Legal Systems Very Different from Ours Audiobook By David Friedman, Peter Leeson, David Skarbek cover art

Legal Systems Very Different from Ours

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Legal Systems Very Different from Ours

By: David Friedman, Peter Leeson, David Skarbek
Narrated by: David Friedman
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This book looks at 13 different legal systems, ranging from Imperial China to modern Amish: how they worked, what problems they faced, how they dealt with them. Some chapters deal with a single legal system, others with topics relevant to several, such as problems with law based on divine revelation or how systems work in which law enforcement is private and decentralized.

The book’s underlying assumption is that all human societies face the same problems, deal with them in an interesting variety of different ways, and are all the work of grown-ups and hence should all be taken seriously. It ends with a chapter on features of past legal systems that a modern system might want to borrow.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 David Director Friedman (P)2020 David Director Friedman Law
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This book is exactly what I wanted to read. Such an interesting walk through the history of the world’s legal systems. Learned a lot, everyone interested in state craft should read this!

Excellent

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Audio quality was subpar but not horrible. Reader also had 1 or 2 moments where they stumbled on reading.

Very interesting and informative on unique information. Reader was very good.

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The content is great. But the quality of the narration is subpar. It is read by the author, and it seems it was recorded on his laptop microphone. It could also use some editing. Anyway, I still prefer to have this audiobook with a non-ideal narration than no audiobook at all!

Nice one but could have better sound quality

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"if you like anarchy so much then why don't you move to somalia?"

well if the CIA stopped meddling with it, backing one warlord over another, then I might consider it.

move to somalia

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The topic is quite fascinating, and the author did a great job researching and writing it. The legalese was not onerous for a plebe like me. I do feel like this book could have broad appeal for curious people outside of law school.

Since there is too much historical scholarship for one person, the author relied on experts for most legal systems, except medieval Icelandic law, whoch he researched himself. From a narrative perspective, the Icelandic chapter suffers from a digression into defending the authors scholarship. I don't think it's excessive, but misplaced. Much of it could be moved to an appendix, which would help to keep the reader engaged.

The author is a good reader and seems likeable. I would've enjoyed attending his seminar. However, the production quality is terrible. It was not read in a studio. You can hear the room. You can hear page flips. Mistakes were not all edited out. Probably the wrong kind of microphone was used.

I hope the author corrects those issues in a future edition. I put my nitpicks here in case they do some good. Don't let them deter you from reading the book. It has high value and merit. If you're even slightly interested in legal theory, get it.

Fascinating and worthwhile

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There were several places where the reader repeated phrases. I wish an editor had caught and deleted the repeated words. The content was excellent and persuasive. The chapter on errors struck me as probably true but somewhat depressing. The final chapter offered a smidgen of hope.

Content excellent with some Reader missteps

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I'm a fan of David Friedman and the content of the book was great, BUT the audio quality was so bad I struggled listening.

I support that Friedman wants to self publish, but I really wish the audio quality was better. I'm not that demanding, it does not have to be studio level, just bit better.

Unfortunately other Friedman audio books appear to have same quality recording which is deal breaker for me.

Great content, poor quality audio

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Do not buy this audio book. Not only is the audio quality poor, but the author stumbles over his own tongue dozens and dozens of times and instead of re-recording simply leaves it. It’s sounds as though it was recorded on a laptop in a single take. If you want other people to take your work seriously you should treat it with a modicum of respect.

Good content, terrible audio and reading.

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The information is interesting and engaging.

The audio is just terrible. Part of it is the reverb of the recording room/poor mic and part sounds like low bit rate effects. The audio was so bad I almost stopped listening during the opening sections.

I'm glad I struggled through the first part and finished the book.

After a while the poor audio mostly fades into the back ground as I got engaged in the information being shared.

If the audio was better, I would listen to the book again.

The end of the book is abrupt with out a solid summary.

Good information with terrible audio

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