Ministry of Justice

In the Golden Empire, the Ministry of Justice was an executive department in charge of justice administration on the Empire's systems. Led by the Minister of Justice, an officer of the Grand Council of the Golden Empire, the Ministry initially had two primary divisions: the legal resource division and the corrections division. As part of the 65 Reforms, it was dramatically expanded to include the Royal Corps of Gendarmes.

Corrections Division
The Ministry's Corrections Division oversaw the Royal prison system. While all systems had their own prisons, major criminal figures or intersystem criminals were sometimes considered too dangerous to be entrusted to a member world and were given to the custody of the Empire itself. The Ministry had several major prison sites, the most infamous of which was Orbital Prison Unit Aurek, which housed the most hardened villains in the Empire.

The Corrections Division also supervised and regulated the quasi-independent Bounty Hunters' Guild.

Legal Resources
The Legal Resources Division of the Ministry of Justice was responsible for maintaining an up-to-date archive of the laws, edicts, and judicial rulings of every member world of the Golden Empire. The archives also contained a list of all Royal laws and edicts binding on the entire Empire, as well as rulings from the court system of the Golden Empire itself.

The archives were accessible to all citizens of the Empire on two levels; a nominal fee would give full access to all documentation, while free access was available for major points of laws. Centurions of the Order of Keltrayu had access to the full database for free, as did the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Integration. Further, the Ministry was responsible for disseminating new Royal edicts and laws to every member world.

In addition, the Ministry catalogued "unique" laws on each member world, laws which were either not present on any other world or were considered to not be common sense to any citizen. Most such laws arose out of the unique cultures and dangers of some planets. The Ministry presented these in a special, free section of the archives as "travel advisories" to citizens from other worlds who might visit, as ignorance of local law was not considered an excuse for violating it, and punishments for seemingly mild infractions could be quite severe on some worlds.

The Gendarmes
The need for an Empire-wide law enforcement agency had become increasingly obvious as early as the Conquest of the Chiss Ascendancy, but the issue required further study. The interruptions of the Tribulation and the Nightmare War slowed the process, but the Royal Corps of Gendarmes was finally ordered in 151 ABY.

The Minister of Justice appointed the Commandant of the Corps, which ordinarily reported to the Ministry. In times of war, the Gendarmes could be called up to serve as reserve infantry for the Royal Army. In such cases, a joint decision of the Minister and the Prime Legate could transfer parts of the Corps from one ministry to the other.