In my book, there's this town in the Unorganized Territory above Texas. It has a sheriff. The MC (main character) has a bounty with him (really, they're just a captive/budding friend, but the MC lies and says they're a bounty). Now, this captive escapes, and steals a horse. The sheriff catches him and initiates a hanging immediately. The MC protests, saying that they can't just hang his bounty. Also, if they could do that, they'd need a judge.
Now, the sheriff's response to this will be that there is no law around here but him. That there is no overarching legal system demanding judges and whatnot. The only law is what the sheriff thinks, which is mostly derived from the larger U.S. law. Is this a realistic depiction? Was it really that lawless in the Unorganized Territory in the U.S.?
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