The evolution and survival for a considerable period of a system of private adjudication raises both particular versions of our general questions and new questions about the details of the mechanism. What was the purpose of the private adjudication system? Was it a substitute for the reputation mechanism that had worked effectively in earlier periods (Greif, 1989)? Also, if there was no state to enforce judgments, how did they have any effect? How could a system of adjudication function without substantial police powers?

XREF: Connects to the reader's apparent interest in how order emerges without state power, resonating with reputation-mechanism literature (Greif) and spontaneous-order theory. QUESTION: Worth chasing how the adjudication mechanism gained compliance absent police powers—an intriguing puzzle in institutional economics.

PAUL R. MILGRO, PAUL R. MILGRO - THE ROLE O…, loc. 10