#given the records office was blown up and the CDs of title deeds were stolen

[zahri-melitor]

…oh good, Devin, I see you spent Gotham Knights #20-21 making the racism around Dick’s adoption worse on TWO further angles.

(This set I did already know about) (I hate it here)

Ok while I attempt to forget this whole plotline, let us instead enjoy this particular panel and the hilarious suggestion that No Man’s Land was “forced cessation”.

Forced cession, you say? THAT LAND WAS NEVER CEDED. (Sorry, knee jerk habit there)

Ok time to consult Blackstone’s Commentaries as to the correct legal system and land ownership of Gotham.

If the United States did cede Gotham, who was it ceded to? The remaining inhabitants? The gangs and criminals it imprisoned inside? In that case, if it was ceded, the USA could not simply resume the land by executive order, but yet they did. Suspicious. The inhabitants have grounds to now sue the US government for stealing their clearly established connection to the land (Cobblepot (No. 2) incoming) AND for overruling the existing legal system on their illegal return (Dent v United States to adjudicate on whether any changes or charges under the NML legal system should be upheld. Legality of the Dent v Gordon trial is at stake!!)

Now can we instead call No Man’s Land ‘desert and uncultivated’ and consider whether ownership passed by settlement? No, and let’s all say “thank you Pamela Isley”, as Robinson Park demonstrably was cultivated land supporting the islands. It was not desert. The US does not have grounds to simply resettle Gotham. The existing inhabitants were civilised, despite any allegations or slurs by the US Government to the contrary when they blew the bridges.

The final consideration is whether ownership of Gotham as of 31 December 1999 was now held by the Blue Boys via right of conquest, given you can’t unilaterally uncede land and No Man’s Land did involve intra-community warfare of the local inhabitant, with the Blue Boys and the Bat holding the largest share of the land in the final days. Does the GC ex-PD hold title to Gotham by conquest and did THEY then cede the land back to the US? Also potentially Gotham held multiple overlapping contradictory legal systems given Penguin and Two-Face’s territories not observing US law. Given the compromises made by the Blue Boys could they be considered to have enacted additional local laws that now need to be distinguished from the outside US largely system? Is vigilantism now legal in Gotham?

In this essay I will…