How do libertarian Christians account for people who violate the non-aggression principle (NAP)?
Question 13 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
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Violations of the NAP constitute crimes. More precisely, they are rights violations. The proper role of civil governance is to administer justice when rights violations occur. Libertarians know these violations are just a fact of life. Christians know these violations occur as a result of the sinful nature of man. So what do we do when these violations occur?
Holding people accountable for rights violations is in many ways not too different from the system we have. The problem with the current system is its propensity to corruption, malfeasance, and an inability of the state to be impartial in its own case. But many of the principles we’re already familiar with, such as presumption of innocence, proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and a fair and speedy trial, would still be present in a libertarian system. The punitive system would likely differ; restitution for rights violations would be preferable to prison sentences in many cases. Things such as mandatory minimums, solitary confinement, and special interests jockeying for preferential treatment from the state, wouldn’t likely exist.
A libertarian minarchist society would be a decentralized version of what we have now, while a libertarian anarchist society would be some polycentric iteration which employs these principles. The colloquial use of the term “anarchy” implies a sense of chaos and lawlessness, and Christians are indeed morally obligated to reject chaos and lawlessness. However, this common usage isn’t accurate. The etymology of the term simply means without rulers. The colloquial use implies that, without rulers we would have chaos and lawlessness.
Libertarian anarchists don’t agree. Rather, they hold that chaos and lawlessness is produced through a monopoly on civil governance, since the state’s very existence depends on violations of the NAP, namely theft (through taxation) and violence (through a monopoly use of legal force). In either a libertarian minarchist or anarchist society violations of the NAP can be handled in a just manner.