Laws

The numbers on top of the crossing arrows refer to the number of alternative laws currently available to be enacted in that sub-category.

Laws represent legal reforms in the country creating different political, economic, and social conditions for its population. Each country always has one active law in each category. At the start of the game, all countries have laws close to the actual situation in those countries in 1836. Over the course of the game, those laws may be changed under internal or external pressure. Interest groups endorse or disapprove of various laws based on their and their leaders' ideologies. Political movements also advocate for or against changes to a country's laws. Certain diplomatic plays can change another country's laws as well.

Laws affect the country and its population in various ways, with effects ranging from a simple change in modifiers to fundamentals such as the system of governance. Each institution, such as policing and colonization, has a law category that establishes the institution and modifies its effects. The laws of the country provide the largest the amount of authority available to the player, with more authoritarian laws generally providing more authority.

Some laws may have law variants. An example is Canton System, which replaces Isolationism for China. A law variant inherits all ideological stances from its parent, but may have vastly different effects. For clarity, names of law variants are followed by names of their parent laws in parentheses when viewed in-game.

The current set of laws and potential changes to laws can be found in the politics tab.

Enacting laws[edit | edit source]

At each checkpoint, one of the 4 options (success, debate, advance, stall) happens.

Enacting a new law is a process that takes several steps.

First, a law needs support to be chosen. This requires an interest group in the current government, the ruler, or a political movement that supports the potential change. If the government is considered illegitimate (below 25  legitimacy), it is completely unable to pass any law – except those supported by a movement. If the enactment process has already started and the government then becomes illegitimate, the law makes no progress until the government's legitimacy increases.

Next, the proposed law progresses through enactment with a periodic chance for success, advancement, debate, or stalling. There are three phases of enactment. When the law has progressed through all three phases, it is officially in effect.

Law support[edit | edit source]

Support for a law can come from an interest group in  government, a political movement, or directly from the ruler's ideology. Interest groups' ideologies and their leaders' ideologies affect which laws they support along a 5-point scale from strongly oppose to strongly endorse. Interest groups support any law that is preferred over the current one; similarly, they oppose any law that is less preferred than the current one. Interest groups in government (along with movements and ruler's ideology) provide the initial success and stall chances to a law's enactment, so having more interest groups in government provides more options for laws to enact, but also makes it potentially more difficult to enact those laws unless the interest groups are ideologically aligned. Unhappy and angry interest groups in opposition also add to a law's stall chance, so it isn't always enough to simply expel an interest group from government in order to pass a law they oppose.

Aside from providing support, interest groups gain or lose approval based on current laws and proposed changes. Changes have approximately five times the effect on approval, but that effect decays over five years. Thus, a quick way to appease an unhappy or angry interest group is to propose a change to a law they approve of. Even without the intention to actually enact it, it can provide time for other effects to wear off or take place. Certain law groups multiply the effect of law changes on approval, but this is always capped at ±20.

Similarly, political movements gain or lose  activism based on current laws and proposed changes.

Enactment process[edit | edit source]

Once a law is chosen for enactment, it begins progressing towards a checkpoint. Enactment can be cancelled at any time, and cancelling a law change prevents attempting that specific law again for two years. The default time between checkpoints is 100 days, and this is increased or decreased by various factors, such as  legitimacy or surplus  authority. Certain law groups have longer base times.

At each checkpoint, one of the four things can happen: Success, Advance, Debate, or Stall.

• Success means that the law progresses to the next phase; if the law is already in the final phase, it immediately comes into effect and the process ends.
• Advance triggers some kind of a positive event that usually increases success chance and sometimes offers a choice between a high increase of success chance and a medium increase in success chance plus a different bonus.
• Debate triggers an event that can be either a positive or a negative, often offering some kind of a trade-off between increasing the success chance for a price or decreasing the success chance.
• Stall triggers an event that usually reduces the success chance, sometimes with an option to take a smaller reduction and a different penalty.

During the entire progress, the law can meet a setback – something that hinders the law. If the law has three setbacks over the course of the entire process, the enactment fails, and that law cannot be proposed again for two years. Setbacks occur during enactment events or if the law reaches 0% success chance.

Interest groups in government and political movements that support the law contribute their clout and support, respectively, to the base success chance, while those who oppose it contribute to stall chance. If the ruler's ideology has a stance on the law, the ruler adds +5% to the success or stall chance. Interest groups in opposition don't contribute directly, but can join or start a movement, especially if the law change radicalizes them. Political movements that do not support the current law change may become a revolution, particularly when supported by angry interest groups and radicals.

The chance for advance starts at twice the chance for success minus the stall chance, and the chance for debate is the difference between the other three options and 100%. If the chance of debate would go to less than 0%, instead an end-of-discussion factor is applied to scale the lower of success or stall chances so the sum chance remains 100%.

When a law progresses from one phase to the next, all accumulated effects on enactment success – both positive and negative – carry over to the next phase. Therefore, it is often better to choose a +5% Enactment Chance out of an early event, which is effectively a +5% bonus to each of the three phases instead of immediately progressing a single phase.

Imposing laws[edit | edit source]

Overlords can impose laws on their non-autonomous subjects, starting their enactment as usual. It must be possible for the subject to enact the law in order for the overlord to impose it. The imposed law goes through all regular enactment and may fail or cause a revolution as normal. Puppets, Colonies, Personal Unions, and Chartered Companies receive a +10% success chance for imposed laws.

Certain power bloc identities or principles allow the power bloc leader to impose certain laws on the members of their bloc.

Imposing a law starts a journal entry for the imposed country, with an option to begin or refuse enacting the imposed law. While the journal is active, no other law can begin enactment, and the imposed law can only begin enactment through the journal entry's buttons.

id

Foreign Legal Imposition

Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.8.

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Our [overlord] [imposer country] has declared it imperative that we enact [imposed law].

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Visibility conditions: Only while active
Activated by: Law imposition	Effects when activated: None
Entry buttons: Accept Imposition Accept the imposition and begin enacting the law proposed by [imposer country]. Visible if: Has not rejected enacting [imposed law] Enabled if: Is not already enacting [imposed law] Effects: Cancels any other active law enactment Begins enacting [imposed law] Agreeable to Law ImpositionAgreeable to Law ImpositionLaw enactment modifier +10% Enactment success chance Enactment cannot be manually cancelled Reject Imposition Abandon this venture and notify [imposer country] that you will not be adhering to their wishes after all. Visible if: Has not rejected enacting [imposed law] Effects: Cancels enactment and imposition of [imposed law] Lose −50 relations with [imposer country] If a subject of [imposer country], gain +10  liberty desire Otherwise, if in a power bloc lead by [imposer country], the bloc loses −10  cohesion Pro-country lobbies towards [imposer country] lose −2  appeasement
Completion conditions: [Imposed law] is enacted	Effects when completed: Gain +20 relations ±1  Appeasement for lobbies targeting [imposer country] Gain Enacted an Imposed LawEnacted an Imposed Law(Decaying) country modifier +10  Legitimacy for 5 years
Invalidation conditions: Either: Rejected enactment of [imposed law] [Imposer country] can no longer impose laws on this country	Effects when invalid: Cancel enactment of [imposed law]

Law categories[edit | edit source]

There are three major categories of laws with several sub-categories in each, which then contain between three and nine specific laws.

Many laws require a specific technology to be unlocked, and many require certain other laws to be enacted or not enacted – for example, it is not possible to enact Multiculturalism while the country practices Slave Trade. A few laws are unique to a certain culture, and typically have a set of very specific requirements. If a country has a unique law, it will replace a specific other law. For example the Chinese Canton System is unique to Han Chinese countries that own Western Guangdong and replaces Isolationism.

Power structure laws[edit | edit source]

• Governance Principles – The foundational principles and authority by which the country is governed. Determines who the Head of State is.
• Distribution of Power – How political power is distributed. Determines who the Head of State is accountable to.
• Citizenship – Extending the rights of citizenship.
• Caste Hegemony – Erasure of rights among members of society based on the British Indian Caste System.
• Church and State – The relationship between physical and spiritual governors.
• Bureaucracy – How the country is administered.
• Army Model – How the army is organized and regulated.
• Internal Security – Keeping the country's affairs in order.

Economy laws[edit | edit source]

• Economic System – The fundamental principles of the economy.
• Trade Policy – Laws governing trade and the exchange of goods across borders.
• Land Reform – Laws governing the ownership and exploitation of land
• Taxation – How the state raises revenue by taxing its citizens.
• Colonization – The stance on establishing colonies to supplant and conquer decentralized nations.
• Policing – The existence and priorities of the national police force.
• Education System – Laws about the government's involvement (or lack thereof) in providing education.
• Health System – Laws about the government's involvement (or lack thereof) in providing healthcare for its citizens.

Human rights laws[edit | edit source]

• Free Speech – Laws regulating free speech and right to public assembly.
• Labor Rights – The rights of workers.
• Children's Rights – The rights and protections afforded to children.
• Rights of Women – The legal regulations of the fairer sex.
• Welfare – Government assistance for the income deprived.
• Migration – Controlling the flow of people.
• Slavery – People as property.

References[edit | edit source]

1. To update page content see reference files in folder /Victoria 3/game/common/laws:
   1. Each law type has its own txt file (named after the law type).
2. To update flavor text see reference files in folder /Victoria 3/game/localization/english:
   1. For laws flavor text see reference file laws_l_english.yml.
   2. For modifiers flavor text see reference file modifiers_l_english.yml.
   3. For institutions flavor text see reference file institutions_l_english.yml.
   4. For inventions flavor text see reference file inventions_l_english.yml.