The spontaneous evolution of commercial law

Abstract

Jeremy Bentham contended that property and state-made law "are born and must die togeth Before the [state's] law there was no property: take away the law, all property ceases" [4,30 Most economists have taken this argument to heart. Clearly, some system of defining and th protecting and enforcing property rights (property law) and rules of exchange (contract law) needed for a market system to develop. But does the state have to develop and enforce prope and contract law? One purpose of the following presentation is to demonstrate that the comme sector is completely capable of establishing and enforcing its own laws.