From: hal@rain.org
Date: Mon Mar 22 1999 - 12:34:55 MST
Suppose it turned out that for a private law based, anarchocapitalistic
society to work effectivelly, it was necessary for people who shared the
same legal system to live near each other. Ideally we would want people
to be able to choose their legal system independent of where they live,
but suppose that this just doesn't turn out to be practical. You can
still choose your legal system, but you have to move.
This is plausible especially if the main things that most people want to
be illegal represent physical acts; it is likely to be easier to limit
physical actions within a specified region than to try to do so on a
place-by-place basis in discontinuous households and business enclaves
spread around the world. It is a matter of efficiency, and the conflict
between the idealized world we would like to live in, and the balky,
stubborn world of physical reality.
I don't think this would be a fundamental revision to the ideals of
anarchocapitalism. Moving is a pain, but assuming that most people don't
change their legal system very often, the costs would not be too bad.
You would still have the essential element of choice of laws.
Imagine, in contrast, a miniarchy which allows people and regions to
peacably secede at will. Governments of today seek territory above all
else, but if we suppose that minimal legal systems can be accepted,
then perhaps the principle of allowing people to secede will also be
acceptable. Justice would arguably require allowing people to leave
and not forcing them to continue to live under the local laws.
Aren't these two systems the same? What would be the difference between
a world of competing miniarchies and an anarchocapitalist world where
people's choice of law determines where they live?
It seems to me that these two approaches are fundamentally compatible,
and both represent a common vision for a world where people have much
more choice and flexibility in their laws than they have today.
Hal
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