-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- "John Smith" <jsmith58@hotmail.com> wrote:

You know, there's a reason people started using judges to help settle disputes. There's a reason the common law evolved with the idea of proportionate response and restitution. This kind of shoot-everybody-I-think-harmed-me approach just doesn't work. Nobody knows what someone else will consider harm worth shooting over. If somebody disagrees that a shooting was justified, they'll shoot back, and feuds begin.

See "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman. (Sorry if this is old hat to you or other members of this list.) Friedman's legal arrangement works something like this: Say you kill somebody. If you want to protect your life from revenge, you immediately report what you did to three people nearby who were uninvolved. This keeps you inside the legal system. Afterwards, a compensation arrangement is made between your protection company and the protection company of your victim. This occurs within the legal framework. If you do not comply with the compensation agreement, you are outlawed. Outlaws receive no legal protection. You can change protection companies anytime you like. Improbable? This is very similar to the Icelandic legal system of circa 1000 C.E. Friedman claims that this worked quite well for many years. Icelanders at that time were murderous pirates, yet in Iceland they murdered each other much less frequently than Americans do now in the United States. The compensation payments were typically nontrivial - on the order of twenty years of income. Some interesting aspects of medieval Icelandic politics: no prisons, no standing army, no single political leader, and no taxes. Just Another Cypherpunk - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 mQENAzQDR/QAAAEH/16yrVPsexy8QB9PVBBWYEYwdurA9pNjqPc+zSnxtt51d74Z nLsjzHUdGReLFjRM6RjG95STr6Wn0fhOPGMujNyxkV3fbgGxdupQ+9S/3eET0sNO 0NMn4YbOrHec9+3sq3J/Lb1Ds+Me4ioeWWMkgQ2MfpDbhajih0ZL6A6w6s3hkars qPxZy5/Wf3ahQ7M2M5IoujVj6G1PczaU/cUoGNg9HkB+PVZNEyVOkZfVoS3lTywx 6GfpLOEssQI8sprYr4qEOVP7TaevuGPGW5r1uTvqnbKGPxbqCrpVTEG620JwupLA OEAda0052TdZqJXm8T84aUrICloG/7WvDgiTIEUABRG0Jkp1c3QgQW5vdGhlciBD eXBoZXJwdW5rIDxmb29AZGV2Lm51bGw+ =as72 - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBNAOj5v+1rw4IkyBFAQGszQf9EOsOO6rZkboCTGes5IcM/co7Os5Gb7Ri YhQQTVAsMD7zQ30rrEmx9pMCPtgkaF9zesG0/EUVOogbPiv1LagFJOLOiKjiqHrI sA48lGAYB5YBBBNtGMP7kMIJDc5M7QY7RoyHzsCGKaymsFFQNzpOCmKmTIKC3LD5 jQ6a9hBe9xwzzXkS0j+sdI62zjv/2Fco2DK8PkHFOINi3+GsKLZrVSelC6htEi7W amBdi2clNYcawoc9yGXOiL6233e5/A+Usrh9fQ74EPAErSkz8EjI13Yd8+HOes8U 6CMm+SWdCGKpp6Z9DN7B6i5ybLoNek3pl5mHWGfbZOtJ8nIblrMPRA== =DiLK -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----