Final arbiter
From the Quicksilver Metaweb.
Stephensonia
(can we insert an appropriate quote by that Confucian justice in "The Diamond Age"??)
Definition
n. a Supreme Justice or Court of Last Appeal to which all other courts and jurisdictions in a particular society are subservient. e.g. The United States Supreme Court, The British Law Lords, The Hague, etc.
Commentary
The question of who decides the final arbiter in an anarchical society is a perennial question among critics of anarchism. Anarchists say, "Let the market decide." Today who sits in the highest courts is a matter decided by corrupt politicians with hidden agendas, litmus tests, and no regard for how fair and just a candidate actually is.
Those who sit on those courts misread, edit, and insert language into our Constitution and laws, legislating from the bench, in pursuit of either abject and unexamined enforcement of some of the most groundless statist policies, or in purposely releasing the worst offenders on society in order to drum up support for more taxes and expenditures on police. They rule their courts and elsewhere with an iron hand of judicial immunity that protects them from accountability for the most greivous abuses of power. An anarchical society could hardly do any worse than what we see today.
Instead, as we see with commonly used markets of reputation brokerage (as 'karma' ratings, such as those seen on websites like eBay to rate the reputability of a particular user), markets can come to rather accurate agreement on the true reputation of individual players. Anarchists propose to use a similar mechanism to judge the judges. Higher reputation ratings result in higher judgement fees for a particular judge and a means of creating a dynamic heirarchy of appeals which parties to contracts can follow in arbitrating disputes.
As the best and most just judges will be free to command the greatest fees, they will also have the greatest leeway to perform pro bono work, thus fixing the problem of financial barriers to entry for the less wealthy/poorest members of society to obtain equal justice. The market will be open to anyone who can be judged to render fair justice.
Individuals will be free to specify in their own contractual relationships how a final arbiter for purposes of the particular contract is to be determined. This is already done in contract law to some extend where contracts specify the state and even the county of jurisdiction, and in some cases private arbitration groups to ajudicate contract disputes.
In an ancap society, final arbiters for the most part will be decided by contracts between insurance providers for most people, just as they already deal with insurance adjusters for car accidents and other claims on insurance contracts.