And so I put together a plan, working at least a little with the modern pioneers in this field, Bruce Benson and Alvin Lowi.

The project never came to fruition (none of them from those days really did), but it allowed us to stretch our intellectual wings and to do serious work of a unique and otherwise unavailable type.

This is a paper I produced for a highly regarded economic association and delivered at their annual meeting.

BACKGROUND

The Limon Real Project is an effort to create an autonomous region in the Costa Rica. In particular, to separate Limon Province, in all but name, from the remainder of Costa Rica, and to allow its people to exist independently from almost all interference from the central Costa Rican state.

My role in this venture is to assist in the creation of systems of justice and protection that can function effectively in the absence of centralized force. It has also fallen to me to explain how such systems operate, and to assuage (if possible) the fears of people who do not see a possibility that such systems can be effective.