Anarchy And Legal Order

This book elaborates and defends law without the state. It explains why the state is illegitimate, dangerous and unnecessary.

Private-property anarchism, also known as anarchist libertarianism, individualist anarchism, and anarcho-capitalism, is a political philosophy and set of economic and legal arguments that maintains that, just as the markets and private institutions of civil society provide food, shelter, and other human needs, markets and contracts should provide law and that the rule of law itself can only be understood as a private institution.To the libertarian, the state and its police powers are not benign societal forces, but a system of conquest, authoritarianism, and occupation. But whereas limited government libertarians argue in favor of political constraints, anarchist libertarians argue that, to check government against abuse, the state itself must be replaced by a social order of self-government based on contracts. Indeed, contemporary history has shown that limited government is untenable, as it is inherently unstable and prone to corruption, being dependent on the interest-group politics of the state's current leadership. Anarchy and the Law presents the most important essays explaining, debating, and examining historical examples of stateless orders.Section I, "Theory of Private Property Anarchism," presents articles that criticize arguments for government law enforcement and discuss how the private sector can provide law. In Section II, "Debate," limited government libertarians argue with anarchist libertarians about the morality and viability of private-sector law enforcement. Section III, "History of Anarchist Thought," contains a sampling of both classic anarchist works and modern studies of the history of anarchist thought and societies. Section IV, "Historical Case Studies of Non-Government Law Enforcement," shows that the idea that markets can function without state coercion is an entirely viable concept. Anarchy and the Law is a comprehensive reader on anarchist libertarian thought that will be welcomed by students of govern

The end of the Cold War has released some hitherto suppressed trends in international society that are reshaping international order, such as globalization and its nemesis - fragmentation. This volume analyzes the current transformation of the character of the state as the principal actor of international society and related changes in the structure of international society. International law, especially its fundamental principles, such as sovereign equality of states, non-use of force, non-interference, respect for human rights, and self-determination of peoples, reflect some basic characteristics of the state and the structure of international society. Because of significant changes going on in the latter, many crucial principles of international law have ceased to reflect the reality. Moreover, fundamental principles often come into conflict with each other since they reflect main characteristics of different international societies -- Westphalian and post-Westphalian.

This book provides a contextual account of the first anarchist theory of war and peace, and sheds new light on our contemporary understandings of anarchy in International Relations. Although anarchy is arguably the core concept of the discipline of international relations, scholarship has largely ignored the insights of the first anarchist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Proudhon's anarchism was a critique of the projects of national unification, universal dominion, republican statism and the providentialism at the heart of enlightenment social theory. While his break with the key tropes of modernity pushed him to the margins of political theory, Prichard links Proudhon back into the republican tradition of political thought from which his ideas emerged, and shows how his defence of anarchy was a critique of the totalising modernist projects of his contemporaries. Given that we are today moving beyond the very statist processes Proudhon objected to, his writings present an original take on how to institutionalise justice and order in our radically pluralised, anarchic international order. Rethinking the concept and understanding of anarchy, Justice, Order and Anarchy will be of interest to students and scholars of political philosophy, anarchism and international relations theory.

Order within Anarchy focuses on how the laws of war create strategic expectations about how states and their soldiers will act during war, which can help produce restraint. The success of the laws of war depends on three related factors: compliance between warring states and between soldiers on the battlefield, and control of soldiers by their militaries. A statistical study of compliance of the laws of war during the twentieth century shows that joint ratification strengthens both compliance and reciprocity, compliance varies across issues with the scope for individual violations, and violations occur early in war. Close study of the treatment of prisoners of war during World Wars I and II demonstrates the difficulties posed by states' varied willingness to limit violence, a lack of clarity about what restraint means, and the practical problems of restraint on the battlefield.

What is the purpose and justification of government? Upon what grounds is a regime considered legitimate? These perennial questions take on added significance at a time when legislative paternalism produces regulations which conflict with individual freedom of choice; special interest groups demand not only to be heard but to have their ideals given the force of law; and when there exists a clear and present danger that the actions of government may threaten the very persons it was designed to protect. Richard Taylor argues that we must find "the role of government which is least incompatible with freedom and at the same time adequate to the basic needs of protection." Of course, many questions arise when pursuing this goal. What principle(s) should guide us in our quest? Recognizing that government is a coercive force, what restrictions could be placed upon the power of the state without rendering it impotent? Can individual freedom of expression be conciled with the actions of social groups which seek to impose their will on others? Should government's power be used to protect individuals from the consequences of their own freely chosen actions, especially when these consequences impact only upon the individuals themselves? What is the appropriate scope and range of the government's protective powers; to what lengths may a political regime go to protect its citizenry? Professor Taylor confronts these complex questions with clarity, candor and conviction. His analytic mind slices through tangled issues to expose the core of each problem. He argues forcefully for the position that effective government is minimal government. The primary function of political regimes should be to protect citizens from one another and from outside enemies. Beyond this basic role each additional exercise of the state's coercive power must be carefully scrutinized.

A strongly felt criticism of the Parti Québécois proposal for sovereignty association. "A genuine humanist and idealist who tries to awaken the people to a better life."--Globe and Mail