There's never been actual laws that stopped folks from acting like doofus', so there'll never be an in game system to stop them as well other than example. Example, I've never really had a horrible open PvP experience when playing in WoW on my servers. Twisting Nether / Maelstrom. I lost fights but there were many times higher levels would hit me and laugh at me when I tried to hit back, then I'd move a long. There wasn't so much ganking as it seems folks like to claim there is.
Maybe it's just how I approched the situation that brought out the fun from folks, but ahh well?
Needless to say, what I know of DR and it's system and PvPing from other mud games I feel it could be translated into HJ and indeed be open and at times cruel, but fun. I'm not really an item minded person. I liked how in Shadowbane you could get great armor and weapons and indeed lose them in battle from either theft, being looted, or even breaking from wear. What did I like about it? The fact it brought real emotion into a game that was pretty substandard even for it's time. I wanted to hunt people down, find my item, or at least tear up their house / city. I dunno, if all I have to measure my game with is how long it took me to find some nonexisting item then I think that's a flaw in game design.