Book Review: Legal Systems Very Different From Ours
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Follow-up reading
↳ List Of Passages I Highlighted In My Copy Of Legal Systems Very Different From Ours — passages Scott highlighted · Nov 2017
Summary
A celebrated review of David Friedman's Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, making exotic law vivid and economically intelligible. A whirlwind tour of polycentric/anarcho-capitalist systems — Vlach Rom kris courts enforced by marime-pollution ostracism; the Amish as a 'competitive dictatorship' (vote with your feet between congregations); 18th-c England's private mutual-protection-insurance groups and prosecutor-bribes-as-fines; 10th–13th-c Iceland's transferable victim-rights and outlawry; Somali free-market judges competing on reputation. Scott probes with the 'outlaw cascade' thought experiment (could 51% just agree to be outlaws?) answered via Friedman's A Positive Account of Property Rights — legitimacy as a self-fulfilling Schelling point, true of modern America as of medieval Iceland. (II) He connects it to Seeing Like A State (metis) and cultural evolution (legal systems as evolved optima; feud -> arbitration), drawing out a lovely general insight: every system needs a punishment of last resort (ostracism, hanging, outlawry, feud) that, precisely because it deters, almost never has to happen (cf. plea bargains). (III) Three sharp notes: these systems seem oddly unprepared for much crime (huge fines, blood-money groups, no incarceration); the 'this book is too good' worry (Friedman makes every culture sound like a rational-self-interest optimizer — vs the Marxist 'a King is just some guy who seized power' view); and the Archipelago point — you and your community can still build internal legal orders (Orthodox Jewish tribunals, the Amish, seasteading) without anyone noticing.
Why this score
Quality 82 · Excellent. Excellent (82). A rich, fascinating, synthesis-heavy review that made the book famous, weaving in metis, cultural evolution, Archipelago, and legitimacy-as-Schelling-point, and adding genuine original critique (the outlaw-cascade question; the punishment-of-last-resort-that-never-happens insight; the even-handed 'too good'/rational-shoehorning worry and the King two-perspectives). One of Scott's best book reviews.
Claude’s paradigm shift 60 · Notable shift. Notable (60). The material is Friedman's, but the synthesis (Seeing Like A State, cultural evolution, Archipelago) and the critical contributions are a fresh, valuable framing.
Real-world impact 3 · Moderate. Moderate (3). An influential review within the rationalist / institutional-design / anarcho-capitalist sphere (it popularized real interest in polycentric law and feeds the Archipelago/network-states discourse); its reach is intellectual.