The Two Great Laws

Richard Maybury is the kind of historian I like to read, because he goes waaaay back, and draws parallels between what has happened before and what's happening now, and feels very comfortable making predictions based on the evidence of history.

I remember distinctly the day I first learned of him. I was on a business trip, on a Southwest flight from Albuquerque to El Paso, and the guy sitting next to me was reading a book entitled "What Ever Happened To Justice?" by Maybury.

We got into a lively discussion about the premise of the book, which is that politics, the law and the economy are inextricably intertwined, always have been, and that one's understanding of economics, the law, or politics could not be complete without seeing all of them at once in the context of each other. Thus, distortions in the economy are much easier to understand and predict based on one's understanding of the current political and resulting legal influences on the market.

He wrote a whole series of books including "What Ever Happened to Penny Candy?," "The Thousand Year War" about the conflict between Christians and Muslims, and several others. I have almost all his books, and they are fantastic. They are written in a manner that any high school student can comprehend, but not in a condescending fashion at all. He uses the conceit of Uncle Eric writing to answer questions sent to him by his nephew. They are brilliant as far as I am concerned.

In several of his books, he points out that a survey of all the major religions invented by man throughout the centuries reveals two common denominators, and he calls these the Two Great Laws.

1) Always do what you have agreed to do, and
2) Never encroach on any person or their property.

His assertion is that there really are no other laws required, and that all of our current legal systems, and specifically the American and British systems which evolved from the Magna Carta and English Common Law can be boiled down to these two great laws.

By inference, all subsequent law has been tainted by well-meaning (or not) legislators who have unintentionally (or not) narrowed the focus of law resulting in the consolidation of power, wealth or both into the hands of a few, to the detriment of all others.

In decrying the decline of civil society, Maybury points to the Two Great Laws and states that if individuals wanted to voluntarily associate themselves into communities or nations, they merely needed to declare themselves so united, and have a system of judicial oversight and limited law enforcement required to bring outlaws to justice. If you felt that anyone was causing you personal injury by encroaching on you or your property in any way, or had reneged on an agreement, you could present your case to a judge and the accused would have the opportunity to defend himself against your charges. Damages would be paid directly to the victim by the convict -- none of this "paying a debt to society" crap.

This is brilliant in its simplicity -- and very uninteresting to most politicians, since it is the antithesis of concentrated power and wealth.

I recommend you all read the works of Richard Maybury.