Judicial system of the Golden Empire

The judicial system of the Golden Empire referred to the various elements in the Empire charged with applying and interpreting the laws of the Empire and its various member systems.

Overview
As per the Charter of the Golden Empire, all political power in the Golden Empire was vested in its Sovereign, to be delegated or retained at her will. However, administering the law in civil and criminal cases on every member world was infinitely beyond even Rin Sakaros's capacity, so she kept in place or instituted several levels of judiciary to promote the smooth maintenance of law and order and remove herself from the normal course of business.

Levels of judiciary
The normal system of justice had the following levels:
 * Local court systems: Every planet maintained its own judicial institutions, addressing both criminal and civil violations of Royal and local law. On the very unusual occasions when multiple independent powers were allowed to exist on a single world, the court system in each enforced its own criminal and civil laws, but was required to enforce Royal law, as well as laws established by the planet's Consul.  There was always a single high court on each world which acted as a court of final appeals for all matters of local law.
 * System: In those systems which had multiple inhabited planets or moons, a Royal System Court would be created under the Sovereign's authority to handle appeals based on perceived violations of a citizen's rights under the Charter.
 * Sector:Royal Sector Courts fulfilled the duties of Royal System Courts, but on the sector level, thus covering dozens of inhabited worlds. While not all worlds had systemary courts, as not every system contained more than one occupied body, all had sectorial courts.
 * Sovereign's Tribunal: The court of final appeal for any matter regarding the Charter of the Golden Empire was the Sovereign's Tribunal, a court composed of jurists appointed personally by the Sovereign. In addition to its judicial duties, the Tribunal also recommended jurists for installment as System and Sector Court justices, subject to the Sovereign's confirmation.

Special courts
In addition to the normal court levels noted above, some special variations existed:
 * Royal Criminal Court: Royal Criminal Courts, which existed on the sector level and bypassed the local court system entirely, existed to address criminal violations of important Royal laws, including:
 * Assault on the Sovereign
 * Intentional violation of travel restrictions
 * Organized crime
 * Slavery
 * Trafficking in Qua blood
 * Treason
 * Armada courts: The Glorious Armada of the Golden Empire had its own judicial system to address violation of military law, including desertion.

Sovereign's privilege
Though power to apply and interpret the law was delegated to the Royal court system and the various local courts, at all times the Sovereign retained the right to supercede any level of the judiciary at will. She was not part of the normal judicial process—a citizen could not appeal a ruling of the Sovereign's Tribunal to the Sovereign herself—but if she felt the Tribunal had grossly misinterpreted the meaning of the Charter or a Royal edict, she could overrule its decision and issue her own, clarifying the meaning of the law and applying it to the case in question.

In addition, the Sovereign and Royal Executors had the power to pardon any criminal for any crime; Consuls had this power for any criminal on the system or systems under their administration.