Could you live in a society in which dueling was legal?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Read the setup or not; it’s your call. Click on the spoiler box to see it.

[spoiler]Let’s say you’re offered your dream job in a foreign country. The pay is much, much higher than the best job you’ve ever had before; the benefits are similarly generous. The country’s topography and climate precisely fit your temperament; it has an excellent infrastructure, health care system, and so forth. Its population and area are about that of Switzerland.

Naturally there’s a snag. Dueling is legal in this country, albeit highly regulated. For a monomachy to be legal, one must not only issue the challenge but also file notice with the authorities, and the challenged party is under no legal obligation to to accept. Certain challenges are banned. Minors may neither challenge nor accept challenges,for instance, and if you’re a witness in a criminal case in which I am the defendant, neither of us may challenge the other. Only bare hands, swords, and single-shot handguns are allowed as weapons.

There’s a mandatory seven-day waiting period between the challenged party formally accepting and the actual combat. The challenged party may withdraw at any time up to the beginning of the combat (though the challenger may not). If the challenged party either declines to accept or decides to revoke, any attack by the challenger is treated like any other assault; likewise if the challenged party attacks the challenger before the appointed time. The challenger must specify beforehand if the duel is to the death. There are professional referees (government servants) who oversee all duels, and they may stop any not-to-the-death duel whenever their judgment says to; also, either party may surrender in such a duel. Disregarding a surrender or a referee’s order to stop is criminal, and if doing so leads to the other party’s death, the killing is prosecuted as a murder.

There’s a class of professional, licensed champions who make a living fighting on behalf of persons who choose not to do so. Their services are not available to challengers; if you say, “Let’s you and me fight!” you have to throw hands, draw swords, or reach for the gun your ownself. Licensed champions, incidentally, are forbidden to challenge anyone but another licensed champion to a duel. Some of them charge for their services; others–among them the best–do it pour le sport. If a champion accepts a commission but is injured, takes ill, or dies during the waiting period, the duel is delayed until a suitable replacement can be found.

Dueling is fairly common in this country: between 4 and 8 happen each month, and maybe a quarter of those are to the death. They are always recorded but never telecast or webcast. When a duel is coming up it is advertised, and any adult who wishes to attend may do so.[/spoiler]

If you bothered to read the setup: Would you be willing to live in a society as described in the box? Why or why not?

If you didn’t bother to read the setup, you can answer just based on the thread title.

2

How dare you ask me such a question!

3

Sounds good to me. If two adults want to voluntarily try to kill or maim each other, I see no downside.

I could live there.

4

I don’t think I’d like the idea, but I do have one question. What are the consequences if you are challenged and do not accept the challenge? If there are no consequences at all – not even any harm to your reputation as an upstanding citizen – then I don’t see why anyone would ever accept a challenge.

5

Unless they’re poor or pacifistic, I don’t see why they would decline a challenge when they could just contract the services of a sharpshooting champion to legally rid themselves of the person who would like to kill/harm them.

It all sounds acceptable to me, but I personally find the idea of the contracted champions distasteful.

6

I got no issue with it. Consenting adults, go forth.

7

If I understand the setup properly then yes, I think I could live in this society. I’m not in favor of legalized dueling, but it sounds like I could easily and without risk avoid winding up in a duel myself and that dueling in general it’s so carefully regulated that in most cases it’s probably only about as risky as a professional boxing match.

8

I expect there might be some social disapprobation. People will think less of you, particularly if you’re a male in the prime of life; you’ll get whispered about, the word coward will get bandied about, and so forth. After all, the fact that dueling is legal means that violence is still judged by a substantial portion of the populace to be acceptable. (I should have specified that Monomachia is a democracy, if one where machismo, for both men and women, is more acceptable than it is in 2011 America.)

I also expect that being too quick to issue challenges will have similar social consequences. People will call you a bully and a creep, and if you react to such remarks by challenging people to a duel, well, that will just prove their point.

I imagine – though I could easily be wrong – that the situation would have evolved so that it is acceptable to issue challenges for some matters but not others. “You stood up my daughter for the senior prom” is not a fit dueling subject. “You molested my child” probably is.

9

Not for long, I couldn’t, with *my *mouth.

10

Did you read the setup in the spoiler box?

If not, ignore me.

If so…well, I’ll box this too. 'Cause I’m like that.

Given that you can decline any challenge without legal penalty and with the knowledge that any assault you declined would be treated as if there had been no challenge in the first place, what prevents you from living there? I can think of several possibilities, but you seem to be concerned about your personal safety.

11

So I can go around and act like a complete asshole and somebody else will step in and take a bullet for me when necessary? What’s the point then?

12

I don’t think I could. I’m not much of a glove person, so the hassle alone of taking one off just to slap the other guy twice across his cheeks would be too much for me.

13

I don’t see any downside to living there. If someone challenged me to a duel for some reason, I would just decline it and carry on as usual with my new, rich lifestyle. What’s there to lose?

My answer would be very different if I were obligated to accept challenges. But since I’m not, it doesn’t affect me in the slightest. I might vaguely think it’s barbaric, in the same way I think that people in the US who agree to religious contract terms (Sharia Law/Judaic) are vaguely barbaric, but hey. Not my problem.

14

Based on just the thread title: not for long. I annoy too many people too often.

Based on the set-up: Yes I could. I might not like it too much, but I could live with it.

15

No. I believe that there is some evidence that public violence increases the general level of violence in society. Am I’m against the idea of sanctioned murder. I’m against the death penalty, why would I find this acceptable?

No way, Jorge.

16

Why can’t the challenger withdraw the challenge prior to the duel? Seems reasonable to me to let cooler heads prevail where possible.

This time last year, I’d be all over the chance to go there and make bank, taking my chances with the duel thing as needed. Now, I’m not so sure. The Druidess would be more than a little upset if I got involved in a duel, and I have certain obligations as a soon to be married man. One of which is not to get myself killed over something stupid. Tough call.

17

Because it’s not nearly the same thing. The main difference being that nobody has to participate in a duel if they don’t want to.

18

Yeah, I would amend the hypothetical to state that the challenger can either withdraw before the challenge is accepted, or if it has been accepted, the challenger can withdraw if the person they challenged consents to the withdrawal.

19

It’s similar enough that it would bother me.

20

I actually originally wrote that condition in at first, only to deliberately edit it out.

My thought is that in a society that allows duels to the death, it’s expected to you’re going to have to back up your mouth with action. If it’s KNOWN that, once you issue a formal challenge you can’t get out of it unless the other party lets you, it will have a calming effect on many. Particularly since the challenger must fight his or her own battles, but the other party can bring in a ringer.

Moreover, I think the OP implies that the challenge isn’t effective until it’s formal, i.e., filed with the dueling commission or whatnot. If Monomachia has gone that far, then I expect the required form will be long and filled with warnings to the effect of “You realize that if you’re challenging this other person to a death-duel by sword, they’re allowed to be represented by the Dread Pirate Roberts, right? Are you SURE you want to do this?”