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182 sats \ 9 replies \ @SpaceHodler 27 Jan \ parent \ on: Bitcoiner and Socialist bitcoin
And legal doesn't necessarily mean coming from a public legal system. Laws and courts can be private.
I've never heard anyone advocate for that before. Are there any robust arguments in favor of this you could link to?
I'm not trying to debate here, just curious because I've yet to encounter the idea.
I could imagine a few issues with such a system which may be tricky.
"I don't care for your laws, taking my business elsewhere, to the court across town..."
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It happens today in business contracts. When signing a contract with another business, both agree on a single court will uphold your agreement or be arbitrators.
Arbitration is also actually way more cost effective than court of law. Used all the time and in a private manner. Trying to reach settlement, with an independent 3rd party, before the case sees the light of public scrutiny.
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With the business contracts they agree on using a particular public court of law, or a private one?
I was more curious about the example above regarding externalities. Like a toxic chemical dump due to gross negligence or willful planning.
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About half of the legal systems in the world are called "Civil courts." They are wholly separate from the criminal courts run by the state's judicial branch.
Private law is just as common as state law in most countries. You may have used civil courts already without knowing you did so, such as if you bought real estate.
Cases with externalities like toxic dumping usually wind up in the criminal courts, but that really depends on if there was a pre-existing contract between the plaintiff & defendant.
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It was first theorized by Rothbard, and elaborated on further by David Friedman.
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It's not even theorized it exists in the real world even in an awful socialist country like France. Les Tribunaux de Commerce ( Commercial Courts) which arbitrate disputes between companies and contracts, are already private.
You can very well imagine a world based on contracts rather than thousands of useless laws, arbitrated by private courts specified at the beginning, when the contract is signed. Except for criminal cases maybe everything can be private. And even for criminal affairs I'm sure the free market would find a way to deal with it of better quality compared to public courts.
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Thanks. When I said "it was theorized" I was referring more to criminal law, as that's what people usually think is the hardest to privatize.
There are also historical examples, like medieval Iceland.
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Awesome, thank you!
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