What exactly does the law say? Are the laws diffrent on say core world planets from that on imperial colonies? Is there one big law that rules all or more local laws like say a wild west america had in diffrent territories?

Like any big government I'm sure there are layers of laws.

Digging through older material will bring up the broad "Imperial law" as well as other local laws.

The old WEG Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters will bring up the baseline imperial penal code as it relates to the transport of goods and starship operations.The usual fair of operating a ship with an expired license, unauthorized transport of restricted goods, piracy, and so on. From minor finable transgression to the kind of thing the Empire just blows you out the airlock for and marks you as "released" in their record.

Looking at something like WEG's Planets Collection would introduce the Elrood sector, which starts getting into individual planetary laws. These can be pretty straight forward "No body armor allowed, weapons may only be carried with a permit and must be carried openly. Nonsapiant creatures must be leashed." To the more... specific "No physical contact with another being without their prior consent (The planet in question had a history of biowarfare, so it makes sense in context)."

So yes, there's a broad "Imperial Law" that covers a lot of general "big stuff" but also lots of sector and planetary laws as well. How well those laws are enforced are subject to each individual jurisdiction and it's relationship with the Empire, as well as the nature of the crime. So like the murder of a local will probably be kept on the planetary, or maybe sector level, and not make it to the Empire, or not very fast anyway. Likewise the murder of an Imperial poobah will get the Empire in a tizzy, but likely won't trickle down to the local level until after the Sheriff has already booked you for Nerf buggery locally, and happens to run your record while you await trial.

Jurisdiction is really going to come up when you start talking EotE, as players tend to get in a mess in one sector and flee to another. In this case, it'll work for a while but after some serious transgressions in a single sector the sector's Ranger office will start getting involved and sending out teams to track you down, so even leaving a single sector is no guarantee you'll avoid arrest and prosecution for local crimes. And if the Empire picks you up for something minor and runs your ID, they'll usually have no problem extraditing you back to the Poodleplap sector to stand trial for "the noodle incident."

In theory, there is probably a standard set of (no doubt complicated, convoluted and not user friendly) laws that are applied in The Empire. In practice however, these are almost certainly not applied universally. Laws don't apply to the wealthy and powerful. Harsher laws are enforced against the weak and powerless. Regional Governor A says "no slavery!" and enforces those laws with relentless vigor. Regional Governor B says "No slavery" and gladly takes his cut from the cartels to look the other way. Vader says the law is whatever the F he wants it to be.

TL;DNR - it's whatever serves the story and makes sense at the time.

local law < country law < planetary law < sector law (if more than one ihnabitantale planet in a sector) < empireal law/ hutt law/ law of any other offical union that doesn't belongs to the empire

the laws can differ to social public law, military law, trading law, weaponary law,.... and and and (all those things you can imagine to make your day a hell if you ever get tingeled up in this burocracy of doom)

The farther away you went from the core worlds the more the balance can shift.

But as the friendly neightborhood penguin already mentioned:

TL;DNR - it's whatever serves the story and makes sense at the time.

I have it on good authority the penguin is neither local nor friendly...just look at the avatar....

well... may be he is cheering on his favourite ICEBALL Team: "The Southern Cross ALLSTAR Penguins" in a match vs. theire Nemesis, "The Southpole Leopard Seals"...

or he is whole heartly praying to his goddess "The Icy Fishmaid - the bringer of all delicious fish"

or may be he has a pain in the back?

Perhaps he is celebrating that the new soldier splatbook for AoR is coming out in August....

I think he's choking on a fish and his penguin society has yet to develop a universal symbol for such. So, we can't see the field of his friends stopped in place, staring at him, with blank stupefied penguin faces.

Didn't you guys notice the bib? He's definitely been slurping down some fish and krill.

He's eating a huge invisible fish. That's why the napkin is tied around his neck. He doesn't want to get any stains on his tuxedo.

I'd like to return to the topic, if you all don't mind. Personally, I don't care what people do with their fish, when they've both reached the age of consent.

Well, there are a few things to consider in different orders of magnitude.

Galaxy-wide: The Galactic Republic has existed for more than 25k years, and the Empire is its legal successor: All laws that have been passed for 25k years, and not been repealed, do technically still apply. What a mess! Just look at what England/the UK have amassed in about 800 years.

To me it looks more like a scarf than a napkin, so I also favor the sports game theory. Back to you Tom!

Thanks Tom. I think on the universal scale that exists in Star Wars, a lot of the laws are just created to deal with a specific situation. Governor needs extra money? Well looks like there is a new tax on Ryll. Need more money? Ryll is illegal now, everybody that is not a governor that is dealing with the stuff will be "released" as Ghostofman called it, unless he has letter AA23, which for some reason is very expensive and can be revoked at any time without prior notice.

Especially in the Outer Rim the "traditional" laws of the people in power (monarchy, oligarchy, democracy) are in effect as long as somebody important from the empire needed/wanted something for their evil purposes. So, go nuts.

Didn't you guys notice the bib? He's definitely been slurping down some fish and krill.

Oh please - that's an ascot!

How I deal with laws depends how populated the planet is. Corescant= San Francisco with death penalty, tattoien= Afghanistan with warlords.