Where Does Law Come From?

Law, like language, is the product of social evolution, embodied in custom. The conditions for the emergence of law embodiment, scarcity, rationality, relatedness and plurality are outlined, and the context for the emergence of law dispute resolution is analysed. Adjudication procedures, rules and enforcement mechanisms, the elements of law, emerge from this context. The characteristics of such a customarily evolved law are its severely limited scope, its negativity, and its horizontality. It is suggested that a legal system (or systems) based on the principles of archaic law could answer the needs of social order without permitting the paternalistic interferences with liberty characteristic of contemporary legal systems.