ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the legal and political institutions of Iceland from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries. The early history of Iceland thus gives us a well-recorded picture of the workings of particularly pure forms of private enforcement and creation of law, and of the interaction between the two. In modern law the distinction between civil and criminal law depends on whether prosecution is private or public; in the sense all Icelandic law was civil. Richard A. Posner has asserted at some length that common law institutions have produced economically efficient law. The laws passed by the logretta were applied by a system of courts, also resting on the godar. If the lawbreaker defended himself by force, every injury inflicted on the partisans of the other side would result in another suit, and every refusal to pay another fine would pull more people into the coalition against him.
