ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I attempt to provide a comprehensive demonstration that, contrary to the mainstream economic consensus, the effective provision of law does not require the existence of a territorial monopoly of force and could be satisfactorily delivered in a purely market-based system. More specifically, I argue that only a contractual, competitive, and purely voluntary legal order could, among others, successfully deal with the problem of the so-called “paradox of government” and remain resistant to the phenomenon of regime uncertainty. I also suggest that only contractual legal polycentrism can be thought of as an institutional framework that fits the definition of a genuine public good as conceived according to contractarian criteria.
