Decentralization Hidden in the Dark Ages

From:  Bionic Mosquito

For longtime readers, this is a condensed version of the several posts I have made on this subject.  I have also added a minor amount of new material.

Examples of decentralized society in history are often hidden.  They are hidden because those in decentralized societies never bothered to keep records.  They are also hidden for the purposes of the current state.  I have previously written about anarchy in the Southeast Asian Highlands as one example.  Here, I will present the time of the Middle Ages as another.

This time offered a system of private law.  A law not based on the edicts of the king, but based on local tradition and culture.  The king was not above the law, but equally subject to it.  For law to be law, it must be both old and good.  Each lord had a veto power over the king and over each other law (I will use the term “lord” for those landed free men.  Even the serfs could not be denied their right without adjudication.  Land was not held as a favor from the king; title was allodial.  A man’s home truly was his castle.

Although the term has fallen out of use in the academic community, for many this period is known as the Dark Ages – with all of the associated stereotypes: barbarians, boorish behavior, and the uncivilized society that came to Europe with the fall of the much more civilized Rome.

From Wikipedia:

The Dark Ages is a historical period used for the first part of the Middle Ages. The term emphasizes the cultural and economic deterioration that supposedly occurred in Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire.  The label employs traditional light-versus-darkness imagery to contrast the "darkness" of the period with earlier and later periods of "light".

The (Not So) Dark Ages

How did people live absent a strong central power (Rome)?  In what manners was governance achieved?  How did such a society evolve over the centuries into the nation-states of Europe?  From whose perspective were these ages “dark”? 

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, in his essay entitled “On the Impossibility of Limited Government and the Prospects for a Second American Revolution,” makes reference to certain aspects of this time period in history:

Feudal lords and kings did not typically fulfill the requirements of a state; they could only "tax" with the consent of the taxed, and on his own land every free man was as much a sovereign (ultimate decision maker) as the feudal king was on his.

Tax payments were voluntary.  On his land, each free man was as sovereign as the king.  This doesn’t seem so “dark.”

Hoppe quotes Robert Nisbet:

The subordination of king to law was one of the most important of principles under feudalism.

The king was below the law.  This might be one factor as to why the time period is kept “dark.”

Hoppe references a book by Fritz Kern, “Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages.”  The book was originally written in German in 1914, and is a thorough and eye-opening examination of the relationship of king and lord during this time period, as well as the relationship of both king and lord to the law.  I will rely upon, and will quote extensively, from this book throughout this essay.  Except as noted, all quoted items will be from this book.

During the early Middle Ages, there was no concept of a Divine Right of Kings, nor did the earlier period hold to the idea of kingship by birthright.  These ideas developed over the centuries and only took shape in the late Middle Ages.  Contrary to these, in the early Middle Ages…

…an act of popular will was an essential element in the foundation of government….

To become king required consent of those doing the choosing.  Additionally, the king did not hold absolute power:

…even the rudiments of an absolutist doctrine had scarcely appeared.

Both the king and the people were subservient to the law – and not an arbitrary law, but a law based on custom, “the laws of one’s fathers.”

All well-founded private rights were protected from arbitrary change….

Germanic and ecclesiastical opinion were firmly agreed on the principle, which met with no opposition until the age of Machiavelli, that the State exists for the realization of the Law; the power of the State is the means, the Law is the end-in-itself; the monarch is dependent on the Law, which is superior to him, and upon which his own existence is based.

The king and the people were not bound to each other, but each was bound to the Law, giving all parties responsibility to see that the integrity of the Law is maintained.  A breech by one imposed an obligation on the other to correct the breech.  The relationship of each party (king and lord) was to the Law, not to the other party, and each had duty to protect it.

Contrast this to the situation today: whereas today it is an illegal act for the people to resist the government authority, during this period after the fall of Rome the lords had a duty to resist the king who overstepped his authority.  This is not to say that such challenges went unopposed by the king –physical enforcement by the lords was occasionally required – however, the act of resistance in and of itself was not considered illegal.  It was a duty respected by king and people alike.

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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Ron Paul Dot Com 2.1

This is version 2.1 because it is not a completely new version, but only a clarification of one aspect of my previous post.

I ended my last post on this topic as follows:

I am certain there are many details of the regulatory procedures that I have not captured….I am open to further understanding on this issue.

In reviewing my previous article and some of the links, I found a glaring instance of just such a miss.  It was right under my nose, in an LRC blog post….

ICANN has four approved arbitration organizations.

In that light, I offer the following from ICANN:

Complaints under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy may be submitted to any approved dispute-resolution service provider listed below. Each provider follows the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy as well as its own supplemental rules.

There are four listed dispute-resolution service providers, one of which is WIPO – the provider housed within the UN.  This is counter to what I had previously written:

ICANN has chosen WIPO to adjudicate such disputes.

There is something else from the above-mentioned LRC post:

Because the RP.com guys registered Ron's name in Australia, the international arbitration option must be used.

In my quick review of the four providers, one seems to be US-based, one in Europe, and one in Asia.  The fourth is WIPO. 

Still, this leaves some room for conflict with the language at the ICANN site, which states that claims may be submitted to any provider on the list.  Is it possible that the language at the ICANN site is a general statement, with many devils in the many details?  After all, lawyers and regulators rarely write so clearly and succinctly. Is it possible that it is ICANN and not the claimant that selects the provider, based on factors of the specific claim?  As indicated at LRC, could geography determine?  The statement could be read this way:

Complaints under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy may be submitted [by ICANN] to any approved dispute-resolution service provider listed below.

Or this way:

Complaints under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy may be submitted [by Claimant] to any approved dispute-resolution service provider listed below.

I have no idea, but this could explain and therefore eliminate the seeming conflict.  It would take someone familiar with such proceedings to clarify this language.  That isn’t me.

As I have mentioned before and will do so again: I have no opinion one way or another about which party will prevail in this issue, nor does it make any difference to me.  I know little about the details of the dispute, and virtually nothing about the law.  I have no desire to get in Ron Paul’s head and figure out why he did this.  My intent has been to answer and remains in answering the following:

1)      What is the process?

2)      Is there some violation of libertarian principle / NAP in Ron Paul’s action?

I am working on a follow-up post.  In this upcoming post, I will summarize some of the discussion that my earlier post generated, including further developing some of my replies.  I will also address some statements made in a Huffington Post article on this subject.  Finally, I will further develop my views regarding UN involvement in this matter.