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"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law', because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

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I.

Introduction

Philosophers in the Eighteenth Century introduced a

motto which stated, ―That government is best which governs least.‖ In response, Henry David Thoreau famously quipped, ―’

That government is best which governs not at all

’

; and when men [sic] are prepared for it, that will be the kind of govern

ment which they will have.‖

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Thoreau was not referring to an abstract spiritual or moral awakening but an active engagement in replacing the functions of government.

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He argued that the state, underneath its many obfuscations and claimed purposes, has just one tool on its belt: phy sical coercion. It governs because it is strongest, not wisest. Coercion is the opposite of liberty and one cannot abide the other. It is the duty of all people to disobey that which is unjust and to instruct others by word and act how to achieve liber ty. The practice of resolving disputes peacefully and voluntarily

, without resorting the state’s coercive

measures, is such an act. This paper argues that state courts are undesirable because they are economically inefficient and morally illegitimate. State courts lack both the incentive and the capacity for equitable dispute resolution because they rely on a monopoly of la ws and force. This paper explains that these two monopolies taken together represent an insurmountable hurdle which necessarily produces inefficiency and violent aggression, which violates personal liberty and

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Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Francis Gilmer, 1816

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Henry David Thoreau,

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

, 1 (1849).

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