Servience

Servience is a condition under zaconic law in which an estate or mediate portion of an estate that is subject by the terms of its creation to a particular Banner is free to adopt a divergent set of administrative statutes, whether its own or those of a foreign power. Such estates are said to be "servient but privileged of regulation". By this legal device, the origins of which may be traced as early as the 15th century in certain legal formulas pertaining to kunentsydom, estates may be established outside of their pertinent home Banners without thereby claiming their own territories, within Vaestdom itself held under usufruct from the local Banner, as integral parts of the estate's Banner. The officers of such servient estates will continue to be bound by the laws of their home Banners, with only particular exceptions, but they are free to regulate their employees and inhabitants in their own manner—albeit this usually means the manner prescribed by the local authorities. Servience does not notionally apply to the greater norms of character judgement, but servient estates outside the Lestrian Neutral Zone rarely have the right to constitute self-regulating character tribunals that would enforce the norms of the estate's, rather than the territorial, Banner. Rarely servience is awarded as a privilege of autonomy to estates on the territory of the home Banner itself, most often in Serania and more recently the Lutoborsk.