Yes and no. Nearly all curse-related disputes are initially adjudicated by human judges in human courts of law. These decisions can, however, be appealed to a very literal higher court. Doing so is risky for both parties, as there are several higher court judges with widely varying attitudes toward their duties, and which judge any given case is assigned to appears to be wholly random.
Known higher court judges include:
The Lord of the Fallen Tower, an animated human(?) skeleton clad in flowing purple robes and bearing a crown of rusted iron. A strict literalist, much given to looking up the definitions of words in a great tome chained to its side, it will often throw out poorly worded curses entirely. Though not the actual avatar of death, the Lord of the Fallen Tower is related to the concept of death in some fashion, and has on occasion successfully been petitioned to recuse itself due to conflict of interest in cases where the disputed curse concerns the death of its target.
The Brazen Magistrate, a towering, bald-headed man with skin of molten copper and a perpetually smiling countenance. Superficially good-natured, the Magistrate prizes cruel irony over all other considerations when weighing one reading against another, often adding vicious twists of his own. For those on the receiving end of a curse, the only hope is the Magistrate’s indifference to which party the cruelty falls upon; many a well-spoken victim has managed to leave their curse’s author worse off than themselves!
The Throne of Virtue, a congeries of disembodied eyes and fluttering wings that speaks directly into supplicants’ minds in a clear, faintly metallic contralto. The Throne understands curses as instruments of moral improvement, and will inquisitorially seek an interpretation that teaches the curse’s target to be a better person. However, its notion of “better” is guided by celestial deontologies whose particulars are obscure to most mortals; a wise plaintiff will retain the services of a philosopher rather than a lawyer.
The Bleak Tribunal, a trio of sheep-horned, viridian-hued demons – two female and one male – who complete each other’s thoughts, often switching speakers mid-sentence, and pronounce their judgments in ringing three-part harmony. The Tribunal regard humanity as a pack of jumped-up monkeys who have no business dabbling in curse-magic in the first place, and seek to end their trials as quickly as possible, usually ruling in favour of whichever party contrives to annoy them the least – a fraught endeavour at best, as they’re infamously thin-skinned.
A seemingly ordinary – albeit very old – human woman named Edith. The heavens help all parties involved if they get Judge Edith!
