Scott Alexander, curated
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List Of Passages I Highlighted In My Copy Of Legal Systems Very Different From Ours

Quality
57
Solid
Claude Shift
35
Slight
RWI
1
of 10

Follows up on

Book Review: Legal Systems Very Different From Ours — Book review · Nov 2017

Summary

A curated companion to Scott's famous review of David Friedman's Legal Systems Very Different From Ours — essentially a delightful quote-dump of the book's most striking passages: ancient Chinese legalist/Confucianist law, Jewish courts (the terminal-disease-murder loophole, the wedding-ring dodge), Torah/sharia punishment-nullification, Icelandic saleable godord parliament seats, Somali feud law, English pardons/benefit-of-clergy/'pious perjury,' Gypsy/Amish self-governance, Plains Indian wife-stealing, and Athenian juries/liturgy/naked-search. Scott's contribution is selection plus one-line connective framing.

Why this score

Quality 57 · Solid. 57 — Solid. Excellent curation of genuinely fascinating material, but as an artifact it's an excerpt post — the insights are Friedman's, and Scott's original contribution is thin (selection + brief intros). Scored on Scott's contribution per the highlights/excerpts convention, so it sits in Solid despite the delightful read.

Claude’s paradigm shift 35 · Slight. 35 — Slight. A curated quote collection; negligible original novelty.

Real-world impact 1 · Negligible. 1 — negligible. A book-excerpt companion post; no material reach.