Home Defense Act

Passed in 2906 by the Parliament of the Free Worlds League, the Home Defense Act was a legal nullification which allowed a province to retain up to 75 percent of its military forces within its borders. While intended to improve regional defense, the act led to the rise of regional power at the expense of the Captain-General and effectively shattered any attempt at large scale action by the FWLM.

Overview[edit]

Ironic given its divisive effect on relations between the Captain-General and Parliament, the Act came into being under Elisabeth Marik, one of the few Captains-General who could be said to have a harmonious relationship with that body. [1] [2] [3]

Thanks to these good relations, Elisabeth was able to order a number of large scale offensives and deep raids, focused more on tying up the forces of Capellan Confederation to give League worlds on the boards respite than to capture new territory. While the provincial units used were sent with the blessing of the principalities involved, as the raids continued without a clear end both those principalities that did and didn't take part began to worry that the conscriptions left the homeworlds of the units exposed to attack and sought official protection against it. The act was a brief and vaguely worded two page proclamation asserting that a province designated by Parliament as being under immediate threat of military attack could keep up to 75 percent of its provincial forces in its borders as garrison troops and refuse any troop request by the Captain-General involving those forces. Elisabeth saw this as only a minor concession and actively campaigned for the legislation to pass.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]


While Elisabeth never had cause to feel the Act's sting, the Captains-General that followed her had cause to curse the Home Defense Act as a crippling obstacle to their authority. [1] Much like the vaguely worded Resolution 288, the Home Defense Act was often stretched to its limits with no clear details of what level of threat of attack was required to invoke it, the only requirement being the principality that sought to invoke it had to muster a voting majority in Parliament to state a threat. For those internal enemies of House Marik, the Act was a useful tool to hamstring Captains-General with whose policies they disagreed. Virtual every principality invoked the Act at least once, but most notably Dame Catherine Humphreys of the Duchy of Andurien declared in 3014 she would automatically invoke the act upon any call from the Captain-General for her troops to stage offensive operations, doing so for her entire reign.[2] [3] [5]

While being the principality who most used the act, the secessionist Duchy of Andurien also led to the Act finally being repealed. With the Andurien Secession and an assassin's bomb serving as the trigger for Duncan Marik succession to the role of Captain-General and the ill-fate war against the Duchy, relations between Duncan and the Parliament were poor with a increasing threat of civil unrest among those provinces still in the League. With the shock reappearance of Thomas Marik in late 3035, Parliament greeting his miraculous reappearance with joy, allowing Thomas to push through the Addendum to the Incorporation, which he wrote and had passed with little objection in 3037. The Addendum gave him the power to bypass the formality of seeking approval from the League's provincial governments except in matters deemed "culturally significant" to a particular region. However, Clause 9 of the Addendum states that "the Captain-General can veto any law that interferes with the will of the Captain-General while Resolution 288 is in effect." One of his first acts was to repeal the Home Defense Act, allowing a unified focus in the FWLM to defeat the Andurien forces, later serving as one of the cornerstones of his restructuring of the League military. [6] [5]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 40 "The Great Compromiser"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Field Manual: Free Worlds League, p. 8 "Resolution 288"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Handbook: House Marik, p. 41 "History of the Free Worlds League - Third Succession War"
  4. Handbook: House Marik, p. 40 "History of the Free Worlds League - Third Succession War - The Home Defense Act (Enacted 2906, Repealed 3037): Key Points"
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Handbook: House Marik, p. 96 "Free Worlds League Military - The Home Defense Act"
  6. Field Manual: Free Worlds League, p. 10 "Crisis and Renaissance"

Bibliography[edit]