As the Law Society of Second Life develops, it will study how various laws, rules and norms emerge and evolve in SL. Previous discussions included several drafts of a listing of "sources of law" affecting residents in Second Life.
I'm restating the draft sources of law-like phenomenon in SL as composed of several overlapping (not nested) sets:
First Life Law. Federal state and international law, such as the DCMA, allowing fines and imprisonment.
Second Life Law. Terms of Service and Community Standards allowing suspension or termination.
Municipal Law. Self-government protocols, like Neualtenburg's, that allow forfeiture of citizenship privileges.
Land Law. Common principles affecting transfer, occupancy and use of virtual land that allow eviction
Contracts and Instruments Law. Ways of making and enforcing agreements that allow remedies of some kind.
Tribal/family/clan norms. Mutual expectations among self-selected groups that allow peer pressure or exclusion
Social norms: Societal expectations of behavior from everyone that allow peer pressure or social ostracization.
This list may help us categorize and compare what we'll study and better find similarities and patterns. For example:
* Municipal and Land laws may be specific to a locale and have no force outside of that property.
* Contract and instruments law may be difficult to develop and enforce. There the usual issues of documentation, evidence and interpretation. There is the open issue resolving disputes and enforcing obligations of contract. If it is true that there is no law without a remedy (as some scholars contend), until effective remedies for contract breach are developed, one may ask if there *is* a "law" of contracts and instruments in SL.
RFC:
Please share your comments on this categorization.