Definition

• A local community is a geographic area with a shared understanding of the 3L’s Legal Principle. This can be referred to as a local jurisdiction.
• We expect many communities with differing reasonable interpretations of the Legal Principle to appear over time as the 3L Philosophy is adopted.

Local communities resolve grey areas.

• The Legal Principle addresses unavoidable legal grey areas by allowing local communities to determine their own reasonable interpretations, including how the Legal Principle should be enforced and adjudicated.
• Local communities must give due notice so that people are aware of their specific laws, rules, and regulations. This is required to provide due process to people subject to the laws in the community.

What size are they?

• The 3L Philosophy does not prescribe the geographic size of a local community, but the larger the community, the lower the cost of the justice system, as more people share the fixed costs. These fixed costs include the processes by which the Legal Principle is enforced and adjudicated. Local communities may be thought of as cities or towns.

Forming a new local community; ‘secession’

• Any group of people in a community would be free to secede from their larger community to adopt their own reasonable interpretation of the Legal Principle, but doing so would naturally increase costs or lower the quality of administering compliance with the local legal system.

Moving vs forming a new community

• Practically, there are many benefits of being part of a large community, but people must be free to choose their preference. Once the 3L Philosophy is widely adopted, it would likely be cheaper and preferable to move to a community of people that shares your reasonable interpretation of the Legal Principle, rather than secede and form your own community.
• A higher transaction cost applies to moving between large geographic areas vs smaller ones. Residents can choose to live in the local communities that interpret the Legal Principle in the most attractive way to them.

Local communities within nations

• The solution of ‘letting local communities decide’ emphasizes bio-regions rather than national borders. This does not mean that a local community cannot be part of a wider nation. A local community may resolve disputes with neighbouring communities via a Federalist or other system.