My previous post provided an example of the use of past legal systems in understanding our present legal system: the logic of feud law applied to high tech patent litigation. There are others, some of which suggest changes we might want to make to our system, ideas we could steal. For example ' One problem with tort law is that a plaintiff who sues an innocent defendant in a system with legal error imposes a cost on him, in addition to his legal costs, the risk of losing the case and being found liable for damages. That may be a sufficient risk to persuade the defendant to pay off the plaintiff, settle out of court for less than the plaintiff claims ' but possibly ''enough to make bogus suits a profitable form of extortion. In Periclean Athens, their equivalent of a tort plaintiff who lost his case owed damages to the defendant, a sixth the amount he claimed the defendant owed him. That compensates the innocent defendant, makes suing someone unprofitable unless there is a...
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