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Thread: Property Rights in Primitive Societies: Law without Government

  1. #1

    Property Rights in Primitive Societies: Law without Government

    https://mises.org/library/enforcemen...out-government




    Enforcement of Private Property Rights in Primitive Societies: Law without Government





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    Tags Free MarketsOther Schools of ThoughtPhilosophy and MethodologyPrivate Property
    07/30/2014Bruce L. BensonGet This Book/Digital Text


    9_1_1_0.pdf

    9_1_1_0.pdf


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    If law exists only where there are state-backed courts and codes, then every primitive society was lawless. Indeed, one widely held definition or "theory" of law is that "the rule of law simply means the 'existence of public order.' It means organized government, operating through the various instruments and channels of legal command. In this this,all modem societies live under the rule of law [but primitive societies did not]." This definition of law characterizes the legal positivist school of legal theorists and dominates the economics profession. Even strongly market- oriented economists typically note that the market can function effectively only within a system of well-defined and enforced private property rights and that government is therefore needed to establish and enforce these "rules of the game." Any economist who would even question that law and order are necessary functions of government is likely to be considered a ridiculous, uninformed radical by most of the rest of the profession.


    'We endorse the idea of voluntarism; self-responsibility: Family, friends, and churches to solve problems, rather than saying that some monolithic government is going to make you take care of yourself and be a better person. It's a preposterous notion: It never worked, it never will. The government can't make you a better person; it can't make you follow good habits.' - Ron Paul 1988

    Awareness is the Root of Liberation Revolution is Action upon Revelation

    'Resistance and Disobedience in Economic Activity is the Most Moral Human Action Possible' - SEK3

    Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

    ...the familiar ritual of institutional self-absolution...
    ...for protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment...




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  3. #2
    re the Yurok case,

    Evidently, "sweathouse groups" functioned somewhat like the ancaps' hypothetical PDAs. A person could choose which one he wanted to join, and they would provide enforcement for his legal claims (not for payment, but on a reciprocal basis). So, if I belong to sweathouse group A, and I sue you (by hiring a private judge), and I win the suit, and you refuse to pay, sweathouse group A will force you to pay me. But this raises a question, analogous to the question that always arises in discussions about PDAs: what happens if the convicted defendant's backers disagree with the judgement and decides to help him resist its enforcement? Do the two sweathouse groups fight it out?

    Well, I looked up the homicide rate among the Yurok...

    It was 240 per 100,000 per year, i.e. 31 TIMES the current US homicide rate.

    Were the sweathouse groups fighting?

    I'd say that'd be a logical inference, but, in any event, somebody was doing a tremendous amount of murdering.

    ...something to keep in mind before we imagine tribal society as some kind of libertarian paradise.

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    It was 240 per 100,000 per year, i.e. 31 TIMES the current US homicide rate.
    perhaps... but in primitive/stateless society the democide rate is effectively zero; I'm more concerned about the evil the State can inflict upon the people than I am about the people inflicting pain upon one another to settle their differences

    https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/DBG.CHAP1.HTM

    'We endorse the idea of voluntarism; self-responsibility: Family, friends, and churches to solve problems, rather than saying that some monolithic government is going to make you take care of yourself and be a better person. It's a preposterous notion: It never worked, it never will. The government can't make you a better person; it can't make you follow good habits.' - Ron Paul 1988

    Awareness is the Root of Liberation Revolution is Action upon Revelation

    'Resistance and Disobedience in Economic Activity is the Most Moral Human Action Possible' - SEK3

    Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

    ...the familiar ritual of institutional self-absolution...
    ...for protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment...


  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by presence View Post
    perhaps... but in primitive/stateless society the democide rate is effectively zero; I'm more concerned about the evil the State can inflict upon the people than I am about the people inflicting pain upon one another to settle their differences
    The NAP doesn't care who violates it.

    Murders' murder, whether committed by the state or a private person.

    As for murder by the state...



    Even at the height of WWII, battle deaths per 100k per year were only about 10% of what they averaged among the Yurok.



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