So, how should property disputes be settled?
Well it turns out they they have nearly always been settled by fighting.
Before civilized society, you went to war over land disputes.
The English hired champions to fight for them for a time when title records were uncertain.
And today we hire lawyers to pick verbal fights.
It is kind of weird, but I am not sure that a lot has changed.
Still don’t see it? Ask yourself: Was Norman England’s judicial system, which decided property disputes by having litigants hire legal representatives to fight one another physically, less sensible than contemporary England’s judicial system, which decides property disputes by having litigants hire legal representatives to fight one another verbally?
-Peter Leeson, WTF?! An Economic Tour Of The Weird