Star Wars: 10 Strange Laws ALL Empire Employees Follow

10. Assassins Must Inform A Target That They're Marked For Death

Empire-employed assassins and bounty hunters have of course appeared countless times across Star Wars media, but did you know that there are actually official Imperial guidelines about their rules of engagement?

The mandated practises for Empire-sponsored assassins originated in the 1996 short story "Payback: The Tale of Dengar," which while technically now part of the Legends continuity, like every other Legends entry on this list doesn't conflict with anything in the post-2014 continuity, so can be reasonably used to fill in the blanks of the lore, if you like.

Section 2127 of the Imperial Penal Code - typically referred to as the Imperial Legal Code in more recent Star Wars media - states that assassins working for the Empire are legally obliged to inform their assassination target that they have been hired to kill them.

Furthermore, the code dictates that the assassin must give their mark a weapon, because the target has a legal right to defend their life, and wait three minutes to kill them, so they have a short head-start to try and make their escape.

It's a weirdly honourable ruling from the Empire, really.