What Would Be the Situation of law in an anarchist society?

Anarchy means ‘A state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority or other

controlling systems.’

Anarchists believe that there should be rules that people should follow, they just believe that
there should be no rulers.

The basic premise gives rise to three questions.

1. Who makes the rules?

2. Who enforces the rules?
3. What would be the punishment for breaking the rules?

As we have established, the authority would not apply. We are left with customs and
Agreements. A contract between as few as two people could be considered as law applying to
those individuals.

Once an agreement is entered into, the parties entering the agreement are dependent on the
other to honor it. In the contract it would also be mutually agreed upon consequences for
failure to honor it.

When you are dependent on someone for your life, liberty or property (and the dependence
was mutually agreed upon) then it’s justified to use sufficient force to ensure the other party
honors their agreement.

That being said, force, while justified, is rarely ever a logical response to the violation of a
contract. The use of unnecessary force is not something society would ever admire. In a free
society you could risk isolation and refusal of service if you’re considered a threat.

Very often some form of mediation or negotiation would be necessary, especially in case of
serious problems. The emphasis will be on people hearing each other out and trying to
recognize their wrongs.

What if the offender still declined to cooperate?

Then comes the option of Community intervention and if that also fails to work then
expulsion from the community would work as the last resort.

So, basically, there wouldn’t be law or order in this theoretical anarchist society. At least, not
in the sense we understand it today. There would be a set of common consensual rules that
people would live by, and when someone challenged those rules, either by words or actions,
the community will attempt to deal with that either by renegotiating those rules or using a
number of communication strategies to try and get the person to change or if that too does not
work then by excommunication.