The Free Administration of Justice

[This article is excerpted from Let’s Abolish Government.] The free administration of justice was a principle of the common law, and it must necessarily be a part of every system of government which is not designed to be an engine in the hands of the rich for the oppression of the poor.
In saying that the free administration of justice was a principle of the common law, I mean only that parties were subjected to no costs for jurors, witnesses, writs, or other necessaries for the trial, preliminary to the trial itself. Consequently, no one could lose the benefit of a trial for the want of means to defray expenses. But after the trial, the plaintiff or defendant was liable to be amerced (by the jury, of course) for having troubled the court with the prosecution or defense of an unjust suit.1 But it is not likely that the losing party was subjected to an amercement as a matter of course, but only in those cases where the injustice of his cause was so evident as to make him inexcusable in bringing it before the courts.
All the freeholders were required to attend the courts, that they might serve as jurors and witnesses and do any other service that could legally be required of them, and their attendance was paid for by the state. In other words, their attendance and service at the courts were part of the rents which they paid the state for their lands.
The freeholders, who were thus required always to attend the courts, were doubtless the only witnesses who were usually required in civil causes. This was owing to the fact that, in those days, when the people at large could neither write nor read, few contracts were put in writing. The expedient adopted for proving contracts, was that of making them in the presence of witnesses, who could afterwards testify to the transactions. Most contracts in regard to lands were made at the courts, in the presence of the freeholders there assembled.2

This post was published at Mises Canada on SEPTEMBER 30, 2016.