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Spoken law: resolves all conflicts through adjudication that are accepted at each village, commonly disputes about property

 

Law from the people: a legal system that springs from the people, reflecting their customs and beliefs. The people’s law (as distinct from legislation)

 

Speech act: members of the community come together to create a “public memory” that certifies a transaction has taken place

 

Document act: standard form so everybody takes away a symbol, or a representation of the act; a legal deed to document, in writing, a property transaction. A certification of somebody being owner (Also, the beginning of written law

 

Written Law: creation of documents is an important step forward in recording a variety of transactions; to establish property rights, protect assets, and to connect people to expanded markets outside of their village, and eventually to connect people with national and global markets

Top-down law: power as it was in most of the world up until about 200 years ago; a few people had all of the control, made all the laws

 

Bottom-up law: law had to become flexible and allow individuals (common people) to hold property rights; fundamental turning point for mankind; power shifted from castles on the hilltop to villages and people below

Property revolution: for centuries less than three percent of mankind had owned almost all of the world’s land. Once people started getting legal title to their land, a profound shift occurred. It became easier for common people to trade their property, invest in it and use it for collateral to build businesses

Tomahawk rights: symbol to declare possession of land, usually created through a hatch mark on a tree or nearby object

 

Corn rights: corn grew from here to there, which established a property right from here to there. Growing corn was an improvement on the property, which helped to confer legitimacy on one’s control of the land

 

Cabin rights: built upon the property. Another way to improve the land and claim it.

 

Property rights: legally recognizes control and use of some property by an individual; property titles (documents that define property rights) ensure the individual has a legal right to: defend the property and exclude others from using it, sell or trade the property for currency or another type of holding, and define its extent and boundaries relative to other property

Business law: Allows for the formation of the modern business organization (the corporation) which, in time, allowed for greater division of labor, wider trade and globalization to occur