Role of Personal Justice in Anarcho-capitalism, The

A criticism with which an anarcho-capitalist is usually assailed concerns the operation of free-market courts. How can the free market guard the interests of justice? Will not there be an incentive for a person to hire a relative (family bias) or to bribe a judge so as to receive a favorable verdict? Murray N. Rothbard and other libertarian writers have found that actual free-market courts which existed in the past competed with each other, not on the basis of their respective susceptibilities to bias, but on the basis of their respective fairness and impartiality. Yet, to my knowledge, there has been no theoretical, a priori explanation of this phenomenon. This paper will attempt to provide such an explanation. This aspect of a free-market court system will be discussed and will be contrasted with the operation of government court systems.

Volume 2, Number 3 (1978)