Anarchist Visions of the Medieval Icelandic Non-state Socio-political Orderan Outline of a Critique Between the late 9 th and the middle of the 13 th century, Iceland was a pre-state society with a political system based on private means of creation, adjudication and enforcement of law. The functioning of this society has been a subject of numerous studies conducted within various disciplines, including legal history, political anthropology and institutional economics. In the last couple of decades, Medieval Iceland has also become a topic of interest to the various branches of the modern anarchist movement, whose members are prone to looking for historical examples of societies which lack a coercive government. The aim of this article is to critique the anarchist reconstructions of the Medieval Icelandic mode of governance. In particular, I will show that the anarchist visions of the non-state Icelandic sociopolitical order are anachronistic and substantially diff er from the accounts found in the Old Icelandic narrative sources, as well as in the private collections of the medieval local law, known as Grágás.
Spooner vs McConnell, 22 F 939, 943. Sprawa ta jest przedmiotem anonimowego eseju Spooner vs McConnell et al., An Argument Presented to the United States Circuit Court in Support of a Petition for an Injunction to restrin Alexander McConnell and Others from Placing Dams in the Maumee River Ohio, [s.l.] 1839. 8 Obecnie na terenach stanowiących niegdyś własność Spoonera znajduje się niewielka miejscowość Grand Rapids (Wood County, OH), w której według ostatniego cenzusu zamieszkuje 965 osób. 9 Wszystkie uzupełnienia w cytatach podane w nawiasach kwadratowych pochodzą od autora artykułu. 10 L. Sponner, Constitutional Law Relative to Credit, Currency and Banking, Worcester MA 1843, s. 24.
SUMMARY Hayek, common law and the theory of spontaneous order -some problems withHayek's analysis of the Anglo-American legal traditionThe theory of spontaneous order is widely regarded as one of the most important contributions of F.A. Hayek to the development of social sciences. Hayek's main example of an emergent order is the classical (Medieval and Early Modern) common law. In his account, common law is not only a result of spontaneous evolution but also the main source of the unusual amount of freedom the early modern Englishman enjoyed compared to his European counterparts. In this paper I discuss some problems with Hayek's analysis of the historical development of common law. In particular I criticize his claim that classical common law was based around precedents, and stress the surprisinggiven his economic views -lack of appreciation for the role competition between different courts played in the development of English law up until the nineteenth century. In conclusion I argue that polycentric legal order is the proper foundation for Hayek's "constitution of liberty".
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