I spawned some interest on another thread so started a fresh one. I also invited /r/GoldandBlack since I'm not always great at getting back to people these days.

First thing to understand about private courts is there are several important institutions: In libertopia we use DROs (dispute resolution organizations) aka courts. Another source we use is insurance. Insurance works two-fold. It acts both as a cost limiting factor in many instances but also as a valuation of reputation.

First lets talk about what is crime- in libertarian society it would be NAP violations and within those reciprocal responses are generally preferred in the immediate an restitution in the long term. The goal of criminal court is restitution not punishment. However that restitution falls upon the principle actor of the crime and obviously some punishment may be involved or the rich can simply buy away murder. Modern criminal courts only focus on punishment. So the most obvious crimes are those to life, person, and property or rape assault murder and theft. I will circle back to these.

So I take out a policy with my insurance that is focused on monetary damages for many cases. The cost is part of some subset of premiums that likely escalate greatly as the cost of the premium only really focuses on court costs and increasing payouts probably increase length of battles. If you are ruled to be a murderer you'd have to pay the restitution up to my policy value. Basically that person spends their time paying back their insurance because immediate payment would go hand in hand with a guilty verdict.

So what don't pay right? Insurance acts as a value of reputation. Your presence is a risk many places. They vouch for you to not shoot up Walmart. Not paying basically isolates yourself. No voucher...limits your options. Even private roads. You basically go into house arrest. You keep breaking that you may go to a penal colony focused on indentured servitude to pay back and for your maintenance. Outside of LEO which I think we can imagine as a private organization the inner workings of finding a court are now similar. Even if I pay immediately my reputation and my insurance may be so high as to limit people vouching for me until a company is willing to take that risk.

Theft may fall more into civil cases despite being more truly criminal.

Ok in civil court or disputes it is quite simple. Lets say you and I contest ownership of a computer. We can agree as many people do to meet before a judge with no coercion because we are both rational individual who would like this solved. This is the same thing that happens on judge judy today.

Lets say you can produce a contract that says the computer was yours because it arrived as the work of our business together and you had all tech products as yours. Furthermore in most situations whereby civil cases would occur, contracts would also occur and specify the location of such arbitration. It then no longer matters which judge I want.

But lets say you are just my buddy and I lent my computer to you with no contract because I'm a fool. Similarly if this goes to court without a reply from me whatsoever, they may rule in absentia.

Lets say I blow up and say I don't want to meet with Judy she's a cunt and Judge Joe Brown is cooler and his proclivity for rapping verdicts makes me believe he will rule in my favor because I too am a rapper. Ok so now we have it down to situations where there is no contract, and we cannot agree about whom to use as our dispute resolution organization (DRO). I want Joe Brown and you want Judy. In theory it should not matter, right? Lets say Judy is widely known as person who lets people walk off with other's property if they appear less well to do. The easiest solution upon competing resolutions is a combined resolution organization. We would argue before Joe and Judy who would then need to privately come to a conclusion. If one of these two in private is not acting reputably they may be reported to another organization which monitors reputable DROs, which would deal more with internal liscensing among the group ad they are at risk of their reputation and future business edit 4- you still don't like it and refuse to show before your own 50% choice again absentia. And we are paying for 2 times the service so obviously it is in our favor to find a neutral group.

Now lets say everything didn't go my way. I have to give you the computer but I refuse. Two major arguments can be presented here. One you are now a legitimate target for having previously violated a contract to violent and justifiable retrieval. Great you say for the weak, what about the rich guy who has 10 armed guards. This would be potentially as bad. You would have yourself blacklisted as the person who doesn't follow throw with legitimate contractual obligations and blacklisted effectively from any contract but the riskiest of takers who know you don't follow through on your word this again is in part the cost of your insurance.