The clone wars was more of a galactic civil war than the actual galactic civil war.

There’s an easier answer: they were legally allowed to leave ONLY if the Chancellor wasn’t there within 15 minutes

*Planet leaves Republic* CIS- "This will make a fine addition to my collection!"

How Palpatine started the Clone Wars: "I need you to leave the Republic." "My Lord, is that, *legal* ?" "I won't make it legal. Just Dewwit."

They hated sand

I think the Separatist worlds were able to legally leave the Republic; however, the process to do so would have taken an unreasonably long time. It's been mentioned many times that the Republic by the time of the Prequel trilogy was in an almost gridlock state when it came to getting things done concerning the Senate and even worse when it came to the courts. The Separatist worlds would likely have been able to legally succeed from the Republic, but such a process would have likely taken many years, if not decades for them to be 100% free. And of course most Separatist worlds wanted to leave almost immediately and didn't care about the formal process which would have taken far too long in their eyes, which is why they just straight up left in a manner that was illegitimate legally in the Republic's perspective.

A lot of people complain about all the talk of trade routes and tax policy dragging down the prequel plot, but I actually kinda like it. It's nice to have a movie conflict started by something boring and rational and not "those guys are evil".

There is a scene in the Clone Wars series where the Separatist Senate holds a vote to open peace negotiations with the Galactic Republic. The phrase "This is a democracy, and unlike the Republic, corporations do not rule us!" was uttered.

It should be noted that at a point in the Clone Wars television show (the newer one) that both sides had become weary of the war and were willing to sue for peace. Both sides actually spoke of it in earnest until Palpatine orchestrated a terrorist attack on the Republic.

I like how Thrawn’s first question about the war when he met a senator was; “why didn’t you let them leave?”

Me, 16 years ago: "Who cares about political shit, I want to see lightsabers!" Me, present day: "...Shit, this is actually pretty interesting." I'm really starting to feel bad for all the shit Lucas has had to deal with all these years.

Anyone else love random rambly law lore videos from Eck?

*Is that legal my lord?*

People always complained about “ugh taxes and trade policy how boring” I love hearing about it

I'm more in touch with SW politics than US politics lol

So Star Wars prequels were basically about space Brexit

It was a complicated issue, neither side was wholly good. As for the Jedi, they really shouldn't have involved themselves beyond rooting out Sith

-It's over seperatistes! I have the consituition prooving that you cannot legally leave!! -You underestimate our droids!

Canadian Government compared to the Republic Senate... Did not see that coming.

DOG WITH A HAT JUST UPLOADED! Yes. Cheers to this awesome channel continuing strongly through this year. Thanks again for the ♥️

Best way to start the year.

I wonder if the executions in episode 2 we’re actually illegal. Three agents, not claiming to represent the republic, unambiguously break in, commit espionage, and murder several guards. Espionage alone can get the death sentence irl, so I wonder if the Jedi rescue team was legal.

Found this pretty insightful. Never really thought about the deeper politics involved except their fears that more and more planets would follow and totally destroy the republic

The clone wars was the real galactic civil war The actual galactic civil war was more of a insurgency

I really like videos like these where you delve into the background stuff, it just helps show how extensive and in depth the Star Wars universe actually is and it’s so pleasing that there’s people out there who are willjng to delve into all of this just so other people can learn. All in all, thank you so much for another great video, I love watching them

First video I’ve watched from you for the new year.

Separatists: *Joins server* Republic: *Joins server* Republic: *(Corrupt, unfair laws) Separatists: *Leaves server*

"Openly attacked the jedi and a senator" kenobi,anakin and padme did try to break into a CIS military instalation.

Because that’s less fun then starting a major galaxy spanning war.

So refreshing to have a Star Wars KZfaqr who isn't uploading negative video after negative video about Star Wars (and its current state in their minds), but rather putting out quality content discussing Star Wars

Nothing better than start a new year with an eck's new video

Ayyeee 5 minutes old and I voted for this

What might have made the prequels more interesting is if they had focused on the CIS from the start of the first film. Have it so that a small but growing secessionist movement had begun even before the start of Episode I, but that extremists within that group were using assymetric warfare to push more worlds over to their side. The tonal shift between Episode I & Episode II is one of my biggest problems with the Prequels (well, that & Jar Jar Binks).

We already discussed this a little in the comments, so I feel like I am at least partly responsible for bringing up this issue. I think the points presented by you are, although pretty reasonable, not sufficient to justify why the Separatists weren't allowed to leave legally. A rambly rant addressing your points is incoming. First: Sunk ressources. Second: Bureaucratic difficulties. Third: CIS as potential threat. (Fourth): Republic as institution. (Fifth): Economic impact. All of these arguments would undoubtedly have been made and are not inherently wrong. But I grouped all of them together because they ultimately are questions of convenience. Convenience on a galactic scale, I admit. But even that is no compelling justification for war. Revoking the people's right to choose independence at least in my mind cannot be justified with logistical problems. I'd even go so far and say that all of these issues could be managable. Of course, negotiating a deal disentangling the CIS from the Republic politically and economically would not be an easy task, but in the real world Brexit has become a quite similiar situation. (Brexit is insane, but a war between the EU and Britain would be even more so.) (Sixth): CIS controlled by corporations. Starting here, the arguments address matters of legitimacy, which serves as the basis for legality (or at least it should). The CIS had the Separatist Council and an independent Parliament. This Parliament at least on paper had the legislative power within the confederacy, whereas the Separatist Council was the executive branch of government. Effectively the Council (together with Sheev and Dooku) undermined a lot of crucial decisions made by the Parliament, like sabotaging the very real efforts for peace by staging an attack on Coruscant. Nonetheless, the representatives in the Parliament were legitimately voted into office by their people, just like Republic senators. Like you mentioned, the Republic was plagued by a lot of the same problems. But that just means that these two forms of government are very similiar in their legitimacy. Furthermore the Republic did not wage war to free the Separatists from the oppression by the Council but to revoke their independence as a whole. (Seventh): Republic spreading society. The Republic "spreading society" by force (and certainly not to secure their tax income from trade routes) sound a lot like the USA "spreading democracy" by force (and certainly not to secure those sweet barrels of oil). You cannot force people to accept a system they specifically seceded from because in their opinion (and in the Republic's case arguably objectively) it has become too immoral. (Eightth): The anti unilateral secession provision I think the Galactic Republic is more akin to the EU than to Canada because the members of the Republic are not just states but whole systems. So it makes sense they would be more independent and keeping large parts of their souvereignty, instead of submitting to a more centalized government. This exact issue is brought up multiple times in cannon, for example when the Pantorans declared their conflict with the Talz as internal and thereby excluded the senate and Jedi from intervening. As I already brought up: Brexit is happening and it is legal (and still stupid). It was decided democratically. The democratically elected representatives in the Separatist Parliament clearly are in favor of secession as well. So denying them this possibility is arguably illegitimate and probably not legally justifiable (although that can be debated since we do not have the Republic's constitution). (Ninth): CIS leaving by force. Now this is I think your strongest argument. The Republic does not need a justification for war, if the CIS started it. Building up an army alone is threatening but preemptive strikes cannot possibly be just. The Republic could justifiably have entered a Cold War with the CIS but not outright attack because it "felt threatened". This point can also be reversed and the argument could be made that the CIS had any reason to "feel threatened", which lead them to building up their Droid Army. Since we do not know what legal actions for secession were taken by the CIS before the war escalated, we could just as easily assume that they only wanted the option to use force as a last resort. And since it can arguably be said that the Republic had no materialistic interest (see points one to five) for letting them leave the CIS was somewhat justified in this fear. (We all know that secretely Sheev was behind the Clones and the Droids and war was inevitable but the galaxy didn't.) In the end though, the CIS was guilty of the first act of aggression, by trying to execute two Jedi and a senator on Geonosis. However the Jedi and Senator had no legal right to be on Geonosis. The CIS could legally view them as foreign agents invading on their souvereignty and judge them by (arguably ridiculous) Geonosian law. Still the Republic rescue attempt escalated into the First Battle of Geonosis, which escalated into galactic war (just as Sheev had planned). But the question remains: Was the Republic justified with not letting the CIS leave legally? It is hard to tell, since both sides were controlled by an evil Sith Lord ,but I still think the answer is no.

Hope you guys enjoy this video - I would like to start covering more legal aspects of the Star Wars universe. Let me know what you'd like to see next here, on twitter ( twitter.com/eckhartsladder ) or on our discord server ( discord.gg/eckhartsladder ).

Kinda like how the Confederacy couldn't leave the Union Legally in our timeline.

1)could a Unified star wars Galaxy survive the entire tyranids race 2)tyranids vs species 8472

Thanks for doing these videos that delve into the policies of the Republic! People complain about the politics in the Prequels, but it makes for such effective world building. Also, as a Canadian I loved the references to Canada 🍁

7:47 "I think this will be my final video-" my heart stopped for a moment lol

Interesting that the CIS created an army before publicly stating any intention to secede. That would suggest that secession would be either illegal or a slow process. A government made up of independent entities working together for shared prosperity would have to have a lot of perks in order for its members to be willing to give up sovereignty. This would necessitate financial obligations for its members, and there would probably be a redistribution of wealth designed to develop weaker economies like tatooine. A rich state like the trade federation would therefore see little benefit to staying within the system, but if rich states leave the republic then it loses its economic power, and would have to rely on IOUs as it dealt with the economic downturn. This would encourage other states to leave, as they would take on more obligations and less perks, eventually leading to a total collapse. To prevent this, secession would have to be regulated to give the republic time to adjust to the different economic situation, and could be held up by years of red tape. As they illegally created a large army ahead of time, they probably expected to be able to bully the demilitarized republic into letting them leave immediately, and were surprised by the clone army and forced into a drawn-out war, as palpatine planned for.

Because they didn't have the high ground

I wish you a happy new year Eck :)

Thanks, I like these kind of videos a lot! These are the questions I wonder about all the time.

I always wondered about this. My assumption was that palpatine and Dooku orchestrated war crimes whenever a diplomacy started back up.

Personal shield technology compared Dune Halo Mass Effect and Star Wars

Best mass production mechs please.

Happy New Year, EckhartsLadder!!! Looking forward to your vids this year.

Love these videos Eck, keep up the good work 👍

What if Thrawn led the CIS Forces?

Covenant CAS Assault Carrier vs First Order Resurgent Class Star Destroyer (21st try, like so eck can see)

This was great.. Some of these topics should be explored and thoroughly explained.. Great job

Vids like this are why I watch your channel, sir. Well done!

I guess you can say it's truly a *galaxy divided* ...

A great great great vid about SW politics. Can be super interesting when done right, just like this video!

This was a good vid. Happy New Year Eck

I must say I didn't expect Québec to be mentionned, but then again, there are some resemblance. Nice video!

Can you do a video on the battle strategy of the Outer Rim Sieges during the Clone Wars

Love this channel. That is all :)

Great video eck! Also love how you used Canada as a example

You among the absolute best of Star Wars fans online. No bashing on this or that, just talking about all the stuff surrounding the universe. Thanks for the videos!

Always cool to read the thread on /r/mawinstallation and then see your video on the same topic.

putting your awesome lawyering skills to work eh :D

I love your outro so much

Happy new year and may the force be with us through 2019

Replicators vs a Unified Star Wars universe (416th try now, *_I._** WILL NEEEEVER EEEVER GIVE UP!!!)*

I was so disappointed when you put a disclaimer in saying that that sith-jedi fight was not representing Canada as I would have emigrated there instantly if it was. 😭😭😭😭

I think grievous was that thing that kept the Jedi in it. The idea of some droid being able to take out master Jedi scared them enough to ignore the broader peace. So instead of acting on their suspicion of Palpatine, they are galvanized behind some external enemy.

Happy New Years, Eck!

Doomsday from the comics vs the Flood

Because Palpatine is the Star Wars equivalent of Walpole

Really liked this video, much more cerebral and speculative with less structured 'arguments' per se, but obviously this had to be the case, because as you say at the beginning of this video, this question has never officially been answered. I also really like that you've put all of your knowledge of the star wars lore, and clearly a certain amount of real world research into law, into trying to pose a solution to one of its more subtle gaps. Great video, would enjoy seeing more like it (Y) Definitely could have mileage as a new mini-series.

Please do more Faction versus videos. Please do the Forerunners vs The Imperium of Man. (Halo vs Warhammer 40k)

I think the begins of the Clone War is pretty much the Star Wars verison of Bexit gone horribly wrong!

That is absolutely the best out-tro on KZfaq

This was one of my favorite videos actually, I love the politics behind the clone wars

Republic: We are a fair and just system of Government and care about all of our members CIS: We're leaving because you don't care about us Republic: Am I a joke to you?

Brexit means Brexit

Good ramble, man. Good ramble.

Hey dude just wanted to say you weren't rambley at all. You were very on point and everything you said was relative to the topic. Love these types of videos

10k views in under an hour?

It’s because neither of the two factions were the senate.

This opening music always makes me feel relaxed

This is a great answer to that question

It's because the Republic showed up within the first 15 minutes of class.

#askeck What's better, the Eclipse SSD, or the Vicount Star Defender ;)

I personally like the discussion about the different policies they had. It makes the SW universe a bit easier to understand and enjoy more.

You’re back!!!

Here before the notification

#AskEck BARC speeder vs 74-Z speeder

Nice analysis, i think youre definitely on to something

Another Eckhart Video.....this pleases me.

I feel sorry for the Separatists. They wouldn't be able to leave not because they made contributions which 'deem' them too important to leave, but also because most of the senators don't want to lose some of their wealth. They bicker over simple things and the corruption is high in the government.

I voted for this one whoot

very well thought out.

I'm speculating based almost entirely on the basis of one line of dialogue in Attack of the Clones. But I wonder if the reason they couldn't simply secede was because they'd created a large rival polity _before_ leaving. At the beginning of AotC, Palpatine says "More and more star systems are joining the Separatists [...] I will not let this republic that has stood for a thousand years be split in two." That phrasing, "split in two", seems significant to me. Not "torn apart" or "broken up", but "split in two". And the reason the crisis is so serious is because "more and more star systems are joining". So my headcanon is that there was a process for Raxis Prime to leave the Republic, or for Geonosis to leave, or for Serenno or Umbara to leave, but there was no provision for a confederacy of thousands of star systems to all leave at once. The Republic couldn't recognise the legitimacy of the Confederacy, and the Separatists didn't have the individual power to negotiate for good terms on their own.

First video of 2019!

1 Harrower class Dreadnaught vs 1 Victory class Star Destroyer

On a different note, can you imagine what the Sith Empire would do with the technology to make human cylons? Sorry was listening to a bsg podcast earlier with Tricia and Katee

Hey Eck, would you consider doing versus with the Starship Troopers series? You have great content, keep it up 👍

"They openly attacked the Jedi" Oh really? Because if I recall Episode II correctly, Jedi came to THEIR world and began to spy on Geonosis. And it was the JEDI who struck first when they attempted to rescue Padme, Anakin and Obi-wan. Try to color it up as much as you want, but what the three of them did would be considered espionage - with Anakin personally having killed multiple Geonosians during the Factory battle. Like it or not, the Geonosians - and by extension the CIS - were well within their right to prosecute them for intruding on their territory. The Republic and Jedi struck first. Sure you can say 'the CIS was preparing for war, building an army, so the Republic is justified to conduct a first strike to end the war before it began', but it doesn't paint the Republic's image any better - in fact it makes it all the worse since it shows the Republic is incapable of diplomacy. Sure that was probably due to Palpatine's manipulations, but still as stated earlier - given the Republic's corrupt status, all of this was inevitable.