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Comment by office_drone | Hacker News Reader

This is misleading. The river has personhood according to a municipality with a population of ~7000.

The Canadian legal system has made no such recognition.

Ok, we've replaced "the law" with "local law" in the title above.

Technically its probably still incorrect (ianal). Municipalities cannot make any local law they want. All law making authority has to be delegated to them by the provincial government. Band councils are a bit more juridsictionally complex, but i imagine this is beyond their authority too.

Municipal government making a law outside of their authority has the same effect as if you or i declared a law.

Why?

Because the constitution says so.

(Or more specificly, the constitution doesn't mention municipal governments so they dont have instrinsic rights, and all their powers come from the laws creating them. They definitely do not have the power to issue letters patent or anything of the sort)

Because Quebec uses the French civil law system and that doesn't allow cities to make their own laws?

You can always make your own laws.

Whether or not anyone else is willing to go along with it is another matter. Making a law does not automatically compel others to accept it as their law. Indeed, those who believe in the French civil law system, which describes the majority of Quebec residents, are not likely to accept laws that are made outside of that framework.

But they might. The only thing that would try to stop it is other people, but if those other people are also on board then anything is possible.

While you are technically correct that if you overthrow the government you can make any laws you want, it seems unlikely that applies to this situation.

The government isn't something that exists off to the side. It is literally just the people. The laws in force are simply what the people choose to recognize.

Indeed, Quebec tradition ensures that most people will choose to recognize the laws crafted under the given framework and not beyond. But they can also choose to look beyond it if they so wish. Of course, they don't have to either.

Let's someone in that city punches the river and get put in jail by the local cops for battery, what do you think would happen?

I encourage you to watch Fargo Season 5 which just finished. The bad guy is basically just that, the sheriff of a small town that doesn't recognize the authority of the U.S. federal government.

Let's say someone posted explicit nude photos of Magpie on the Internet without her consent. Because CBC just did exactly that (see the link, if you're into revenge porn).

What do think will happen? The answer is nothing, because ain't nobody taking this law declaring Magpie a person seriously. You can create all the laws you want, but they don't mean anything if nobody else is willing to recognize them. Government isn't something off to the side. It's just the people.

> It is literally just the people. The laws in force are simply what the people choose to recognize.

We're the remenant of the british empire. The law is not the people. The law flows from the King & parliment, not some we the people BS.

Ultimately laws are enforced by people with guns. You can try to look beyond a bullet from a gun, but that usually doesn't go well.

So what you're saying is that it's just the people? A king is only as powerful as his subjects are loyal.

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