right O.... gimi a bit to scavenge for info outa the books

Thank you.  Correct me I'm wrong but it was also a place where a lower ranking warrior and a higher ranking warrior could speak on equal terms?

Aurora Paradox

It's often used when a subordinate challenges the orders or view point of their superior.

COE's seemed to have gone into decline a bit after the invasion.  IIRC, there are frequent examples of superiors denying COE's to their inferiors, usually on the grounds that the challenger is in no way their equal.  There are also a number of examples of commanders completely prohibiting them, usually on the grounds that the Clan had already suffered too much attrition because of combat and couldn't afford to lose any more able-bodied warriors.

Usually the narration mentions that these denials of COE's were considered outside of protocol and a bit controversial - that seems to imply to me that COE's were pretty much always accepted before the invasion, but the integrity of the Clans degarded some during and after the invasion

You probably knew this anyway, but my post was in reference to the novels.

Bailey 17, now theres a name from the past, played friendlies with him and his unit back in the day, only did 4 duels with him though, 2 in Durgan, where I killed his Cauldron Born (the 2nd time he actually hit me with a couple of UAC20 rounds, and taking any damage was rare for me in Durgan Duels), and 2 on the CoE Clan map, where he took my Thor (the duelling config, 2 ERLarge, 4ERMed and 2 MGuns or similar) apart with a Blackhawk Prime twice in a row (although I almost killed him the first time).

Never did get a rematch on the CoE, and he never popped into Durgan again while I had the 1vs1 Duel Challenge up, an excellent pilot and a good guy to have a laugh with also.