Interesting that you should mention this. Personal redress of grievances is essentially how our legal system began in medieval England. If someone trespassed on your land or stole your cow, you simply beat him to death with a club...no more problem. Bet they felt great afterward. However, the regional kings of England during Celtic and Anglo-Saxon periods and unified England under Norman period determined that if they let this continue they would have no subjects to rule.They established a system  of circuit judges that traveled the land and judged cases. If you had a grievance, you held it in abeyance for hearing when the circuit judge arrived rather than resorting to self enforcement. In those days most people were illiterate. Consequently, there was a court official called the prothonotary (Our modern day court clerks and notaries public) who were charged with the duty of writing down all of the circuit judges' rulings. From these writings a body of common law evolved which guided the court in future rulings through legal precedent. This law was influenced by a number of rules and customs which evolved from Roman, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norman sources into our modern day legal system