Sunday, December 03, 2006

The Best of the Blogs:
Eugene Plawiuk (see the 'Blogs' section of the links on the bottom of this page, especially 'Le Revue Gauche' at http://plawiuk.blogspot.com ) has reposted a couple of his recent essays to the 'Anarkismo' list (see the 'Links' section and http://www.anarkismo.net ) under the heading of 'Other Libertarian Press'.
One of the essays, 'Libertarian Justice' is a defense of the jury system insofar as it actually allows the people to determine legal matters instead of the legal apparatus of the state. Plawiuk notes the following advantages of the jury systems over other methods of trial-
*a jury's power is limited as a jury does not establish precedent because each case is different
*the requirement that all verdicts be unanimous protects minorities from the abuse of majorities
*a jury does not need to be subservient to the legal community or to other minions of the state
*a jury has no vested interests to protect
*a jury views justice from a layman's perspective.

The other essay 'The Era of the Common Man' is an historical tract on the Jacksonian democrats who formed the 'Working Men's Parties' in the USA during the 1830s. Plawiuk shows how these people were the forerunners of American individualist anarchism as well as many other aspects of 19th century American radicalism.

Check out Le Revue Gauche for these and many other (a huge number actually) essays on all topics radical.

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