====================================================================== CFJ 892 "The words `other Rules' in the sentence: `This Rule defers to all other Rules which do not contain this sentence.' in Rule 1504, should be interpreted as meaning `Rules other than this one'." ====================================================================== Judge: favor Judgement: FALSE Eligible: Andre, Chuck, elJefe, favor, Harlequin, KoJen, Michael, Murphy, Oerjan, Steve, Swann, Vanyel, Zefram Not eligible: Caller: Blob Barred: - On hold: Morendil ====================================================================== History: Called by Blob, Thu, 16 Jan 1997 17:22:04 +1100 (EST) Assigned to favor, Tue, 21 Jan 1997 11:42:26 +0000 Judged FALSE, Tue, 21 Jan 97 08:59:20 EST Published, Wed, 22 Jan 1997 11:54:31 +0000 ====================================================================== Judgement: FALSE Reasons and arguments: I Judge this statement to be FALSE. The fuller context of the sentence is, of course: This Rule takes precedence over any Rule that would require another Player to report Score, Currency, or Blot changes which result from these penalties, or which would require a different timing for such penalties. This Rule defers to all other Rules which do not contain this sentence. The antecedant of "other" here is clearly the "any Rule" in the previous sentence. That is, the end of this Rule is of the form: This Rule takes precedence over any Rule that X. This Rule defers to all other Rules that Y. The obvious interpretation, at least to this native speaker, is that the Rule defers to all and only those Rules which Y, but do not X. There is a mild ambiguity here, in that "all other Rules" *could* be read to mean "all Rules besides this one", but that seems unnatural to me. In no reasonable context that I can construct does the word word "other" in statements of the form This Rule does X to all A's that N. This Rule does not-X to all other A's that M. seem to mean "other besides this very one" rather than "other besides the ones we just mentioned". It has been argued that the sentence This Rule defers to all other Rules which do not contain this sentence. appears in various other places in the Rules, and in those other places the phrase "other Rules" does in fact mean "other Rules than this one". I would counter that: - In most of those cases, the context is critically different, in that there is no other antecedant available available for the "other", and we are therefore left only with "this very Rule". When the antecedant *is* available, it is natural to accept it, and not look elsewhere. - In at least two other places in the Ruleset (perhaps only one at the time this CFJ was called) the same context *does* occur (see R1367/1). But the meaning of the last sentence in this case has never been tested, as far as I know, either by CFJ or by routine Game operation. So Game Custom is silent as to the interpretation of this sentence in this context. If there were complete ambiguity here, in that there were just no other way to decide which of the possible readings of "other Rules" was the correct one, we might get a wisp of weight out of this. My feeling, though, is that the ambiguity is not nearly this delicately balanced, and the wisp here is not strong enough to counteract the easy availability of the antecedant. Since "other Rules" in R1504 actually means "other Rules than the ones we just mentioned", and not "Rules other than this one", I must Judge this Statement FALSE. ====================================================================== (Caller's) Arguments: The last two paragraphs of the Rule read: This Rule takes precedence over any Rule that would require another Player to report Score, Currency, or Blot changes which result from these penalties, or which would require a different timing for such penalties. This Rule defers to all other Rules which do not contain this sentence. This final sentence was only recently added by the Virus, and is the source of the confusion. The words "other Rules" are ambiguous. They could potentially mean either "Rules other than this one" or "Rules other than those just described (in the previous paragraph)". I put it to you that either interpretation is valid, but that game custom favours the first interpretation, as evidenced by all the other infected rules. I urge the Judge to issue an Injunction to annotate this Rule appropriately, as per Rule 789. Evidence: --------- Rule 1504/3 (Mutable, MI=1) Application and Timing of Crimes and Infractions Penalties for a Crime are applied 72 hours after the CotC legally reports the penalty. If the CFJ alleging the Crime is appealed before this time, then application of the penalty is deferred until immediately after the resolution of the appeal. If an appeal finds that the Crime has occurred and the penalty has not yet been applied, then the penalty is applied immediately upon resolution of the appeal. If an appeal finds the Crime did not occur, the penalty shall not be applied. If the penalty has already been applied, then the penalty shall be reversed to the extent possible immediately upon resolution of the appeal. Penalties for Infractions are applied immediately upon their legal report. The Player so penalized is permitted to submit a CFJ alleging that the Infraction did not occur. If this CFJ is found TRUE, then the penalties are reversed, to the extent possible, 72 hours from the time of Judgement. If the CFJ is appealed before this time, this reversal is deferred until immediately after the appeal is resolved. If an appeal finds that the Infraction did not occur, and the penalty has not been reversed, the penalty is reversed to the extent possible immediately upon resolution of the appeal. If an appeal finds that the Infraction did occur, then the penalty shall not be reversed. If the penalty has been reversed, the penalty is immediately re-applied upon resolution of the appeal. Detecting and reporting the consequences of penalty reversals and re-applications due to this Rule shall be the duty of the Clerk of the Courts. This Rule takes precedence over any Rule that would require another Player to report Score, Currency, or Blot changes which result from these penalties, or which would require a different timing for such penalties. This Rule defers to all other Rules which do not contain this sentence. History: Created by Proposal 1682, Aug. 22 1995 Amended(1) by Proposal 2570, Apr. 12 1996 Amended(2) by Proposal 2677, Sep. 26 1996 Infected and Amended(3) by Rule 1454, Jan. 8 1996, substantial (unattributed) ======================================================================