I feel like I've found

I feel like I’ve found a piece of the puzzle that I’ve been missing. This article from John Hasnas about the Myth of the Rule of Law (link via jim) has answered some questions I didn’t even realize I wondered about.

He discusses how the law as it is implemented is subject to the biases of the people who practice it. (This ain’t exactly news, but people have this belief that the law is impartial) He says that law exists for order and justice, and these two goals can be opposed. What he proposes is quite radical, a free market for law. He is reticent to say how it would work but points out how housing communities have their own laws, workers have collective bargaining agreements, and so forth that are outside traditional law. He actually uses a clever allegory about shoes to illustrate his point.

I heartily recommend the most excellent Orson Welles’ version of Kafka’s The Trial as a companion piece to this article.