Polycentric Law
2002-10-14 03:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipsHumane Studies Review
Volume 7, Number 1 Winter 1991/92
Polycentric Law
by Tom W. Bell
http://mason.gmu.edu/~ihs/w91issues.html
>From the introduction:
"As any cynic will confirm, money and law have a lot in common. But their ties run even deeper than most suspect. Money and law had similar origins: both arose spontaneously out of the undirected actions of individuals seeking common standards for mutual coordination. Money and law developed in parallel fashion, too: medieval Europeans enjoyed competition in currencies and legal systems until monarchies took over both fields. And state monopolies in money and law now present common hazards: they are imposed by fiat, inefficiently operated, and (as the cynics point out) jointly corrupting. However, a new generation of scholars has come to question the need for state monopolies in money and law. In the place of central banks they advocate a free banking system. In the place of state legal systems they advocate overlapping private jurisdictions in free and open competition -- a polycentric legal system.
This article offers an introduction to polycentric law. It begins by reviewing research on customary legal systems, using Anglo-Saxon law as an exemplar. Then the article traces how state law rose to domination in the competition among medieval European legal systems. This account reveals that privately produced law survived the state's onslaught and has recently enjoyed a resurgence. After surveying current theories of polycentric legal systems, I will suggest another parallel between money and law: just as research in free banking has recently enjoyed a surge of interest, so too the study of polycentric law stands on the verge of new and rapid growth. (In this article I employ " polycentric law," " privately produced law," and " purely private law" interchangeably. Others use " non- monopolistic law." See Randy Barnett, " Four Senses of the Private-Public Law Distinction," in Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 9 [Spring 1986, pp. 267-276].)..."
Volume 7, Number 1 Winter 1991/92
Polycentric Law
by Tom W. Bell
http://mason.gmu.edu/~ihs/w91issues.html
>From the introduction:
"As any cynic will confirm, money and law have a lot in common. But their ties run even deeper than most suspect. Money and law had similar origins: both arose spontaneously out of the undirected actions of individuals seeking common standards for mutual coordination. Money and law developed in parallel fashion, too: medieval Europeans enjoyed competition in currencies and legal systems until monarchies took over both fields. And state monopolies in money and law now present common hazards: they are imposed by fiat, inefficiently operated, and (as the cynics point out) jointly corrupting. However, a new generation of scholars has come to question the need for state monopolies in money and law. In the place of central banks they advocate a free banking system. In the place of state legal systems they advocate overlapping private jurisdictions in free and open competition -- a polycentric legal system.
This article offers an introduction to polycentric law. It begins by reviewing research on customary legal systems, using Anglo-Saxon law as an exemplar. Then the article traces how state law rose to domination in the competition among medieval European legal systems. This account reveals that privately produced law survived the state's onslaught and has recently enjoyed a resurgence. After surveying current theories of polycentric legal systems, I will suggest another parallel between money and law: just as research in free banking has recently enjoyed a surge of interest, so too the study of polycentric law stands on the verge of new and rapid growth. (In this article I employ " polycentric law," " privately produced law," and " purely private law" interchangeably. Others use " non- monopolistic law." See Randy Barnett, " Four Senses of the Private-Public Law Distinction," in Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 9 [Spring 1986, pp. 267-276].)..."