How do white council wizards resolve disputes between them?

[zenten]

Say you're a wizard of the white council.  Something of yours of great value was stolen, using magic.  You have good reason to believe it was another white council member, and you're pretty sure who.  The theft did not involve violating any of the seven laws of magic however.

What recourse can you take?

[CaptFisher]

As a long time Ars Magica player i say Certamen- a codified wizards duel where the victor gets a negotiated victory concession.  The laws of magic would not allow killing or transforming but a duel that didn't involve that should be fine.  It works for the Accords!  Given our example in the fiction it should be complete with seconds and a neutral arbiter.

[Sanctaphrax]

I expect that the Wardens have this as a sort of side duty. They are the wizard police, after all.

[computerking]

As a long time Ars Magica player i say Certamen- a codified wizards duel where the victor gets a negotiated victory concession.  The laws of magic would not allow killing or transforming but a duel that didn't involve that should be fine.  It works for the Accords!  Given our example in the fiction it should be complete with seconds and a neutral arbiter.

Ahh, Certamen. Takes me back to the days when I used to play a member of the Order of Hermes in Mage: The Ascension... Of course, most of DFRPG reminds me of that glorious time.

[UmbraLux]

What recourse can you take?

Politics, intrigue, threats, investigation...all the non-magical possibilities.  Add to that the magical - divination (or other ways of locating the object), cursing the object or it's holder...any variety of thaumaturgy if you can create a link back to the object. 

[Rubycon]

I would say  that the White Council has a Judical Court for things like that. This could include Wardens or Divinators and could still include the possibility of a formal battle with fixed rules.

[Masurao]

The only place I could see this happening on something close to a regular basis, would be in Edinburgh, as it seems to be one of the few spots where wizards congregate in large numbers for longer periods of time. However, it would be particularly foolish to steal stuff there with the Senior Council up and about.

Far from it to say that wizards aren't petty enough to steal, though, but I doubt the chance to steal from one another presents itself very often. Chicago is a pretty big frickin' city and it only had one regular wizard and later on his apprentice. Anything that gets stolen from him by another White Council member probably happened by accident, rather than malice... Though I guess the example is not quite valid, with Harry's reputation

The way I see it, any theft of an item that is important to you, magically and emotionally, seems rather premeditated and would be considered a serious crime. The Wardens and perhaps the Senior Council will have some say in the verdict, but I expect it to be just as swift and relentless as how they deal with warlocks, sans the beheading. They might kick you out of the Council, though, and if word of that hits the streets the wizard in question would be quite screwed. The other supernatural nasties would take care of that problem quite quickly.

[braincraft]

It's also probably a pretty rare thing. If the other wizard is less powerful than you, you can probably get nicer stuff on your own without stooping to petty theft. If the other wizard is more powerful than you, it's borderline suicidal to give them a direct sympathetic line to you by having their stuff. In terms of magical stuff, most of it is specialized or personally attuned in some way and won't be as useful to anyone other than the wizard who owns it. Essentially, it's absolutely not worth the trouble for wizards to commit acts of petty theft against one another.

For acts of grand theft, when it's worth the while of high-level wizards to cast divinations into the matter, it's nearly impossible to get away with it anyway.

The only time it's ever gonna happen is if one wizard has something that's

a) useful or valuable to anyone else

b) that is sufficiently unique or difficult to obtain that another wizard would rather deal with an incredibly dangerous individual - with access to magical divinations and traps - than pursue any other avenue of procurement

c) the wizard in question cannot or will not simply bargain or negotiate a trade, purchase, or borrowing of the item

d) the thief is confident that scrutiny from high-ranking members of the Council - people with centuries of experience and broad and powerful abilities to gather information - won't put him squarely in the Wardens' crosshairs.

That's a lot of ifs. All it takes is one victim running to the Merlin and getting your theft scryed to, at best, give you a reputation as a liar and thief before an audience of immortal peers with every reason to hold grudges, or at worst getting you in hot water with a law enforcement organization known for favoring capital punishment.

Stealing from other kinds of supernaturals has most of the same problems.

[computerking]

It's also probably a pretty rare thing. If the other wizard is less powerful than you, you can probably get nicer stuff on your own without stooping to petty theft. If the other wizard is more powerful than you, it's borderline suicidal to give them a direct sympathetic line to you by having their stuff. In terms of magical stuff, most of it is specialized or personally attuned in some way and won't be as useful to anyone other than the wizard who owns it. Essentially, it's absolutely not worth the trouble for wizards to commit acts of petty theft against one another.

For acts of grand theft, when it's worth the while of high-level wizards to cast divinations into the matter, it's nearly impossible to get away with it anyway.

The only time it's ever gonna happen is if one wizard has something that's

a) useful or valuable to anyone else

b) that is sufficiently unique or difficult to obtain that another wizard would rather deal with an incredibly dangerous individual - with access to magical divinations and traps - than pursue any other avenue of procurement

c) the wizard in question cannot or will not simply bargain or negotiate a trade, purchase, or borrowing of the item

d) the thief is confident that scrutiny from high-ranking members of the Council - people with centuries of experience and broad and powerful abilities to gather information - won't put him squarely in the Wardens' crosshairs.

That's a lot of ifs. All it takes is one victim running to the Merlin and getting your theft scryed to, at best, give you a reputation as a liar and thief before an audience of immortal peers with every reason to hold grudges, or at worst getting you in hot water with a law enforcement organization known for favoring capital punishment.

Stealing from other kinds of supernaturals has most of the same problems.

You do know you just described Bob, right?

[braincraft]

You do know you just described Bob, right?

Good point; since he's not really supposed to have him, Harry can't really go to the Council for help with the matter (also he's kinda on bad terms with them in general for various other reasons). So there's one major hurdle cleared for prospective thieves.

The only thing you'd have to worry about, then, is making an enemy of a powerful and dangerous wizard and his allies. No big deal, right?

[noclue]

Say you're a wizard of the white council.  Something of yours of great value was stolen, using magic.  You have good reason to believe it was another white council member, and you're pretty sure who.  The theft did not involve violating any of the seven laws of magic however.

What recourse can you take?

You can do anything you want. If you break the laws of magic the White Council may step in and take your head. The White Council will also probably step in to protect the accords and/or keep supernatural stuff secret. Other than that, I don't see any evidence that the White Council will get involved.

As a long time Ars Magica player i say Certamen- a codified wizards duel where the victor gets a negotiated victory concession.  The laws of magic would not allow killing or transforming but a duel that didn't involve that should be fine.  It works for the Accords!  Given our example in the fiction it should be complete with seconds and a neutral arbiter.

The thief can just refuse to duel you though. Duels are permitted under the Accords for settling disputes without violating treaties. I don't see any evidence that a Wizard can just declare a duel and force the other person to fight.

[ARedthorn]

Actually- I think the council might get involved- as a safety measure. Sure, no one broke any laws, or the accords, but an unchecked feud between two wizards could be catastrophic in any number of ways that would be bad news for the entire White Council.

Feud gets out of hand, and one wizard does something stupid- breaks a law... now the council is down one or two valuable, talented wizards, when it frankly could've gotten involved sooner and prevented it?
Feud gets too hot, wizard gets outted to the mortal world, and it's the Inquisition all over again.
Feud gets warm even, and the rest of the supernatural community sees division in the ranks... a very bad thing to publicize to a bunch of generally very organized predators.

I see no reason why they wouldn't get involved. After all, we know from the books that the Merlin NEVER meddles, right? Right? oh...

[noclue]

Sorry, I meant involved in an official capacity. I'd expect all kinds of meddling.