Legal Systems Very Different from Ours

By: David Friedman, Peter Leeson, David Skarbek

Narrated by: David Friedman

This book looks at 13 different legal systems, ranging from Imperial China to modern Amish: how they worked, what problems they faced, how they dealt with them. Some chapters deal with a single legal system, others with topics relevant to several, such as problems with law based on divine revelation or how systems work in which law enforcement is private and decentralized.

The book’s underlying assumption is that all human societies face the same problems, deal with them in an interesting variety of different ways, and are all the work of grown-ups and hence should all be taken seriously. It ends with a chapter on features of past legal systems that a modern system might want to borrow.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 David Director Friedman (P)2020 David Director Friedman

Excellent

This book is exactly what I wanted to read. Such an interesting walk through the history of the world’s legal systems. Learned a lot, everyone interested in state craft should read this!

Very interesting and informative on unique information. Reader was very good.

Audio quality was subpar but not horrible. Reader also had 1 or 2 moments where they stumbled on reading.

move to somalia

"if you like anarchy so much then why don't you move to somalia?"

well if the CIA stopped meddling with it, backing one warlord over another, then I might consider it.

Nice one but could have better sound quality

The content is great. But the quality of the narration is subpar. It is read by the author, and it seems it was recorded on his laptop microphone. It could also use some editing. Anyway, I still prefer to have this audiobook with a non-ideal narration than no audiobook at all!

Fascinating and worthwhile

The topic is quite fascinating, and the author did a great job researching and writing it. The legalese was not onerous for a plebe like me. I do feel like this book could have broad appeal for curious people outside of law school.

Since there is too much historical scholarship for one person, the author relied on experts for most legal systems, except medieval Icelandic law, whoch he researched himself. From a narrative perspective, the Icelandic chapter suffers from a digression into defending the authors scholarship. I don't think it's excessive, but misplaced. Much of it could be moved to an appendix, which would help to keep the reader engaged.

The author is a good reader and seems likeable. I would've enjoyed attending his seminar. However, the production quality is terrible. It was not read in a studio. You can hear the room. You can hear page flips. Mistakes were not all edited out. Probably the wrong kind of microphone was used.

I hope the author corrects those issues in a future edition. I put my nitpicks here in case they do some good. Don't let them deter you from reading the book. It has high value and merit. If you're even slightly interested in legal theory, get it.