How about a chapter on interesting fictional legal systems? My favorite example is Goachin law where the greatest crime is ignorance of the repercussions of your actions. If you’re found innocent you’re judged unworthy of the responsibilities of sentientience and killed.
To be found guilty you must prove that truly and deeply understand the ramifications of your actions. The guilty go free. The innocent die.
Legal Systems Very Different from Ours
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#22[deleted]
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#23David Friedman is Milton Friedman's son. He teaches law but has never taken a formal law class. He also likes to study the economic systems of MMORPGs. His son Patri came up with the idea of Seasteading. Interesting character.
Re: Legal Systems Very Different from Ours
#24David Friedman is Milton Friedman's son. He teaches law but has never taken a formal law class. He also likes to study the economic systems of MMORPGs. His son Patri came up with the idea of Seasteading. Interesting character.
Among many other things he has written a cookbook with medieval recipes.
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/To_Milk_an_Almond.pdf
Re: Legal Systems Very Different from Ours
#25People in the USA tend to think that the
country has only one set of laws, but in addition to
49 states with generally similar civil and criminal law,
we also have Louisiana, with a system of law
which descends from the Napoleonic Code, and
arbitration agreements found in many contracts
and ToSes.
In addition, many religious organizations tend to view their systems of canon law as having primacy before state or federal law, and educational entities which take the same view toward their codes of conduct, preferring to act _in loco parentis_ rather than deferring to state authorities.
Re: Legal Systems Very Different from Ours
#26How about a chapter on interesting fictional legal systems? My favorite example is Goachin law where the greatest crime is ignorance of the repercussions of your actions. If you’re found innocent you’re judged unworthy of the responsibilities of sentientience and killed. To be found guilty you must prove that truly and deeply understand the ramifications of your actions. The guilty go free. The innocent die.
I recently read China Mieville's "The City and The City", which features two countries - each the size of a large city - that cohabitate the same physical space, but are otherwise entirely different legal entities, with national borders.
I don't want to say too much about it, because slowly learning more about this system and society is one of the fun parts of the book, but you can Google for a brief synopsis of how it works.
Re: Legal Systems Very Different from Ours
#27The list doesn't include Western laws. - Common law - Case law (popular in Anglo countries) - Civil law (popular in Western European countries)
That's because it's meant to look at other legal systems -- ones very different from the ones its audience are familiar with, i.e. those.
But Anglo-American case law is very different from French or German law. The stated purpose of the Code civil was to do away with traditional French law, and it was indeed a great improvement over the previous state of affairs. This could at least be discussed.
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#28This is not intended to start a political comment on current use of the term "sharia law". But if you research Hanafi Sunni sharia law in its cultural context, the important thing to grok from a western perspective is that the concept of "sin" and "crime" are essentially the same thing. The two concepts used to be generally the same thing, in western european-derived legal systems 250+ years ago, but are now separated in western legal/justice systems.
Peoples' cultural expectation that something which is a sin must therefore also be a crime helps with the understanding of how it's been implemented up until now.
Re: Legal Systems Very Different from Ours
#29This is an old draft. A more recent draft is here: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsCo...
Re: Legal Systems Very Different from Ours
#30This is not intended to start a political comment on current use of the term "sharia law". But if you research Hanafi Sunni sharia law in its cultural context, the important thing to grok from a western perspective is that the concept of "sin" and "crime" are essentially the same thing. The two concepts used to be generally the same thing, in western european-derived legal systems 250+ years ago, but are now separate…
I’m Greek sin mean error. So sinning is not recommended but it’s not a crime.