Trial of Refusal
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A Trial of Refusal is one of the Six Trials of Combat.
The Clan Council makes many decisions and laws using an internal vote. After a vote, the council member can challenge the decision to a Trial of Refusal. A council member with a losing vote fights a member with a winning vote. The forces applied in the trial depend on the importance of the decision.
The ratio of forces involved in the trial reflects the vote. For example, if the vote was won 2:1, then the winners can field a force double that of the losers. However after the pre-trial bidding, the ratio will be closer to even. The council members involved in the trial are determined by internal bidding. The member of a losing vote with a bid lower than the rest of the members with losing votes fights in the duel with their bid. The same goes for the members with the winning votes.
When the ComStar vessel Outbound Light was captured before the invasion of the Inner Sphere, a member of the ComStar crew asked what prevented a council member from casting a vote on the side they disagreed with if they knew it would lose so that, when they demanded a Trial of Refusal, the council member could bid an extremely low force that would definitely win the bidding but could not possibly win the trial. The suggestion that a warrior might consider this course of action was met with shock and frozen silence. One Loremaster refused any further interviews, and another prohibited the comstar officers from any contact with the warriors of his Clan. Such a breach of honor is clearly unthinkable.
Absorption Right
An interesting variation of the Trial of Refusal is the Absorption Right. The Grand Council can vote to allow one Clan to absorb another, but only by a unanimous vote (excepting the Clan being Absorbed). The council then determines which Clan will benefit from the Absorption. Naturally, the Clan to be Absorbed would demand a Trial of Refusal. The Clan chosen to absorb the weaker Clan may also be challenged by others in a Trial of Refusal even before battling the Clan to be Absorbed. The resulting trials can last for years. Clan Wolf won the right to Absorb Clan Widowmaker in 2834, for example, but had to defeat three other Clans for that right.
The Absorbing clan is usually much stronger in assets than it was before, but usually militarily much weaker due to the difficulty in subduing an entire clan, not to mention after winning several Trials of Refusal before that.