Definition: The Law is the description of the boundaries within which any individual properly exercises his rights, and outside of which he risks committing the offense of interfering with the rights of another.
Definition: The Common Law consist of the mores and practices of the individuals within a community.
Definition: Justice consists of enforcing the common law to the end of bringing about peace in the society.
Property Rights and Power of Choice
Property Rights is the defining element of any socio-political system.
In a libertarian society an individual has total power of choice as to decisions of the use his own property, which includes his body. The only restriction to this power is that in its execution there may not be an actual physical intrusion into the power of choice of another of the use of that individual’s property. Considerations as to loss of value, well being, fear and safety are not physical intrusions with regards to the exercise of this power.
Example: An individual has the right to own and use a gun. He does not have the right to shoot another person as that takes away the right of other individual of the use of his body. That is an actual physical intrusion.
In a libertarian system a person may not interfere with the right of another to own and use a gun just because the ownership of the gun by the other individual makes him fear for the safety of his own property (body included).
Shooting a person is an actual physical intrusion. Fear is just a consideration of harm.
Contracts
A contract into which one enters knowingly and willingly is senior to and may contain terms that supersede certain rights of that individual. Knowing and willing take into consideration such things as mental capacity and awareness. It is possible, for instance, that a child not be held accountable for a contract into which one may have entered.
Example: Contracts such as used by condo associations often severely restrict use of the individual rights of their members. As these contracts are freely entered into, they supersede the natural property rights of those individuals. The individual still has the right to leave that group. Outside of that group no such restrictions may be enforced.
Exercise of a contract is not done by boundaries drawn on the plat of a territory. The contract must be explicitly stated and must be between individuals. This proviso is most commonly violated by municipal corporations. Municipal corporations receive their power from “sovereigns,” which—except for individuals—are non-entities in libertarian theory.
Collective rights
There is no such thing as a “collective right.” A group by organizing, even when it develops a government for itself, does not create for itself any new rights. Except by a voluntarily entered contract, no group has any more rights than that of any of its members.
An individual may not grant to government any more power than that individual personally contains. A government derives its powers from the individuals. No government has any power greater than that of any single individual over which it rules.
An individual may not and cannot give to the government the powers tojail an individual,
dictate the behavior of any individual,
involuntarily extract money from (tax) any individual.
regulate an individual with regards to the use of his own body.
The use of drugs, vitamins, ingestion of food, suicide is not the province of government or anyone other than the individual himself.
Anarchy
A libertarian society is not an anarchy. Self government is government. Self government is the most legitimate government. A libertarian society—on a mathematically measurable unit basis—has more government overall than any other socio-political system.
Legislatures
A libertarian government does not contain a legislature. The people themselves are the legislature. The law is the common law and is established by the people themselves. (See Black’s Law Dictionary for a more detailed definition of “common law.”) This is the quintessential distinction of a libertarian government from other socio-political system governments: no legislature. It is also the classic definition of a democracy. (See Webster’s Dictionary, 1828 edition.)
Majority rule is not a democracy in the classic sense of democracy. Majority rule is an important tool of the fascist socio-political system.
In the libertarian society, the government is only a referee as we understand the activity of the referee in sporting events. In sports, referees do not make any rules. They only enforce the rules as established by the owners of the game. In the Game of Life, the People are the Owners.
The Law
The Common Law is the only legitimate law.
The common law may vary from community to community, from area to area.
In a libertarian society the law is not necessarily homogeneous from end to end except with regards the principles laid out in this Manifesto.
Justice and Peace
Justice is the province of the Jury.
All violations of law are adjudicated by a jury (unless both parties voluntarily agree to an arbiter). Juries are chosen at random from the locale wherein the dispute originated.
It is the common law that prevails in jury decision making.
The job of the jury is to bring about justice. With justice comes peace. If the juries do poorly there will be unrest in the community. When the juries do their job well, there is peace.
Responsibility
Responsibility for the political community is with the people, as is the case with any true Democracy, and is certainly the case in a libertarian society. Once any part of that responsibility is shunted off to a government—whether secular or theocratic—the libertarian state is lost and that society is on the road to serfdom.
