Anarchist Law - Enforceability

Enforceability

Enforceability is one of the most controversial areas of Anarchist law. Early writers such as Proudhon argued that it was legitimate for working-class people to self-organize against criminals who prey on the weak, a process which would doubtless entail some degree of coercion.

Proudhonian mutualists (and many others) have argued that such use of force by a collective against individuals is justifiable since it is fundamentally defensive in nature. As a more coherent example, communities have a clear interest in tracking down and isolating child molesters, rapists, psychopaths, and others who regularly employ coercion against their victims. The right of ordinary people to not be victimized and coerced by such individuals legitimizes their use of coercive force to eliminate such threats. Some individualist anarchists (who argue that any collective action against an individual is illegitimate) hotly dispute this point.

The issue of mandate (on whose behalf an action is being carried out) is much more significant, however, when approaching larger-scale provisions for self-defense such as armies and militias. For individualist anarchists the right of individuals to not be coerced legitimizes the use of coercive violence for personal self-defense only, while for collectivists it is legitimized both for personal self-defense and for defense of ones community. This issue is critical since, while the individualist model makes warfare far less likely by eliminating the rationale for the creation of large bodies of armed men, the collectivist approach makes it much more likely that the community in question will be able to defend itself against a hostile invader should one appear.

Both schools, however, agree that the right and responsibility of self-defense cannot be delegated to a third party - such as a professional police department or standing army - since as soon as a third party becomes involved it is no longer self defense. A non-hierarchical militia composed of members of a community self-organizing for mutual self-defense against a hostile neighbor (such as that organized by the CNT during the Spanish Civil War) would thus be valid in a collectivist (anarchist-communist, social anarchist, anarcho-syndicalist, market-syndicalist, etc.) setting and deemed invalid in an individualist (free market anarchist, egoist, etc.) setting if involuntary. Both, by contrast, would reject a standing army or police department.