| Well, here's an issue I take with the concept of a privatized court system. Say I mean to take you to court for some reason, and the court finds in my favor. But you don't think that the ruling was fair, so you appeal. In the kind of system I advocate - one with courts being one of maybe two or three functions of government, of course - there is an objective appellate process, one which includes a consistent heirarchy, one which always references the same set of rules in determining the outcome of the case... but what happens in a system of privatized courts? How do you appeal? Since private courts would have no reason in particular to regard another private court's ruling, why would this appellate process not just go on until one of us was too broke to afford to appeal? -And then how do you expect to get your judgment? Also, are we to just assume that a sensible structure or hierarchy will emerge in the private market? What's to qualify new entrants into the market? Can just anyone be a judge?...
There are, by the way, ways of funding a government court that do not involve compulsory taxation for services unused. Come to think of it, there's no reason why funding for a government court not to be funded more or less in the exact same fashion as a private one. For example, if someone sues someone else, the court could claim some tiny fraction of the judgment as demanded (or a minimum of some number associated with the cost of hearing a case, whichever number is larger)... considering some of the corporate lawsuits that would come through, this fraction could indeed be very small, and still provide for a court system. Consider that a corporate lawsuit might involve a judgment to the tune of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Even one percent would be far more than enough to provide funding for a court for quite some time, and that's just one lawsuit. It might be possible for the court to "insure" contracts, too, which would mostly be useful in big-money situations anyway, corporate contracts and the like.
What's even more concerning than a private system of courts however is a private system of police forces. If no one authority has any jurisdiction in a situation, then what happens when two people call competing police forces in a dispute?
Here again, funding a police force by means of fees associated with use would negate compulsory taxation. | 
02-26-2008, 10:49 AM
