Source: Original Site Post

  • The Propertarian Constitution Solves One Problem

    Dec 26, 2019, 9:54 AM The propertarian constitution solves one problem – the problem of the abrahamic conquests made possible by roman imperial administration and law combined with and greek literacy and reason, and the problem of the 20th century made possible by the industrial and technical revolutions: the institutionalization of deception made possible by mass media, and fiat credit. We solve that problem by demanding Truth and Reciprocity in all aspects of commerce and commons to end (a) false promise (b) baiting into hazard, and (c) rent-seeking (gains without contribution to the risk of productivity). So we require full reciprocity: 1. Productive (prohibition on rents and free riding) 2. fully informed ( prohibition on false promise, obscurantism) 3. voluntary transfer (prohibition on takings of demonstrated interests) 4. including by externality (including others indirectly) 5. warrantied (liability for productivity, fully informed, voluntary transfer. Where all speech in such matters is treated as legal testimony, meaning it must meet the criteria of consistency in the dimensions 1. categorical, 2. logical, 3. operational, 4. empirical, 5. rational, 6. reciprocal 7. complete within limits, and the consequences of which are 8. within one’s ability to perform restitution. And the propertarian constitution institutes: 1. Reformations to institutions and processes thereby eliminating all means of parasitism. 2. Restitutions to those who have been harmed. 3. Punishments for those who have done harm. 4. Preventions: Changes in the constitution and the law creating a continuous market for profiting from the punishment of these forms of parasitism, once again forcing us into the market for voluntary cooperation in oder to survive, prosper, and flourish. So the propertarian constitution is structured as the prosecution of a crime by entire classes of people, and the restitutions, punishments, and preventions under law. This will be the greatest boon to western civilization since the industrial revolution, and will effectively outlaw the entire leftist program, prosecute, impoverish, ostracize, or imprison (or worse) those who have perpetrated this crime against our people. And hopefully it will end the abrahamic program forever.

  • The Propertarian Constitution Solves One Problem

    Dec 26, 2019, 9:54 AM The propertarian constitution solves one problem – the problem of the abrahamic conquests made possible by roman imperial administration and law combined with and greek literacy and reason, and the problem of the 20th century made possible by the industrial and technical revolutions: the institutionalization of deception made possible by mass media, and fiat credit. We solve that problem by demanding Truth and Reciprocity in all aspects of commerce and commons to end (a) false promise (b) baiting into hazard, and (c) rent-seeking (gains without contribution to the risk of productivity). So we require full reciprocity: 1. Productive (prohibition on rents and free riding) 2. fully informed ( prohibition on false promise, obscurantism) 3. voluntary transfer (prohibition on takings of demonstrated interests) 4. including by externality (including others indirectly) 5. warrantied (liability for productivity, fully informed, voluntary transfer. Where all speech in such matters is treated as legal testimony, meaning it must meet the criteria of consistency in the dimensions 1. categorical, 2. logical, 3. operational, 4. empirical, 5. rational, 6. reciprocal 7. complete within limits, and the consequences of which are 8. within one’s ability to perform restitution. And the propertarian constitution institutes: 1. Reformations to institutions and processes thereby eliminating all means of parasitism. 2. Restitutions to those who have been harmed. 3. Punishments for those who have done harm. 4. Preventions: Changes in the constitution and the law creating a continuous market for profiting from the punishment of these forms of parasitism, once again forcing us into the market for voluntary cooperation in oder to survive, prosper, and flourish. So the propertarian constitution is structured as the prosecution of a crime by entire classes of people, and the restitutions, punishments, and preventions under law. This will be the greatest boon to western civilization since the industrial revolution, and will effectively outlaw the entire leftist program, prosecute, impoverish, ostracize, or imprison (or worse) those who have perpetrated this crime against our people. And hopefully it will end the abrahamic program forever.

  • “Propertarianism Consists of ….”

    Dec 26, 2019, 2:12 PM

    —“This is a very vague non-answer that tries to appear smart by using a big word salad and sounds like something the typical libertarian atheist who’s sure of his own intellect would say. I still don’t understand what Propertarianism is.”— Ryan Chapman

    Always an overconfident moron in the bunch. What’s the difference between aristotelianism, platonism, and abrahamism? What’s the difference between reason, logic, rationalism? What’s the difference between Aristotelian, enlightenment(empirical) and scientific, revolutions? Whats the difference between math, logic, programming, recipes, and protocols? So what is the difference between aristotelianism, empiricism, science, and testimonialism (propertarianism)? Well, the difference is from the rational to the empirical to the operational. What does operational mean? It means the difference between logic (Sets) and programming (operations). It means the difference between logic (language), empiricism (observation), and operations (actions). Propertarianism completes the scientific method. The culmination of the philosophical program of the 20th century was that there is no via positiva scientific method. Instead, The scientific method is a via negativa method: falsificationary. There are only so many dimensions humans can cognitively imagine and cognitively falsify by tests of consistency: categorical, logical, operational, empirical, rational, reciprocal, complete in scope with defined limits, and consistent and therefore coherent across those dimensions, where one warranties such due diligence, and is liable for the consequence of his displays words and deeds resulting from such statements. By using this method we can create a universally commensurable, value neutral, operational language and as such a universally commensurable logic, across all fields: a system of measurement for the truthfulness of speech. We can then use this language and this method to restate the constitution, and our law, in scientific, and operational language, closed to interpretation (legislation from the bench). Moreover we can use this law to outlaw the primary innovation in organized crime that was used to undermine western civilization: false promise; baiting into hazard, using pilpul (sophism) and critique(undermining, straw manning) under cover of plausible deniability to profit from the imposition of harms upon others by financialization (innumeracy), pseudoscience, sophism, supernaturalism, denialism, including the false promises, pseudo-mathematics, pseudoscience, sophistry, and denial of marx, boas, freud, Cantor, Adorno et al, Gramsci et al, Derrida et al, Friedan et al, rand/rothbard, and the neocons. And yes, we can even use it to reform and obtain insight into the failures of Bohr ad Einstein that hilbert predicted, and we can explain the 20th century of mysticism and deceit that hayek warned us of. In other words we can end the jewish-muslim, marxist-postmodernis-feminist program of lying by false promise, and explain why it’s a crime. So, hopefully you can understand why this brief passage here is not something I would stick on the front page for marketing purposes. And if you can’t comprehend it – it doesn’t matter. You probably don’t know calculus, analysis, algebraic geometry, relativity, quantum mechanics, or the difference between hierarchical, relational, functional, object oriented, and bayesian programming, or the design patterns in each. Or the fundamental problems of mathematical economics, categories, use of symmetries as intermediary systems of economic measurement. Or even the problem of protein folding or why all of those questions are related by the problem a lack of an operational logic of geometries that replaces the operational logic of lines and curves using positional names that we call mathematics. I know what the fuck I”m doing.Don’t shit on my doorstep.

  • “Propertarianism Consists of ….”

    Dec 26, 2019, 2:12 PM

    —“This is a very vague non-answer that tries to appear smart by using a big word salad and sounds like something the typical libertarian atheist who’s sure of his own intellect would say. I still don’t understand what Propertarianism is.”— Ryan Chapman

    Always an overconfident moron in the bunch. What’s the difference between aristotelianism, platonism, and abrahamism? What’s the difference between reason, logic, rationalism? What’s the difference between Aristotelian, enlightenment(empirical) and scientific, revolutions? Whats the difference between math, logic, programming, recipes, and protocols? So what is the difference between aristotelianism, empiricism, science, and testimonialism (propertarianism)? Well, the difference is from the rational to the empirical to the operational. What does operational mean? It means the difference between logic (Sets) and programming (operations). It means the difference between logic (language), empiricism (observation), and operations (actions). Propertarianism completes the scientific method. The culmination of the philosophical program of the 20th century was that there is no via positiva scientific method. Instead, The scientific method is a via negativa method: falsificationary. There are only so many dimensions humans can cognitively imagine and cognitively falsify by tests of consistency: categorical, logical, operational, empirical, rational, reciprocal, complete in scope with defined limits, and consistent and therefore coherent across those dimensions, where one warranties such due diligence, and is liable for the consequence of his displays words and deeds resulting from such statements. By using this method we can create a universally commensurable, value neutral, operational language and as such a universally commensurable logic, across all fields: a system of measurement for the truthfulness of speech. We can then use this language and this method to restate the constitution, and our law, in scientific, and operational language, closed to interpretation (legislation from the bench). Moreover we can use this law to outlaw the primary innovation in organized crime that was used to undermine western civilization: false promise; baiting into hazard, using pilpul (sophism) and critique(undermining, straw manning) under cover of plausible deniability to profit from the imposition of harms upon others by financialization (innumeracy), pseudoscience, sophism, supernaturalism, denialism, including the false promises, pseudo-mathematics, pseudoscience, sophistry, and denial of marx, boas, freud, Cantor, Adorno et al, Gramsci et al, Derrida et al, Friedan et al, rand/rothbard, and the neocons. And yes, we can even use it to reform and obtain insight into the failures of Bohr ad Einstein that hilbert predicted, and we can explain the 20th century of mysticism and deceit that hayek warned us of. In other words we can end the jewish-muslim, marxist-postmodernis-feminist program of lying by false promise, and explain why it’s a crime. So, hopefully you can understand why this brief passage here is not something I would stick on the front page for marketing purposes. And if you can’t comprehend it – it doesn’t matter. You probably don’t know calculus, analysis, algebraic geometry, relativity, quantum mechanics, or the difference between hierarchical, relational, functional, object oriented, and bayesian programming, or the design patterns in each. Or the fundamental problems of mathematical economics, categories, use of symmetries as intermediary systems of economic measurement. Or even the problem of protein folding or why all of those questions are related by the problem a lack of an operational logic of geometries that replaces the operational logic of lines and curves using positional names that we call mathematics. I know what the fuck I”m doing.Don’t shit on my doorstep.

  • What Does Democracy Depend Upon?

    Dec 26, 2019, 3:26 PM The absurd propositions that: (a) The people are capable of making positive (policy) decisions rather than just throwing failed governments out. (b) That the category of person that runs for office, wins office, and maintains a revenue (donation) stream sufficient to stay in office is better than either a professional trained for life to fulfill that office, or taxpayer randomly selected to serve in that office. (b) That democracy is other than a slow road to totalitarianism as people use the state to create vast tragedies of the commons at national scale. (c) that people are ignorant of the fact that homogenous ethnocentric, nation states, under rule of law (juridical defense), governed by monarchies (judge of last resort), parliaments (approve or reject state requests for funds), elections (throw out the current ministers), and Juries (determine settlement in matters of dispute) are the optimum social can be improved upon, or that (d) it’s possible to have such a political order without a majority middle class population that like europe or china used systemic agrarian eugenics and criminal prosecution to limit the reproduction of the underclasses (unproductive), each member of which is six times as costly as the any member of the productive classes . People are stupid. Government doesn’t matter. Rule of law matters. Only Europeans created it. Because European law is not a choice, it is the natural law of tort (trespass) meaning that there is no law higher than it – even a god’s. As such Europe is and has been for 5000 years, a cult of the common law of tort. And until Rousseau invented political sophistry, and Kant philosophical sophistry, and Napoleon destroyed Europe and imposed continental law, we were all sovereign. Only the Americans remain. And only as long as european peoples rule themselves.

  • What Does Democracy Depend Upon?

    Dec 26, 2019, 3:26 PM The absurd propositions that: (a) The people are capable of making positive (policy) decisions rather than just throwing failed governments out. (b) That the category of person that runs for office, wins office, and maintains a revenue (donation) stream sufficient to stay in office is better than either a professional trained for life to fulfill that office, or taxpayer randomly selected to serve in that office. (b) That democracy is other than a slow road to totalitarianism as people use the state to create vast tragedies of the commons at national scale. (c) that people are ignorant of the fact that homogenous ethnocentric, nation states, under rule of law (juridical defense), governed by monarchies (judge of last resort), parliaments (approve or reject state requests for funds), elections (throw out the current ministers), and Juries (determine settlement in matters of dispute) are the optimum social can be improved upon, or that (d) it’s possible to have such a political order without a majority middle class population that like europe or china used systemic agrarian eugenics and criminal prosecution to limit the reproduction of the underclasses (unproductive), each member of which is six times as costly as the any member of the productive classes . People are stupid. Government doesn’t matter. Rule of law matters. Only Europeans created it. Because European law is not a choice, it is the natural law of tort (trespass) meaning that there is no law higher than it – even a god’s. As such Europe is and has been for 5000 years, a cult of the common law of tort. And until Rousseau invented political sophistry, and Kant philosophical sophistry, and Napoleon destroyed Europe and imposed continental law, we were all sovereign. Only the Americans remain. And only as long as european peoples rule themselves.

  • Why Does Common Law Marriage Exist?

    Dec 27, 2019, 5:34 PM Common law marriage is the origin of all marriage. The question is, why do church ceremonies, state marriages, and state licenses exist? Traditional european marriage required only both parties agree to it, but technically speaking, it was an agreement between families, not just the husband and wife. A marriage agreement (promise, contract) is not only between the husband and wife, between their families, but is insured by the polity. Meaning that if you interfered in a marriage you were liable for damages (Yes really). We are very comfortable today but it was not long ago that life was precarious and reciprocally insured each other, so a failed marriage ment that parental families would absorb costs they might not be able to carry. Marriage licenses began so that otherwise illegal marriages could be conducted. In the USA the puritans in Massachusetts began requiring them (I don’t know why) – most likely to maintain their version of eugenic mating which is an unspoken tenet of the protestant ethic. The present reason for marriage licenses, registrations, and ceremonies is the prevention of illegal marriages, and the resolution of property and inheritance disputes by the court now that we have enough wealth to worry about.

  • Why Does Common Law Marriage Exist?

    Dec 27, 2019, 5:34 PM Common law marriage is the origin of all marriage. The question is, why do church ceremonies, state marriages, and state licenses exist? Traditional european marriage required only both parties agree to it, but technically speaking, it was an agreement between families, not just the husband and wife. A marriage agreement (promise, contract) is not only between the husband and wife, between their families, but is insured by the polity. Meaning that if you interfered in a marriage you were liable for damages (Yes really). We are very comfortable today but it was not long ago that life was precarious and reciprocally insured each other, so a failed marriage ment that parental families would absorb costs they might not be able to carry. Marriage licenses began so that otherwise illegal marriages could be conducted. In the USA the puritans in Massachusetts began requiring them (I don’t know why) – most likely to maintain their version of eugenic mating which is an unspoken tenet of the protestant ethic. The present reason for marriage licenses, registrations, and ceremonies is the prevention of illegal marriages, and the resolution of property and inheritance disputes by the court now that we have enough wealth to worry about.

  • Why Anglos Think European Bureaucracy and Law Is Idiotic

    1. There is only one law and that is property. All else is an application of that law to circumstance.
    2. Every man is sovereign and equal before the law
    3. The members of the state are merely members of the polity who have taken jobs administering the polity.
    4. We ‘battle’ before the court, and jury, with arguments, and the jury (really) can nullify laws or decisions at will.
    5. Judges discover violations of the one law creating decisions that become applications of, and records of, that law.
    6. This law is PURELY EMPIRICAL (scientific) method of continuously discovering what not to do, without determining what we should do.
    7. This law adapts immediately without administrative intervention or process to changes in circumstance and technology.
    8. Under this system of law anything not illegal is legal, and moreover, law may not be applied retroactively: where there is no law there is no crime.
    9. Under this system of law, we have very little constraint on people but more conflict in courts as a result, so we trade maximum opportunity for cooperation for higher chances of conflict we must defend against if we err.
    10. MOST IMPORTANTLY: To govern we only need to prohibit crimes. The ‘market’ and the court does the rest of its own self regulation, purely empirically not theoretically.

    The real difference? Because we could trust anglo judges and the french couldn’t trust french judges. Now the answer to that question of why is fascinating. Judges are just professional lawyers in Common law, not political or state bureaucrats. (the best generals were soliders) The European Union And The Common Law By Dr. Gary K. Busch There are many reasons why the European Union has failed in its task to create a system of democracy, fairness and transparency in its internal dealings. These include political corruption, economic ineptitude and the elites adherence to the religion of federalism among states and citizens whose agnosticism to that faith is proven at every referendum. The political and economic vacuity of the European bureaucrats is a heavy burden for any organisation to bear. However, despite the manifold failings of the leadership of the EU, the root cause of its incapacity lies elsewhere. There is a fundamental problem which has beset the European Community since its inception the conflict between the common law and the Roman-Dutch civil law of the Continent. THE COMMON LAW In essence, the Common Law legal systems are in widespread use, particularly in England where it originated in the Middle Ages, and in nations or regions that trace their legal heritage to England as former colonies of the British Empire. It is a system of law which is founded on case law and precedents. This Common Law was developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action. The fundamental principle is that of the continuity of the law and the root belief that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions. The body of precedents developed through prior adjudication binds future legal decisions on similar points of law.. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, a common law court looks to past presidential decisions of relevant courts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision (this principle is known as Stare Decisis). If, however, the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases (called a “matter of first impression”), judges have the authority and duty to make law by creating precedent. Thereafter, the new decision becomes precedent, and will bind future courts. This system of Common Law is the source of law in England, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the former British colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. This Common Law distinguishes itself from Statutory or Regulatory Law promulgated by executive branch agencies pursuant to delegation of rule-making authority from the legislature and is generally anterior to these statutory or regulatory laws. The Common Law arises from the traditional and inherent authority of courts to define what the law is, even in absence of an underlying statute, Most criminal law and procedural law; most of contract law and the law of torts; and court decisions that interpret and decide the fine boundaries and distinctions in law promulgated by other bodies relies on judges taking evidence in an adversarial proceeding and delivering a judgement which establishes the strictures of the ensuing law. This body of common law, sometimes called “interstitial common law,” includes judicial interpretations of the Constitution, of statutes, and of regulations, and examples of application of law to facts. This Common Law system is very different that the civil law system which prevails in Europe. Common law systems place great weight on court decisions, which are considered “law” with the same force of law as statute for nearly a millennium, common law courts have had the authority to make law where no legislative statute exists, and statutes mean what courts interpret them to mean. By contrast, in civil law jurisdictions courts lack authority to act where there is no statute, and judicial precedent is given less interpretive weight which means that a judge deciding a given case has more freedom to interpret the text of a statute independently, and less predictably. For example, the Napoleonic code expressly forbade French judges from pronouncing general principles of law. CIVIL LAW Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections which are referenced. Conceptually, it is the group of legal ideas and systems ultimately derived from the Code of Justinian, but heavily overlaid by Germanic, ecclesiastical, feudal and local practices as well as doctrinal strains such as natural law, codification, and legislative positivism. Civil law proceeds from abstractions, formulates general principles, and distinguishes substantive rules from procedural rules. It holds legislation as the primary source of law, and the court system is usually inquisitorial, unbound by precedent, and composed of specially trained judicial officers with a limited authority to interpret law. Juries separate from the judges are not used, although in some cases, volunteer lay judges participate along with legally trained career judges. European civil law relies on the notion of codification. The concept of codification was developed as conforming to a political ideal which required the creation of certainty of law, through the recording of law and through its uniformity.[iii] The principle of civil law is to provide all citizens with an accessible and written collection of the laws which apply to them and which judges must follow. Where codes exist, the primary source of law is the law code, which is a systematic collection of interrelated articles arranged by subject matter in some pre-specified order, and that explain the principles of law, rights and entitlements, and how basic legal mechanisms work. Law codes are usually created by a legislature’s enactment of a new statute that embodies all the old statutes relating to the subject and including changes necessitated by court decisions[iv] There are many differences between the Common Law and civil law, much too abstruse for this analysis. For the purpose of analysing the conflict of laws within the European Union a simple concept will suffice. This was recited to me by the new head of the Legal Division of the European Economic Community in the early 1970s. I was researching and writing a television documentary for the Canadian Windows on the World� (CTV) called The New Europeans. The legal head was a British lawyer. He said to me, This European Community will never work. English law says that whatever is not illegal is permitted. In Europe, if something is not specifically permitted under some codified rule, than it is illegal. He went on to say that not only must everything be specifically permitted it has to be permitted uniformly throughout the Community. That is why there are so many directives, guidelines and rules set up by the EU which govern all aspects of economic and political life. All these rules must be the same throughout the EU. Most of the time taken up by the EU (except for the profitable business of allocating subsidies, allowances and quotas) is spent dealing with the minutiae of governance. This is why the EU is bogged down by pettifoggery and why the English cannot fathom what these bureaucrats are about. If it isn’t illegal than one should be free to do it. It certainly makes sense to Americans, Canadians, Australians and others. This conflict of laws is equally a challenge to multinational companies attempting to pursue their aims in the EU. Much of what is taken for granted as legal and permissible in other parts of the world is differently construed in Europe. This is repeated in Africa where ex-British colonies are often in conflict with ex-French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies. This issue is an important factor in the current debate on the imposition of a tax on financial transactions. It is a dilemma for those involved. Ultimately there is no solution to this dilemma. Perhaps a separation of the Common Law countries from the civil law bureaucracies is inevitable. To quote Marx, it contains the seeds of its own destruction. [i] Garner, Bryan A. (2001). A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (2nd, revised ed.). New York: OUP. [ii] Neubauer, David W.,and Stephen S. Meinhold. Judicial Process: Law, Courts, and Politics in the United States. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, pg.28. [iii] Smits, Jan (ed.); Dotevall, Rolf (2006), Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, “63: Sweden”, Edward Elgar Publishing, [iv] Neubauer, David W.,and Stephen S. Meinhold., op.cit.

  • Why Anglos Think European Bureaucracy and Law Is Idiotic

    1. There is only one law and that is property. All else is an application of that law to circumstance.
    2. Every man is sovereign and equal before the law
    3. The members of the state are merely members of the polity who have taken jobs administering the polity.
    4. We ‘battle’ before the court, and jury, with arguments, and the jury (really) can nullify laws or decisions at will.
    5. Judges discover violations of the one law creating decisions that become applications of, and records of, that law.
    6. This law is PURELY EMPIRICAL (scientific) method of continuously discovering what not to do, without determining what we should do.
    7. This law adapts immediately without administrative intervention or process to changes in circumstance and technology.
    8. Under this system of law anything not illegal is legal, and moreover, law may not be applied retroactively: where there is no law there is no crime.
    9. Under this system of law, we have very little constraint on people but more conflict in courts as a result, so we trade maximum opportunity for cooperation for higher chances of conflict we must defend against if we err.
    10. MOST IMPORTANTLY: To govern we only need to prohibit crimes. The ‘market’ and the court does the rest of its own self regulation, purely empirically not theoretically.

    The real difference? Because we could trust anglo judges and the french couldn’t trust french judges. Now the answer to that question of why is fascinating. Judges are just professional lawyers in Common law, not political or state bureaucrats. (the best generals were soliders) The European Union And The Common Law By Dr. Gary K. Busch There are many reasons why the European Union has failed in its task to create a system of democracy, fairness and transparency in its internal dealings. These include political corruption, economic ineptitude and the elites adherence to the religion of federalism among states and citizens whose agnosticism to that faith is proven at every referendum. The political and economic vacuity of the European bureaucrats is a heavy burden for any organisation to bear. However, despite the manifold failings of the leadership of the EU, the root cause of its incapacity lies elsewhere. There is a fundamental problem which has beset the European Community since its inception the conflict between the common law and the Roman-Dutch civil law of the Continent. THE COMMON LAW In essence, the Common Law legal systems are in widespread use, particularly in England where it originated in the Middle Ages, and in nations or regions that trace their legal heritage to England as former colonies of the British Empire. It is a system of law which is founded on case law and precedents. This Common Law was developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action. The fundamental principle is that of the continuity of the law and the root belief that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions. The body of precedents developed through prior adjudication binds future legal decisions on similar points of law.. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, a common law court looks to past presidential decisions of relevant courts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision (this principle is known as Stare Decisis). If, however, the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases (called a “matter of first impression”), judges have the authority and duty to make law by creating precedent. Thereafter, the new decision becomes precedent, and will bind future courts. This system of Common Law is the source of law in England, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the former British colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. This Common Law distinguishes itself from Statutory or Regulatory Law promulgated by executive branch agencies pursuant to delegation of rule-making authority from the legislature and is generally anterior to these statutory or regulatory laws. The Common Law arises from the traditional and inherent authority of courts to define what the law is, even in absence of an underlying statute, Most criminal law and procedural law; most of contract law and the law of torts; and court decisions that interpret and decide the fine boundaries and distinctions in law promulgated by other bodies relies on judges taking evidence in an adversarial proceeding and delivering a judgement which establishes the strictures of the ensuing law. This body of common law, sometimes called “interstitial common law,” includes judicial interpretations of the Constitution, of statutes, and of regulations, and examples of application of law to facts. This Common Law system is very different that the civil law system which prevails in Europe. Common law systems place great weight on court decisions, which are considered “law” with the same force of law as statute for nearly a millennium, common law courts have had the authority to make law where no legislative statute exists, and statutes mean what courts interpret them to mean. By contrast, in civil law jurisdictions courts lack authority to act where there is no statute, and judicial precedent is given less interpretive weight which means that a judge deciding a given case has more freedom to interpret the text of a statute independently, and less predictably. For example, the Napoleonic code expressly forbade French judges from pronouncing general principles of law. CIVIL LAW Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections which are referenced. Conceptually, it is the group of legal ideas and systems ultimately derived from the Code of Justinian, but heavily overlaid by Germanic, ecclesiastical, feudal and local practices as well as doctrinal strains such as natural law, codification, and legislative positivism. Civil law proceeds from abstractions, formulates general principles, and distinguishes substantive rules from procedural rules. It holds legislation as the primary source of law, and the court system is usually inquisitorial, unbound by precedent, and composed of specially trained judicial officers with a limited authority to interpret law. Juries separate from the judges are not used, although in some cases, volunteer lay judges participate along with legally trained career judges. European civil law relies on the notion of codification. The concept of codification was developed as conforming to a political ideal which required the creation of certainty of law, through the recording of law and through its uniformity.[iii] The principle of civil law is to provide all citizens with an accessible and written collection of the laws which apply to them and which judges must follow. Where codes exist, the primary source of law is the law code, which is a systematic collection of interrelated articles arranged by subject matter in some pre-specified order, and that explain the principles of law, rights and entitlements, and how basic legal mechanisms work. Law codes are usually created by a legislature’s enactment of a new statute that embodies all the old statutes relating to the subject and including changes necessitated by court decisions[iv] There are many differences between the Common Law and civil law, much too abstruse for this analysis. For the purpose of analysing the conflict of laws within the European Union a simple concept will suffice. This was recited to me by the new head of the Legal Division of the European Economic Community in the early 1970s. I was researching and writing a television documentary for the Canadian Windows on the World� (CTV) called The New Europeans. The legal head was a British lawyer. He said to me, This European Community will never work. English law says that whatever is not illegal is permitted. In Europe, if something is not specifically permitted under some codified rule, than it is illegal. He went on to say that not only must everything be specifically permitted it has to be permitted uniformly throughout the Community. That is why there are so many directives, guidelines and rules set up by the EU which govern all aspects of economic and political life. All these rules must be the same throughout the EU. Most of the time taken up by the EU (except for the profitable business of allocating subsidies, allowances and quotas) is spent dealing with the minutiae of governance. This is why the EU is bogged down by pettifoggery and why the English cannot fathom what these bureaucrats are about. If it isn’t illegal than one should be free to do it. It certainly makes sense to Americans, Canadians, Australians and others. This conflict of laws is equally a challenge to multinational companies attempting to pursue their aims in the EU. Much of what is taken for granted as legal and permissible in other parts of the world is differently construed in Europe. This is repeated in Africa where ex-British colonies are often in conflict with ex-French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies. This issue is an important factor in the current debate on the imposition of a tax on financial transactions. It is a dilemma for those involved. Ultimately there is no solution to this dilemma. Perhaps a separation of the Common Law countries from the civil law bureaucracies is inevitable. To quote Marx, it contains the seeds of its own destruction. [i] Garner, Bryan A. (2001). A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (2nd, revised ed.). New York: OUP. [ii] Neubauer, David W.,and Stephen S. Meinhold. Judicial Process: Law, Courts, and Politics in the United States. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, pg.28. [iii] Smits, Jan (ed.); Dotevall, Rolf (2006), Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, “63: Sweden”, Edward Elgar Publishing, [iv] Neubauer, David W.,and Stephen S. Meinhold., op.cit.