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A legal system is any institution or set of institutions in a given society that provides dispute resolution in a systematic and reasonably predictable way. it does so through the exercise of three functions: the judicial, the legislative, and the executive. The judicial function, the adjudication of disputes, is the core of any legal system; the other two are ancillary to this. The legislative function is to determine the rules that will govern the process of adjudication (this function may be (...) merged with the judicial function, as when case law arises through precedents, or it may be exercised separately), while the executive function is to secure submission (through a variety of means, which may or may not include violence) to the adjudicative process and compliance with its verdicts. A government or state (for present purposes i shall use these terms interchangeably) is any organisation that claims, and in large part achieves, a forcibly maintained monopoly, within a given geographical territory, of these legal functions, and in particular of the use of force in the executive function. now the market anarchist objection to government is simply a logical extension of the standard libertarian objection to coercive monopolies in general.1 First, from a moral point of view, among people regarded as equals2 it cannot be legitimate for some to claim a certain line of work as their own privileged preserve from which others are to be forcibly excluded; we no longer believe in the divine right of kings, and on no other basis could such inequality of rights be justified. Second, from an economic point of view, because monopolies are insulated from market competition and hold their customers by force, they lack both the information and the incentive to provide consumers with fair, efficient, and inexpensive service. The anarchist accepts these arguments, and merely asks why they should apply with any less force to the provision of legal services. (shrink)

This book, in the tradition of Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia, sheds new light on persistent philosophical questions about the nature and justification of political authority. Skoble’s discussion draws upon law, economics, and game theory to examine limited-state and anarchist theories from the standpoint of liberty and human rights. It includes a careful elucidation, based on the analysis in F. A. Hayek’s Constitution of Liberty, of the nature of coercion and the extent to which it can realistically be minimized. (...) Skoble sets out the differences between libertarian and communitarian perspectives on the nature of society and the state, and, finally, compares the merits and demerits of violent and nonviolent strategies for political change. (shrink)