Legal Systems Very Different from Ours
by Friedman, David, Peter Leeson, David Skarbek · first published 2019
21mentions
13recommended by
18HN commenters
2015–2026first – last mentioned
72% recommend28% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Tours real legal systems unlike modern ones, including Iceland, Kaale, and religion-based law, with surprising detail. Suits curious readers who want to question whether our own law is in a local minimum. Free online.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…Thiel destroying gawker" and "being okay with a billionaire destroying press", so you're probably getting downvoted from both sides. :] SlateStarCodex had a really good book review on David Friedman's "Legal Systems Very Different From Ours". One of the systems he covered is Iceland, which a court conviction allows you to go take things from the person who wronged you, by force. http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/13/book-review-legal-syste...…
on “Peter Thiel and the Stanford Review” ↗There's been some good research into the history of legal systems. See David Friedman's book Legal Systems Very Different From Ours [1]. There's a small section about prisoners. But a new chapter could definitely be written about cyber-criminals! [1] http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsCo...
on “Dark Web – Justice League” ↗…humans to interpret, not God. It amounts to an effective way to protect the system from wholesale change by new prophets who claim to be conveying the word of God. All cribbed from David Friedman's _Legal Systems Very Different From Ours_, an absolutely fascinating book which I strongly recommend.
on “Elevator Sabbath service mode (SHO)” ↗…Feynman Crime and Guilt: Stories - Ferdinand von Schirach Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams Travels - Michael Crichton Technical: The Unwritten Laws of Engineering - W.J. King Nonfiction: Legal Systems Very Different From Ours - David Friedman Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World - Tim Marshall
on “Ask HN: What books should I read this summer?” ↗I can highly recommend "Legal Systems Very Different from Ours" by David Friedman http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsCo... It includes a few chapters on religion-based legal systems and is interesting throughout.
on “List of Special Elevator Modes” ↗David Friedman's book 'Legal Systems Very Different From Ours' might provide some inspiration: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsCo...
on “Is Web3 anything?” ↗…out that it's often FINE to not bath for a day or even two, especially if fresh/clean clothing is being worn. I could prob think of books for creative problem solving. I, personally, would start with "Legal Systems Very Different From Ours" by David Friedman. It's available for free on his website, or amazon/library/whatever. Tons of ideas of collaborative problem solving, if you go through it with the lense of sifting for ideas you might…
on “ADHD Didn't Break Me–My Parents Did” ↗…the day. I just treat the theological discussion like Lord of the Ring fans or Warhammer 40k would treat lore discussions. You might like the chapter 'When God is the Legislator' in David Friedman's 'Legal Systems Very Different From Ours' available for free at http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsCo...
on “Calling All Hackers: How money works (2024)” ↗You might enjoy "Legal Systems Very Different From Ours" by David Friedman.
on “Dark Web – Justice League” ↗…details: https://carolashby.com/roman-names/). Reading the article makes me really want someone to write a "Naming Systems Very Different from Ours" series of articles along the lines of the classic "Legal Systems Very Different from Ours" [ http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsCo... ].
on “The Origin of Names (2015)” ↗Excellent book. I also recommend his recent "Legal Systems Very Different From Ours". It really makes you wonder to what extent our law may be in a local minimum.
on “The Machinery of Freedom (1989) [pdf]” ↗…like nature has offloaded a lot of the normal work from the child to the parents, in the case of humans; we're very much an evolutionary oddity in this regard. Interesting factoid from the fascinating Legal Systems Very Different From Ours: the Kaale (a Gypsy tribe in Finland) don't recognise the parent-child relationship at all, because reproduction is ritually unclean; the facts of reproduction cannot be admitted. Instead, a mother leaves…
on “What Happens to the Body on No Sleep” ↗For those interested in different legal systems and how they operate, I really enjoyed "Legal Systems Very Different from Ours" (https://amzn.to/35r1ooP) Here's a draft version published online: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Course_Pages/legal_sy...
on “Contradictions in Roman law left incurable headaches for its judges” ↗If you enjoy thinking about the legal implications of this, you'll almost certainly enjoy the first entry in "Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, Because I Just Made Them Up": https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/30/legal-systems-very-dif... An excerpt: > The Clamzorians are animists. They believe every rock and tree and river has its own spirit.…
on “I Am the Magpie River: How a Quebec river became a person under local law” ↗…adjustment, I would personally agree with their stance. There is plenty of precedent for this legislation through definitional scoping in history in general, though I'm not an expert on Catholicism. The book "Legal systems very different from ours" talks about it, and gives examples. It's really the only option for any sort of change when you're dealing with decrees from a supernatural entity or an unchangeable part of a constitution.
on “Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland” ↗