Yes.
Nope. A court or private police with no authority, HAS NO AUTHORITY.
Uh, okay.
But a private police force still has whatever resources its client pays for, and can carry out whatever tasks its client sets for it (and funds). That seems pretty authoritative to me. It's also not that much different than what we currently have, except that it lacks an overarching state with an even bigger and better-funded police force, that limits what local police missions you, as a client of your local police force, can fund and assign to your police force.
And a private court would probably look more like an arbitrator, whose decisions contracting parties would agree to abide by, and whose services those parties would agree to pay for in the event of a contract dispute.
And of course in the event of a gross breach of contract, a private police force could be easily tasked with the mission of hunting down the deal-breaker.
I'm not saying the Libertarian way is better. I am saying that a nanny state is not necessary to accomplish certain goals.
Not everybody is inclined to be an anti-social bandit. I'm sure that you, were you put into a lawless situation, would prefer to band together with other like-minded people and forge a peaceful, prosperous community, that pooled its resources to drive off bandits and sought out civil and profitable connections with other such communities. And I'm equally sure that although dr. kitten threatened to take up banditry in such a situation, that was just to score rhetorical brownie points, and she'd actually rather join you than beat you.
And you're not the only ones. The so-called lawless regions are full of such people, and overall they do pretty well for themselves (though there is sometimes a period of adjustment). You want proof? That's easy enough: You need look no farther afield than Hollywood!
Didn't you see "The Three Amigos" or any Western?
Oh. I see you're already there.
How about "The Magnificent Seven"? A poor farm town is oppressed by bandits. At first they rely on the nanny state to save them, but the nanny state fails. So they pool their resources, hire private contractors, and succeed in driving off the bandits. In the process they learn a valuable lesson about self-reliance, and acquire several of the tools and skills necessary to keep their own peace on their own terms. None of them turn into murderous bandits in the absence of a nanny state or the breakdown of the statist legal system.
In fact, the Westerns are full of these kinds of people: Peaceful folk who desire nothing more than civil society, and who are willing to hire sherriffs, and form posses, and otherwise use their own resources to defend their peaceful way of life, in the absence of a nanny state to tax their wealth and do their dirty work for them.
