Are there any good sources for this?

Even the smallest Imperial corvette has a crew of at least 20,000 - 25,000 on average. Now, I've always assumed that this is the active crew, not accounting for various other people with permanent residence, such as young children, illegals, maybe some merchants that may not be integral to operations, etc - so let's add at least another 2000 or so to that.

This is a lot of people. In our world of million-sized cities, it is easy to forget that this is a sizeable city, with it's own infrastructure, even if it's cramped. Thousands of people, living together in what I assume to be close-knit societies, complete with some kind of schools, at least small-scale industry, waste-processing plants, maybe even self-sustaining ecosystems capable of creating a stable nutrient supply and so on.

So what about the long arm of the law? Let's assume the baseline Imperial Rogue Trader for a moment, even though even pirates must have some kind of basic judicial or system of arbitration. Clearly, Rogue Traders are allowed to skirt the law of the Imperium for several reasons. They are allowed to have at least limited contact with xenos, deal with archeotech, establish untithed colonies, even transgress against those men and women who are not under the direct jurisdiction of the Imperium, even if the Imperium claims jurisdiction over all of man - basically, if there's no Courthouse and no Planetary Governor, they're fresh meat - all in the interest of the Imperium in the end, of course.

But the various subjects on board a Rogue Trader vessel must surely be under the Lex Imperia, even if, as I've always assumed, the Captain, the Rogue Trader, has final arbitration.

Regardless, I'd like to hear opinions, sources or ideas on the subject. The question came to me as I was thinking of porting over some of the Dark Heresy careers to Rogue Trader and was considering the Arbitrator. But I'm entirely unsure of the Adeptus Arbites role on a Rogue Trader vessel. In my opinion, none of the Rogue Trader careers makes a clear "Head of Security" either.

Each ship as it's own law, crews of Rogue Trader ship especially develop their own culture and society

I imagine the deckmasters handle a lot of it, although the plaintiffs might get to appeal to the officers. Would Naval law be the basis of most?

Drhoz said:

Not necessarily. The ship might have decent complement of household enforcers who handle such things. In addition the background and preferences of the family of the rogue trader will influence the choice of legal system. I really doubt that a primarily mercantile house would use the strict military naval law for itself. In fact I can wager that some rogue traders play a laissez faire game with the law onboard to partake in shady activities that would otherwise be forbidden.

As an example - my group's rogue trader has the aim of converting a good portion of the ship (a Grand Cruiser with 130K souls onboard) into a city with a prominent stretch dedicated to such establishments as bordellos, drug dens and dive bars. My explorator on the other hand is a religious fanatic that follows the rules of the mechanicus (and every regulation) to the letter.

On Naval vessels around 1 in 10 Voidmen ia an armsman, fulfilling these duties (amoungst others). This is a good baseline to draw from for RTs, although individuals will customise according to whim. The new DH Law book and upcoming Hostile Aquisitions (RT) should shed light on this.

On one of my players' ships, SILVERFISH, there is a core of about a thousand arbites with their sole duty being enforcing the ship's (read: the Rogue Trader's) law. Priveleged persons like crew family and menials like the gun deck crews have different protections and rights. For example the crew family are educated, clothed and housed by the RT/His ship and enjoy a form of internal family court system. If a defendant is caught doing wrong and convicted by their courts they can appeal the decision to the RT who can vacate judgements at whim. The gun deck menials, where all new crew start unless highly skilled or needed for a role elsewhere, have no rights and are essentially slaves whom the Arbites subject to trial and execute on the spot should they disobey, riot or attempt mutiny. Retinue are exempt from arbites interference. Like any king of old the RT and his Retinue can do what they wish. The head of the arbites is a member of the Retinue or a trusted NPC appointed by the RT serving at his pleasure.

Also look up the misericord (sp?) from Dark Heresy for an excellent example of a very old ship with its own traditions and castes as well as enforcement of its own peculiar form of law.

bobh said:

I think you meant enforcers. Arbites are the galactic FBI combined with an army for settling Empire's internal conflicts. Having them watch over a ship is both beneath their station and directly harmful to RT's business.