This site is dedicated to the research project, No King, Only Law. The Evolution of the Medieval Icelandic Legal System from 930 to 1262. A Law and Economic Analysis, which is being conducted by Dr. Wlodzimierz Gogloza at the University of Iceland‘s Faculty of Law.
According to one scholar, the medieval Icelandic legal system is so peculiar that it seems as if it was invented by “a mad economist” to test the lengths to which market forces could supplant government in its most fundamental functions. Others use it as an example of polycentric constitutional order, a legal system based on overlapping private jurisdictions in free and open competition. This ordered anarchy had only one permanent official who had no executive power. Parliament seats were a market commodity, and could be sold, exchanged or inherited. Most disputes were resolved through private arbitration. There where only two forms of punishment, fines and outlawry, and the enforcement of law was an entirely private affair. Probably the most peculiar feature of this medieval society is the lack of a king. As one medieval chronicler observed in 1075, Icelanders have “no king, only law”. Seen from the standpoint of the modern theory of the state, it is hard to believe that such system has ever existed. Yet, the Icelandic Commonwealth survived three centuries, only to pledge its fealty to the Norwegian king in 1262, after 4 decades of a bitter civil strife.
The aim of the research project is to analyze the evolution of the Icelandic Commonwealth legal system from the standpoint of the modern theory of the state with special reference to the economic analysis of law and Nozick’s theory of state formation. As an Assistant Professor of Law at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University‘s Faculty of Law and Administration I teach courses on Legal Traditions of the World, European Legal Culture, and a seminar on Organizational Theory. Being an original legal culture as well as an example of a spontaneously emerged social order, the Icelandic Commonwealth is a subject of a great interest to all aforementioned scholarly disciplines.
The mobility is a part of a larger project, which I am conducting at the MCSU’s Faculty of Law and Administration, on polycentric legal orders, i.e. legal structures based on overlapping private jurisdictions in free and open competition. The project includes in its scope an analysis of historical examples of legal polycentricity, which beside the Icelandic Commonwealth legal system include lex mercatoria – the medieval merchant law, the Celtic Irish law, and the private dispute resolution system developed by the settlers of the American West during the 19th century. The scope of the project includes also a critical examination of relevant theoretical models developed in the field of law and economics and legal philosophy by scholars such as Gary Becker, Richard Posner, David D. Friedman, Bruce Benson, Robert Nozick, and Randy Barnett. The medieval Icelandic legal system is the best documented historical example of a polycentric legal order and yet almost completely unknown in the Polish legal circles.
The research will be carried out in two stages. The purpose of the first stage, lasting form the beginning of September 2010 to the end of January 2011, is to analyze the English literature on the history of the Icelandic Commonwealth and the workings of its legal systems.
During this phase I intend to:
- analyze the English translations of the primary sources, and the contemporary academic literature on the medieval Iceland written in English;
- familiarize myself with the collections of the museums and institutions preserving the Commonwealth’s heritage (e.g. The National Museum of Iceland, The Arni Magnusson Institute, The Saga Centre, The Settlement Centre);
- visit relevant historical places and monuments like Thingvellir, Skalholt and open-air museums established to recreate the living conditions of the Icelandic settlers;
The second stage lasting from the beginning of February to the end of May 2011, will be used to investigate the evolution of the medieval Icelandic legal system, to establish the reasons for its ultimate collapse, and to analyze the impact that the research conducted on the medieval Icelandic legal history has had on the modern Icelandic legal and economic theory.
During this phase I intend to:
- analyze the rise of the Commonwealth’s legal system and compare the early Icelandic legal institutions to those of the medieval Norway, from where most of the settlers of Iceland came;
- investigate the impact the 11th century institutional reforms applied as a consequence of Iceland’s conversion to Christianity had on the working of the Commonwealth’s legal system;
- analyze the literature on the economic history of the medieval Iceland to establish whether the introduction of the tithe and the subsequent rise in chieftains’ income increased the social conflicts;
- analyze the relevant archaeological literature to qualify the total amount of violence during the Sturlung period;
- investigate whether Nozick’s theory of state formation can explain the decline of the Icelandic ordered anarchy;
- conduct interviews and surveys with Icelandic experts to analyze the impact that the research conducted on the medieval Icelandic legal history has had on their views on the viability of systems of private creation and enforcement in the modern world, and investigate whether the Icelandic scholars tend to agree with the libertarian conclusions drawn from the Commonwealth’s example by some foreign economists.
The material gathered and critically analyzed during the research project will be used as a basis for the first Polish book-length monograph on the evolution of the Icelandic Commonwealth legal system, and subsequently form a part of my planned habilitation thesis on polycentric legal systems.
The research project is financed by the Scholarship and Training Fund.
