The de jure status of Magical Government

Globally, magical governments exist in a peculiar legal state of being both independent and subservient to the governments, and thus to the muggle rulers, of the countries they govern. Very rarely is the magical government of a nation entirely separate from the muggle institutions that form the backbone of that country’s legal institutions.

For example, the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) operates as an alternative legislative body to the American Congress. However, the Head of State, at least notionally, remains the President of the United States, a position elected according to muggle means. The British Ministry of Magic, on the other hand, operates as a wholly independent government ministry. Therefore, at least officially, it is subservient to the directions of the British Prime Minister and Cabinet. However, the actual control exerted over the Ministry of Magic by the muggle government is next to zero and interactions between the magical and mundane bodies often take the form of meetings of equals.

As such, the status of ministries of magic and their ilk within overarching frameworks is subject to a carefully crafted legal fiction. On paper, or de jure, they are fully integrated bodies, but in practice, or de facto, they operate independently of any and all muggle control with the exception of certain statutes and regulations that govern relations and the means of undertaking joint endeavours.

History

This relationship is, historically, born out of the Wizards’ Councils that governed much of the magical world of Asia and Europe up and until the late 17th and early 18th centuries, when they were superseded by more formally governed bodies, such as the precursors to modern Ministries of Magic. These Councils served as collections of learned elders and lords, who would make determinations and orders as to the magical community within their respective jurisdictions.

For the most part, these jurisdictions were analogous to the independent polities which they were situated within. However, much as the real world Holy Roman Empire was a collection of princely states and bishoprics, the Wizards’ Councils of Germany and Central Europe were similarly divided. Instead of aligning with the borders of the German princes or with the various lands in personal union under the Habsburg crown, German Councils evolved into ever-changing bodies, their territories based upon natural geography and cultural ties. Similarly, the Wizards’ Councils of the Balkans met on the basis of ethnicity, and the voice of the Ottoman Council barely extended west of Thrace.

To contrast, even when China was governed by the Mandate of Heaven, and the Sengoku period plagued Japan with civil war, the Wizards’ Councils of Eastern Asia remained highly centralised and politically powerful.

Upon ratification of the International Statute of Secrecy, the varied and often tribal or guild-like nature of wizarding governments slowly reformed into the more complex and bureaucratic institutions that they are today. As wizards went into hiding, they separated entirely from muggle society by necessity. Accordingly it became necessary to not only pass and enforce laws to ensure that the magic was hidden from the mundane world but also to govern the independent societies and communities that now existed outside of it. Often using the fledgling governments of their own nations as a template, modern Ministries came into existence. However, whereas much of the world democratised with the advent of the American, French and Industrial Revolutions, the wizarding community only reluctantly moved away from power as according to house and wealth and toward universal enfranchisement.

Even today, most magical governments are run as predominantly bureaucratic and unelected bodies, with minimalistic democratic representation at the highest levels. For the most part, they fail to live up to the democratic standards of the muggle governments they officially purport to align with.

The British Ministry of Magic

The Ministry of Magic is, officially, a ministerial department of His Majesty’s Government, headed by the Minister for Magic, and responsible for the governance of the wizarding world within the United Kingdom and its dependencies. All aspects of magical law-making and enforcement fall under its purview, including the creation of regulations and statutes, the enforcement of law, oversight and appointment to the wizarding courts who attend to the interpretation of said law, maintenance of infrastructure and social works for the wizarding community, and other such matters that fall within regular governing practice.

Whilst ostensibly a government ministry, the breadth of services and functions that fall under its purview mean that the Ministry of Magic in effect serves as a fully operational government in its own right.

The Minister for Magic
The Minister for Magic, often colloquially known simply as the Minister, is the sole elected position within the British Ministry. The Minister is elected by a first past the post, or plurality, vote of all British wizarding citizens over the age of magical majority, being 17, at least every 7 years. There is no fixed term limit for the Minister for Magic, and they can theoretically serve indefinitely, provided the requirement for septennial elections is maintained.

The exception to this democratic process is during times of significant political crisis or war, in which case the Minister may be appointed by majority vote of the Wizengamot and elections suspended until such a time that the Wizengamot deems fit. The Minister is tasked with chairing the Wizengamot, overseeing the running of the Ministry as a whole, negotiating and liaising with the muggle Prime Minister, and appointing the Heads of the other Departments.

This direct appointment by the Minister of the Heads of Department serves as the sole democratic safeguard in terms of the undertaking of their duties. Whilst they are not directly elected by the people of wizarding Britain, oftentimes prospective Heads will link themselves to the campaign of a prospective Minister, with the understanding that the Minister will appoint them in the event that they win office. Such alliances and joint campaigns are the closest thing that the Ministry has to political parties, the lack of a democratic parliament serving to render true parties infeasible.

Departments
The day-to-day running of the Ministry requires that Departments oversee the various minutiae of governance. For these purposes, the Ministry is divided into seven semi-autonomous Departments. As aforementioned, each Department is headed by a Head of Department, and this Head answers directly to the Minister for Magic. With this exception, the Departments are free to operate as according to their own bylaws and requirements. To this end, each Department is assigned a separate Level of the Ministry of Magic building in London.

Department of Magical Law Enforcement - Level Two
Includes the sub-departments of the Auror office, the Improper Use of Magic Office, the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects, and the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office.

As the name suggests, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement oversees that the laws as passed by the Ministry are enforced, and is responsible for the criminal and civil justice systems of the British wizarding world. Further information as to the operation of such is located in the Executive subheading below.

Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes - Level Three
Includes the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Obliviators, Muggle-Worthy Excuse COmmittee, Invisibility Task Force and Muggle Liaison Office.

The primary function of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes is ensuring that the Statute of Secrecy is maintained throughout the United Kingdom. Whilst the name of the overarching department is derived from the greater catastrophes and incidents that require emergency responses and overarching crisis management, much of the day to day is concerned with individual cases of accidental exposure to magic.

Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures - Level Four
Includes the Beast Division, Being Division, Spirit Division, Goblin Liaison Office, Centaur Liaison office, Pest Advisory Board and Office of Misinformation.

The Department is responsible not only for the regulation of magical creatures, including ensuring that muggles remain ignorant to their existence and thus the operation of magical national parks, but also for liaising with the various magical beings and beasts of human-intelligence. As such, many members of the department have quasi-ambassadorial roles, whilst yet others serve in roles more akin to park rangers.

Department of International Magic Cooperation - Level Five
Includes the International Magical Trading Standards Body, International magical Office of Law and the British Seats of the International Confederation of Wizards.

Tasked with negotiating and cooperating with the governments of other nations, the purview of the Department includes ambassadorial roles to other states, as well as the negotiation and enforcement of trade deals and tariffs.

Department of Magical Transportation - Level Six
Includes the Floo Network Authority, Broom Regulatory Control, Portkey Office and Apparition Test Centre.

The Department of Magical Transportation is responsible for the maintenance of public infrastructure relating to transport, as well as the regulation and registration of private means of magical transit.

Department of Magical Games and Sports - Level Seven
Includes the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters, Official Gobstones Club and Ludicrous Patents Office.

A surprisingly large department given its seemingly limited portfolio, the department is responsible for the running and governance of many of the wizarding world’s cultural endeavours, including domestic sporting leagues and British participation on the global scale.

Department of Mysteries - Level Nine
Includes the Brain Room, Space Chamber, Death Chamber, Time Room, Hall of Prophecy and Love Chamber.

The Department of Mysteries is a secretive department tasked with carrying out confidential and clandestine resource into enigmatic branches of magic, such as death, time, space, love, and prophecy. Very little is known outside of those circles with clearance.

The Executive and the Legislature

In most muggle democracies, the powers of government are separated as to ensure a healthy democracy and the maintenance of institutions. Typically, this takes the form of a separation into the legislature, those who make the law (such as the American congress or the British parliament), the executive, those who enforce the law (such as the American President or the British cabinet, and police forces), and the judiciary, those who interpret the law (the court system).

To contrast, the Ministry of Magic has no separation between the executive and legislative branches of government. Unlike Westminster parliamentary systems, in which the executive is subject to a sovereign legislature, there is not even a tokenistic separation of powers. The same body that is tasked with legislating, being the Ministry of Magic and more specifically the bureaucrats who work within each relevant department, are also tasked with enforcing those laws. Oftentimes, the same public servants who draft legislation are also tasked with ensuring that citizens follow it. There is no separation between what a muggle would understand to be the parliament and the civil service, and for all intents and purposes, they operate as a singular body.

For the most part, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is tasked with the broadest enforcement powers. Of particular note within this department is the role of the auror office, who serve as the magical equivalent of a police department. However, unlike the muggle police, aurors are afforded with broad discretionary powers. As such, when operating in the field, they are empowered with the ability to manoeuvre with little oversight or recourse, provided they are doing so in the course of the undertaking of their duties.

Whilst both Ministers Shacklebolt and Granger engaged in large scale Ministerial reform, most of these reforms were based around the erasure of long-standing blood-status-based discriminatory policies and the opening of further overtures to the other sentient beings within the magical community. Accordingly, the auror office remained broadly untouched throughout this process. As a result, the office has continued to operate in much the same way that it did within the 20th century. This includes its atypical use as a paramilitary force in times of crisis or political upheaval, noting that the Ministry has no defence force of its own.

Other departments are afforded with enforcement powers with respect to their own portfolios. For example, the ability to issue fines or writs for infractions. In certain cases, particularly with respect to the Department of Magical Creatures and the Department of Magical Catastrophes, field agents are also afforded the power to undertake police actions, including the detention of suspects.

The Judiciary

Wizarding Britain has two courts, the Council of Magical Law and the Wizengamot. Neither of which is independent from the Ministry.

Council of Magical Law
The Council of Magical Law serves as the primary court for most offences, as well as civil litigation. Judges are appointed to the bench by the Wizengamot, and either preside over matters individually or in membered benches. There is no set number of judges that sit over a particular case, nor is there a functional precedent that determines this number. Instead, the Council is prone to assigning however so many members to a panel as it sees fit.

Similarly, there are no set regulations for how many members a jury should compose. Whilst the use of juries in trials is confined only to serious criminal offences, the number of jury members can vary from anywhere from nine to twenty-seven, with the determination as to number being made by the Council prior to the trial itself.

Trials themselves are often brief, and the accused is presented with all evidence during the trial itself. Unlike the common law practice of muggle Britain, wizarding jurisprudence is not built upon an adversarial system, and during criminal proceedings, no prosecutor is present. Instead, the judges themselves serve as investigator, with the evidence and questions put to the accused only during the course of the trial itself. Advocates can be employed by the accused or by litigants in a civil trial, but there is no requirement for such nor a right to representation.

Civil litigation often sees a singular judge, or smaller panel, oversee a dispute as put forth by a plaintiff and a defendant, with the power to investigate as to testimony and make rulings as to findings of fact and of law.

The Wizengamot
The Wizengamot is a body that predates the creation of the Ministry of Magic, but now forms a part of its ranks. Consisting of around fifty members, the Wizengamot serves as the highest court in Wizarding Britain, and often fills a similar function to the historical role of the Privy Council in the muggle United Kingdom.

Members are appointed to the Wizengamot by majority vote of the body itself, and their accession is formally confirmed by both the Minister for Magic and the Chief Warlock, the latter serving as the chief overseer of the Court, and filling a role not dissimilar to that of a speaker of the house in a legislative body.

In their function as high court, the Wizengamot is charged with hearing of the most serious of cases, listening to appeals to decisions made within the Council of Magical Law, and, where appropriate, overturning legislation made by the Ministry that it finds to be illegal.

Individual members, or small groups, of the Wizengamot may also serve as investigators or judges on the Council of Magical Law and each member is taken to automatically be appointed to the bench for that lower court.

International Magical Government

Governments across the Globe
Most magical governments model themselves after an aspect of the muggle structures already present in their respective nation. For instance, as aforementioned, the British Ministry of Magic models itself after a governmental department and MACUSA is directly fashioned after the US Congress. However, MACUSA varies from its mundane counterpart in the sense that it has no Senate equivalent, being a unicameral body modelled exclusively after the House of Representatives. Similarly, the President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, the head of government of the magical US, is elected directly from within the body itself. As such, they fill a role akin to that of a prime minister in a semi-presidential system. The muggle President remains the nominal Head of State, although legislation is expressly written such that this is a ceremonial title with no power over the magical community.

Such models have become the norm in the post-colonial new world, with a representative government that makes on-paper overtures to being a ‘side’ government to that of the more traditional muggle power structures. A few exceptions do exist, particularly in Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and Guatemala, where native magical power structures remain afoot. However, such structures have been subsumed into the magical governments of their respective states, and thus are structured as special parliaments with the power to create legislation in cultural and indigenous matters. In such nations, muggle law, magical law, and indigenous magical law intersect and overlap, creating a tapestry of confusing regulations and structures.

Throughout Asia and Europe, the traditional power structures have remained broadly unchanged. Magical governments will often take the form of governmental ministries, with either minimal elected positions, or appointment from within the ministry itself. For example, the governments of Germany, France, Japan and Thailand operate under the same model as the British Ministry, with a single elected Minister overseeing a bureaucratic department of unelected officials. To contrast, no such elections exist in much of Eastern Europe. The occurrence of crackdowns to the east of the iron curtain with respect to folklore and magical tradition mandated harsher and more secretive laws in much of the former second world, and as such, officials appoint their successors, with a government of bureaucrats and officials becoming the norm. Democratic will is enforced only through donation to the government, or through lobbying, with no formal voting mechanism.

Africa is a hodge-podge of intermixed traditions, both indigenous and colonial. Most of the continent finds itself following the West European model, although more than a few states, notably those that fell under the French, Belgian and Portuguese spheres of influence, have instead modelled their post-independence magical governments after the American model. Models of indigenous representation within these more well-known power structures, unfortunately, have become historically associated with the Bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa, and as such, see little use throughout the continent. Instead, where a state, such as Ethiopia, uses its more traditional and clerical form of magical government, it is the sole government in the state.

International Confederation of Wizards
The International Confederation of Wizards serves as a sort of magical United Nations. Much like the real United Nations, its role is primarily ceremonial, with some enforcement actions able to be taken by means of international law and criminal tribunals. However, ultimately, these structures are reliant upon the concession of jurisdiction by the various nation-states of the world. Accordingly, the International Confederation's ability to act is often hampered by the lack of desire of national governments to cede power and jurisdiction to a foreign body.

The International Confederation is overseen by the Supreme Mugwump, a person elected by the majority vote of the member states. The Supreme Mugwump is tasked with overseeing debate within the Confederation. However, such a role is primarily ceremonial.