common-economic-protocols.md

The Common Economic Protocols

version 1.1, April 1, 2005

1. Individuals should keep their agreements.

2. Individuals should not aggress against, encroach upon, or defraud others.

3. Violence is a very costly means of solving disputes (both short-term and long-term), and is to be avoided.

4. Free, open, and functional markets are to be preserved. [1]

5. Peace is to be preserved.

6. Progress must not be hindered.

7. Private property is to be respected and protected. [2]

8. All the effects of an action must be taken into account.

9. Self-induced harms are the sole responsibility of the individual in question.

10. Voluntary transaction must be preserved. The exceptions to this principle are:

    1. Necessities: Situations (usually emergencies), where there is no functional voluntary market.

    2. Mistakes: Where the voluntary market is accidentally transgressed with no insult to the market intended.

11. Judgments are assessed for two reasons:

    1. To recompense the injured party.

    2. To keep secure the survival and primacy of voluntary transactions and the free, functional market. [3]

12. The purpose of law is to facilitate beneficial interaction, and to minimize conflict. The primary principles of which are:

    1. Individual liberty (self-ownership).

    2. Private property.

    3. Free contract.

13. Freedom of trade, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of action are but modifications of one great fundamental principle; all must be maintained, or all are at risk.

14. Precedents are not valid as axioms. Legal precedents are valid only insofar as they uncover or express principles of law.

15. Reason is the soul of law. Feelings and emotions are not esteemed above reason.

16. Law deals with individuals only. Law recognizes no group entities, collective guilt, or collective responsibility.

17. The standard for the application of legal principles is the reasonable man. The reasonable man is not a perfect man, but a man of normal ability who is acting reasonably and responsibly.

18. No man’s standing in the eyes of the law is superior to any others. The law is no respecter of persons.

19. The law does not require omniscience of anyone.

20. Restitution is preferred above punishment.

21. No man, or group of men, has a right to dispose of another man’s life or property without consent.

22. Plain language is preferred over esoteric language, provided that plain language is capable of clarity and accuracy.

23. The default language of the Common Economic Protocols is English.

24. Individuals should be accorded privacy in all areas of life, including their economic affairs. However, privacy may not be used as a tool to facilitate force, fraud or similar offenses.

25. Every man is the sole owner of his own life, and should be left alone to pursue his own happiness, or dispose of it, in whatever manner he chooses, provided that he does not encroach upon other people or their property. (Exceptions are made for infants, persons of diminished capacities, and similar cases.)

26. Markets are to be left alone to solve their own problems. There should be no coercive intervention in market processes.

27. What is hateful to you, do not do to any man.

28. There are no victimless crimes.

Footnotes

[1] The reasons for this are:

1. Markets are the great interaction centers of mankind. Values are exchanged, merits discovered, and mutually beneficial, survival-improving relationships fostered.

2. Free and open markets are perhaps the most impartial institutions on earth.

3. Free markets make survival (beyond bare subsistence) possible on earth. The free and unhindered transfer of goods and services between people is critical for the cooperation of humans in their mutual goals of survival, happiness, and growth.

4. Market-based competition is more effective in compelling, testing and refining inventions and strategies for human advancement than any other mechanism known.

[2] The reasons for this are:

1. Private and exclusive ownership is necessary for, and supportive of, individual human effort. Human energy and intelligence are the forces which create the means of survival and progress on earth. Raw materials exist without human energy, but are of little value without it. Long experience has shown that self-interest is as close to a biological imperative as anything that we know of; and that non- individual based methods of motivation (as in collectivism) simply do not work. (Fear may at times work, but it is not self-sustaining, is unreliable, and for many reasons it is properly considered immoral; that is, contrary to the broad interests of survival and progress.)

2. Strong protection of private property is necessary as a hedge against envy, and the plunder that rises from it. Where envy holds sway, the accumulation of capital is dangerous and uncommon. Without capital, a great number of important activities cannot be undertaken. Historically, the inability to raise capital has made economic progress extremely difficult or impossible as a practical matter.

3. Private and exclusive property ownership is necessary for the certainty of goods and supplies. This is especially critical as it concerns long-range business planning. (Long-range planning being necessary for a huge number of beneficial commercial activities.) If there is no certainty of goods, lands, or other properties, long-range operations are most uncertain, and would seldom be undertaken, as is the case in primitive societies.

4. Private property, certified by secure title, is of critical importance in the securing, application, and use of credit.

[3] The term "functional market" is used in several places in the protocols, and is deserving of explanation. A "functional" market is a market with sufficient competition and liquidity to operate well. Without sufficient choice, a market is not functional.

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These Common Economic Protocols were placed under public domain by Andre Goldman. Original link, Common Economic Protocols - The Maxims