TOLFA Segment 6, Question 8

We often observe that victims demand vengeance rather than restitution. Suppose Plaintiff B accuses Aggressor A of mudering her brother, and demands a death penalty instead of monetary compensation. How will a free-market court probably resolve that, if the case is proven?

It's hard to imagine any court that would impose a death penalty in a free market system. Reasons: (a) it could not then collect its fees, from the loser (b) it would lay itself wide open to a countersuit alleging a grossly unfair settlement and (c) anticipating those, probably all competing courts would specify up-front in their contracts that no such demand would be entertained
Yet another reason why free-market justice is Utopian. Like it or not, vengeance is all that will satisfy some plaintiffs; government courts can meet that demand, contract-based ones could not

Don't hurry away; even when you've got the right answer, try clicking on the others to see why they are wrong! Then when you have correctly answered this make notes in your student notebook, then go to Question 9.

Segment 6 Page