Legal Systems Very Different From Ours. --ar 3:2 --sref 1381519562

Legal Systems Very Different From Ours. --ar 3:2 --sref 1381519562

By: David Friedman

Rating: ⭐

You can find the full text to the book here.

David Friedman (coincidentally the son of Milton Friedman) takes us through a tour of different legal systems across eras and countries to give us a survey of how cultures independently evolve the idea and execution of justice. He covers laws amongst pirates, laws amongst plains Native Americans, laws amongst classical Athenians, and more, concluding with a few observations about law creation and enforcement across them all. I personally enjoy reading about legal theory, but I think anyone interested in how to go about constructing just systems (or reasoning about the incentives in an existing one) would find this thought provoking. I’ve highlighted a few of my favorite chapters and my notes/synthesis below.

Romani (Gypsy) Law & Social Exit Costs

Early Chinise Law & Objectivism

Icelandic Law and Early Litigation Finance