On Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 11:11:27PM -0000, mitchinson wrote: > i don't know very much about it but recall from school that saxon and viking > societies used to have blood money payments for crimes. similarly i believe > that a payment to the victims family can be sufficient within the islamic > code providing that family agrees the sum. > > a self regulating solution? i believe there were also other penalties if > terms could not be agreed.
There is no "penalty", but payment. If the criminal party refuses to pay willingly, then there is war, and it will have to pay by force. But this war is only justified up to taking proper revenge, and taking back "too much" might raise an endless vendetta war. Hence everyone's interest in finding a peaceful agreement. Both parties, as well as surrounding families, are interested in peace, and will thus seek a prompt agreement before court. The criminal, who is especially wary of possible revenge, and his whole family, who fears about an innocent being the victim of the revenge, will usually be the first one to seek refuge nearby a respected wise man and summon a court. Similarly, the offended party would seek a court agreement so to not to waste time and effort seeking a vengeance that could lead to a wasteful war. A party that would refuse to summon a court, or refuse to comply with court decisions would be a rogue, in whom no one would trust anymore, that would not find any protection by anyone anymore, not any work, etc. Such rogues would be at war with the whole society, and would not survive long. Si vis pacem para bellum. -- If you want peace, prepare war. That's exactly how free societies fight roguery. Not surprisingly, the same kind of things happened in lots of free society throughout the world and throughout times, a surviving example being Somaliland. [ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ] [ TUNES project for a Free Reflective Computing System | http://tunes.org ] The more one knows, the more one knows that one knows not. Science extends the field of our (meta)ignorance even more than the field of our knowledge. -- Faré
