The following excerpt is taken from an article that was linked from Strike-the-Root. Rule-of-Law Anarchism contains an interesting conceptual argument that sets up the basis for what seems to be an Anarcho-Capitalist orientated movement. Whether you agree with Anarcho-Capitalism or not, it does make some intriguing tactical and conceptual points while very accurately explaining the legitimacy of the state. It centres around the idea of influencing the state to take part in an independent court when dealing with other members of the court.

A Prefigurative Movement

So how do we communicate this message of law without the state? Do we write articles, essays, and books, and give speeches? This is not enough; it is hard to convince people of the need for radical change by words alone. There is a slogan in the open-source software community that is relevant here: “show me the code.” This means that, rather than argue about the merits of different technical solutions, just go ahead and implement your proposal and let everyone see how well it works. We likewise need to show people working examples of our proposals.

We need to become a prefigurative movement. Rather than talking endlessly about what we want, or agitating for someone else to give us what we want, we can simply behave as if we were already living in the stateless society we desire. As Gandhi said, we must be the change we want to see in the world.

We must begin to create this stateless system of law now, rather than waiting for the state to disintegrate first. This requires a commitment to resolving all of our own disputes outside of the state’s legal apparatus wherever possible, using mediation, existing arbitration services, or the freedom movement’s own natural law courts. Over time we must free ourselves of dependence on the state’s “justice” system, even in dealing with crime. We should promote the norm of mutual consent in choice of what court is to try a case, both by word and by our example as plaintiff or defendant.

There is a possible entrepreneurial opportunity here: low-cost adjudication of disputes. A judicial entrepreneur could seek out persons and problems ill-served by the state’s legal system; for instance, in many cases people choose to shrug off an injury done them rather than deal with the high cost of taking the matter to court. The lack of licensing requirements for legal practicioners in natural law courts would lead to more competition lower prices for their services, increasing their popularity.

One way of encouraging the development of natural law courts would be to commission a modern-day version of Blackstone’s work on the common law, modified as necessary to concord with libertarian principles, and written to be accessible to the intelligent layman. This would require selecting a suitable expert or experts interested in the project and raising the money to pay them. It might seem odd to think of getting a legal education entirely by self-study, but this was common in 19th Century America — it was called “reading the law”, and generally meant studying Blackstone’s Commentary on the Laws of England.

What I do especially like in the article, is the proposition to take away the “specialness” awarded to the state by its supporters.

Of course, others will insist that the state is special, and that its officers should receive special treatment. The proper response is for us to remain stubbornly and willfully incapable of comprehending why anyone would think so. Don’t argue about it; just assume that the state isn’t special, and let the state’s supporters explain why its officers should be exempt from the rules of civilized conduct. We should be like the Somali immigrant who couldn’t understand why the cops kept on pulling his car over and fining him; the idea that he had to get a government permission slip to drive was simply too bizarre to even occur to him.

As Orwell noted, language is a powerful thing and we have to realise that when we award government employees a special position in our language, we are validating their coercive practices. As the article states, anyone who opposed to the sanctity and coercive nature of government needs to stubbornly refuse to grant such important justifications to the state. The more we do it, the more we work against ourselves.