Fra Rothbards The Ethics of Liberty om straffesystemet i et frit samfund
Hvordan kan straffesystemet fungere i fraværet af en stat til at opretholde lov og orden. Mange interessante pointer og kritik af nuværende system.
Principperne om kompensation, proportionalitet og skyld i et frit retssystem kan helt eller delvist integreres i vores samfundsmodel, der ikke kan siges at leve op til det basale krav om at levere retfærdighed for borgerne.
In the first place, it should be clear that the proportionate principle is a maximum, rather than a mandatory, punishment for the criminal. In the libertarian society, there are, as we have said, only two parties to a dispute or action at law: the victim, or plaintiff, and the alleged criminal, or defendant. It is the plaintiff that presses charges in the courts against the wrongdoer. In a libertarian world, there would be no crimes against an ill-defined "society," and therefore no such person as a "district attorney" who decides on a charge and then presses those charges against an alleged criminal. The proportionality rule tells us how much punishment a plaintiff may exact from a convicted wrongdoer, and no more; it imposes the maximum limit on punishment that may be inflicted before the punisher himself becomes a criminal aggressor.