A Treatise on the Limitations of Magic

General Solution

Whereas magic has been discovered to be without limitation, constraint, or restriction   And people are expected to look after their own self-interest without respect of other persons or property   And the role of the government is to supply safety and security to the populace, which unrestricted magic jeopardizes   And laws will only prevent those that follow the law from harming others, but do nothing directly to actually prevent wrongdoing from occurring   1) Magic can do anything, but only if the magician believes it can. Magic cannot be changed, so prevention must focus on changing the populace's belief.   1a) If people believe that they cannot cast a spell, they will not be able to.   1b) People will believe they can do something they have done before unless they believe something else has change.   2) A sepcific disbelief of inability to cast a spells isn't required to prevent magic from occurring. A general disbelief through the populace should be sufficient to prevent significant undesirable magic from occurring.   Therefore, the recommendation of the Teles Council is:   First, it should be generally known that Emswort has developed a magical dampening field. This field only allows magic that has been deemed acceptable by the governement and makes any other magic more difficult or impossible.   A) The government does not need to actually create this field. There just needs to be a general belief that this field does actually exist, and the belief will create such a field.   Second, announce that this field will ramp up over the next five years.   A) This will give time for belief in the field to spread through the populace and for the effects of this belief to cause spells to be more difficult to cast.   B) This belief will cause a feedback loop, wherein as the populace sees magic as difficult to cast, it will become increasingly difficult to cast.   Third, publish a list of spells and effects that are exempt from this field, to allow the populace the ability to continue using magic.   A) This should prevent any unrest from the new restrictions, as most common magic will be exempt.   B) As continued use in common spells would likely cast doubt on the existence of a magical dampening field, this will prevent such doubt from arising, as continued use of these spells fit into the defined framework.  

Specific Spells

Teleportation

Beyond just being a dampening field, it should be stated that this dampening field prevents teleportation generally. However, as teleportation is convenient and useful to the populace, the government will create teleportation zones in each major population center.   Petitions can be submitted to create additional teleportation zones.   Sufficiently licensed magicians may be capable of teleporting to regions outside of these zones.  

Addendum

This note should be neither published nor shared in any other form, nor should any mention of this be made to the populace. Acknowledgement of this work to change the people's beliefs would both nullify the benefits gained from such an attempt, and also likely cause resentment amongst the populace.   Were this to become known, it is likely that the ruler at the time would face dire consequences.