Untrue. If all I do is afflict someone and never get around to harming them physically before they kill me, I get suspect on them. Even if we're both declared.

It depends on who declared first and who died. I don't think the both declare thing is true.

Vix wants to kill someone.
Vix declares Genevieve.
Genevieve is much more competent in combat.
Genevieve kills Vix.
Genevieve does not gain suspect because Vix declared first.

No I mean, if you declare someone and that someone fights back even just a punch, then- oh wait, that was with vitae the last time I killed someone so yeah, untrue.

I think the idea of this is that both parties can agree that they are waiving PK status in the duel. It's useful to keep people from abusing honorable duels to gain status (which is done quite often), and it might be possible to make it so that other people can not interfere (which happens less-often, but is still an issue that makes people afraid to duel).

For those suggesting the arena, it is far from the same thing. Duels are sometimes for building confidence, but they're usually over some IC offense where one party wants the other dead, but feels honor-bound to fight fairly instead of jumping them. Substituting arena is not the same. Off-planar fights are less public (and thus less humiliating to the loser, so it takes away part of the intrigue). That's why so many duels take place at the Aetherplex.

Overall, I like this idea. It's probably not a huge priority with other things like nexus worlds coming up, but I for one would take advantage of it.