Political Theory

Re: A good argument for private law

Clayton — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 08:09:09 GMT

The rich get the upper hand in public courts too. People who think otherwise have not been to court.

I think this is part of the reason that "classes" - that is, voluntary segregation on the basis of socio-economic status - are actually natural and a sign of a healthy society. The poor are not well able to defend themselves legally from the wealthy, which leads to problems. If I'm middle class, I'm probably better off living around middle class people than living in a wealthy area even if I could somehow rearrange my budget so that I could move where the wealthy are. If I got involved in a legal dispute with one of the wealthy people living in the area, they could surely afford better legal representation and I would therefore be vulnerable to exploitation through legal means. However, in a middle class neighborhood, my middle class neighbors are not likely to be able to afford any better lawyer than I could afford which means that if we get involved in a dispute, we will each probably have to settle on reasonable terms.

Natural, voluntary segregation should not be confused with State-subsidized and enforced classes, that is, "nobility."

Clayton -

Re: A good argument for private law

Eugene — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 23:40:33 GMT

Yeah, I think supreme court is a bad thing. If the entire world was an-cap you wouldn't want a single world government, you'd definitely want to allow people to secede. So I don't see how a supreme court could be compatible with the right of secession. Nevertheless you can't be sure how things will sort themselves. We hope anarcho-capitalism will work, but we can't know for sure until we try it.

Re: A good argument for private law

liberty student — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 19:50:57 GMT

The rich get the upper hand in public courts too. People who think otherwise have not been to court.

Re: A good argument for private law

Wesker1982 — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 19:46:38 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqo7XMkbtEk

Re: A good argument for private law

Michael J Green — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:03:34 GMT

So... no supreme court necessary?

A good argument for private law

Eugene — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:19:32 GMT

It is a common objection to private law which says that the rich will get the upper hand in private courts. However this is not what we see with arbitrators today. There are about 10,000 arbitrators in the United States, and there is no widespread problem of wealthy companies getting better rulings. In fact if that was the case, there would be no private arbitrators at all.