New Book Examines Anarchy and the Law

Anarchy and the Law
The Political Economy of Choice
Edited by Edward P. Stringham

Independent Institute and Transaction Publishers, 2007
720 pages
$89.95 | ISBN 10-7658-0330-5 cloth
$29.95 | 1-4218-0579-1 paper

Publisher's Blurb: Could society function without a state to provide courts and police? Is it possible for private institutions to be the sole providers of law and order, justice and security? If so, would they be subject to the same competitive forces that are indicative of a free-market, private-property economy? How can the delivery of law and order be improved upon by incorporating into them the responsiveness of market processes and customer-service orientation of market-based institutions? The questions are intriguing, and because they touch upon many disciplines—law, philosophy, economics, history, and more—there seems to be no end to the intense debate they have sparked.

Another reason for the controversy is that the classic texts on non-state legal systems are scattered across several books and hard-to-find journals, making it difficult to study this provocative idea in much scholarly detail. Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice, edited by Edward P. Stringham, co-published by the Independent Institute and Transaction Publishers, remedies this deficiency by assembling many of the major studies that explain and debate the theory and practice of law and order under a rule of law without the State.

Part 1 shows how influential advocates of non-state legal systems, from the 1970s to the 1990s, have argued their case. In part 2, philosophers and economists debate the morality and viability of non-state legal systems. Part 3 looks at the history of anti-statist legal and political thought and includes classic writings from the 19th century. Part 4 presents historical case studies from medieval England, Ireland, and Iceland; the Law Merchant; and dispute resolution during the settlement of the American West and elsewhere.