for the officers to know if he was telling the truth. What happens if that Magos was just insane or was some kind of heretek sowing chaos and destruction and he keeps doing it and nobody stops him simply because everytime he says he's a magos. Traitors and madmen would tear the imperium down in days if arbitrators were fearful of shooting first and asking questions later.

They are equipped with less lethal weaponry - Anyone remember the webber gun from Rogue Trader? And shock mauls as well as sidearms.

Most baddies will be brought up on charges but some need to be interrogated rather than executed - How are you going to find out whats going on if you just shoot the foot soldiers of the Mr Big's?

Im pretty sure they'd have discretion over low level crimes - posession of personal use narcotics etc

Pfshh, that's what you have Amputator rounds for. Shoot first, ask later if the criminal scum hasn't died from blood loss .

no-ones mentioned Legacy with Shira Calpurnia

that one is loaded with jurisdiction questions

As interpreted by a single author, who seems to disagree with codex fluff on occasion.

On the other hand, I think that writer was actually a contributor to DH's Book of Judgement, so perhaps his interpretation could at least be considered the "DH default"?

As interpreted by a single author, who seems to disagree with codex fluff on occasion.

On the other hand, I think that writer was actually a contributor to DH's Book of Judgement, so perhaps his interpretation could at least be considered the "DH default"?

Somewhat problematic, actually.

Broadly, a lot of the elements defined as being "how the Arbites work" in the novels were reduced to being "this is how the Arbites work in the Calixis sector" in the Book of Judgement (in spite of the novels having nothing to do with the Calixis Sector). Consequently, there's a gap between the two depictions.

Arbites always reminded me of more aggressive military police where everyplace they're stationed is surrounded by hostiles. They have a specific role in keeping the security and interests/resources of their government safe, but everything else is none of their business. When they have to investigate stuff outside their mandate, they have to tread politics very carefully.

Other than that...Judge Dredd away!