Minarchists Versus Anarchists on Government Courts
January 30, 2017
—–Original Message—–
From: DJ
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2017 5:50 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Abstention on Israeli settlement UN vote – LewRockwell.com
Dr. Block, Excellent article, and thought-provoking as always: Block, Walter E. 2017. “The US abstains at a UN vote on Israel settlements.” January 3; https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/01/walter-e-block/us-abstains-un-vote/. In it you stated, “… it (“legitimate” government) must be extremely limited, typically to armies, police, and courts.”
That is perhaps a ‘typical’ minarchist position, but I question whether courts should even be included as one of the necessary, or even desired, functions of such a “legitimate” government. Should we not consider the possibility of private competing courts in place of a state monopoly on legal functions such as dispute resolution and criminal justice? I see no possible escape from an innate conflict of interest when one party to an action is the state itself without a neutral third party acting as judge. I see independent courts being an absolute necessity to justice and liberty regardless of any other functions performed by the state. I understand this leads to practical questions of how to actually enforce court decisions, but that’s another issue (one that I would very much enjoy hearing you address). Best regards, DJ
Dear DJ: I entirely agree with you. I’m an anarcho-capitalist, not a minarchist, and I also think courts should be private (armies and police too). However, in that essay I was trying to report on how minarchists such as Ayn Rand see matters, and, she certainly sees public, or government courts as legitimate institutions.
Econophysics; Rothschilds