DOCSLIB.ORG

A Spontaneous Order

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Spontaneous Order Digital Proofer A Spontaneous Order: A Spontaneous Order Authored by Christopher Chase ... 6.0" x 9.0" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) The Capitalist Case Black & White on White paper 292 pages For A Stateless Society ISBN-13: 9781512117271 ISBN-10: 1512117277 Please carefully review your Digital Proof download for formatting, grammar, and design issues that may need to be corrected. We recommend that you review your book three times, with each time focusing on a different aspect. Check the format, including headers, footers, page 1 numbers, spacing, table of contents, and index. 2 Review any images or graphics and captions if applicable. 3 Read the book for grammatical errors and typos. Once you are satisfied with your review, you can approve your proof and move forward to the next step in the publishing process. To print this proof we recommend that you scale the PDF to fit the size of your printer paper. CHASE RACHELS DEDICATION Copyright © 2015 Christopher Chase Rachels All rights reserved. ISBN-13: 978-1512117271 ISBN-10: 1512117277 This work is dedicated to my son, Micha Rachels. May he grow up with a Cover Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0 free spirit, critical mind, and warm heart. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CONTENTS I would like to first and foremost thank my wife, Michelle Ferris, Foreword … 6 for standing by my side as an active participant in the fight against tyranny. Her loving encouragement and support enabled me to see this project to its Introduction … 11 end. Stephan Kinsella’s mentorship was likewise invaluable in its relation to the precision and rigor of this book. My editor, Mattheus von Guttenberg, 0. Epistemology and Praxeology … 19 also deserves recognition for his professional assistance in editing this work and verifying the accuracy of its content. I would like to express my 1. Libertarianism … 45 gratitude for Will Porter, who was gracious enough to contribute one of his brilliant essays (Chapter 0: Epistemology and Praxeology). I would also like 2. Property … 66 to give thanks to the following people who provided their support in a variety of ways, though bear in mind this list is by no means exhaustive or 3. Contract … 78 in any particular order: Luis F. Duran-Aparicio, Blake Williams, Jason Bassler, Justin Stout, Chris Calton, Gary Simon, Mike Martelli, Joel 4. Money and Banking … 90 Richardson, Walter Block, Jeff Berwick, and many more! 5. Monopolies and Cartels … 122 6. Insurance … 131 7. Health Care … 139 8. Law and Order … 147 9. Defense and Security … 172 10. Transportation Networks … 185 11. Education … 195 12. Poverty … 211 13. Environmentalism … 234 14. The Corporation … 259 15. Getting There … 278 Resources … 286 FOREWORD grew the main sort of libertarianism of the last fifty years. It was based on a principle articulated by Murray Rothbard in the 1970s this way: No one may initiate the use or threat of physical violence against the Foreword person or property of anyone else. The idea had roots in John Locke, America’s founders, and more immediately Ayn MODERN LIBERTARIAN THEORY is only about five decades old. Rand, but it was Rothbard’s formulation The ideas that have influenced our greatest thinkers can be traced back 1 that became standard. It became known as centuries, of course, to luminaries such as Hugo Grotius, John Locke, the non-aggression principle or—since Thomas Paine, Herbert Spencer, David Hume, and John Stuart Mill, and to Rothbard took it as the starting point of more recent and largely even more radical thinkers such as Gustave de political theory and not the conclusion of Molinari, Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Franz 2 philosophical justification—the non- Oppenheimer, and Albert Jay Nock. aggression axiom. In the late twentieth The beginnings of the modern movement can be detected in the century, anyone who accepted this works of the “three furies of libertarianism,” as Brian Doherty calls them: principle could call himself, or could find Rose Wilder Lane, Ayn Rand, and Isabel Patterson, whose respective books himself called, a libertarian, even if he The Discovery of Freedom, The Fountainhead, and The God of the Machine were all 3 disagreed with Rothbard’s own insistence published, rather remarkably, in the same year: 1943. But in its more that rights are best protected when there is modern form, libertarianism originated in the 1960s and 1970s from no government at all.4 thinkers based primarily in the United States, notably Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard. Other significant influences on the nascent libertarian movement We can date the dawn of today’s libertarianism to the works of include Ludwig von Mises, author of Liberalism (1927) and Human Action Rand and Rothbard: to Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957); and, especially, to (1949, with a predecessor version published in German in 1940); Nobel Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State (1962), Power and Market (1970), and For laureate F.A. von Hayek, author of The Road to Serfdom (1944); Leonard A New Liberty (1973), plus his journal The Libertarian Forum (1969–1984). For Read, head of the Foundation for Economic Education (founded 1946); A New Liberty stands today as a brilliant, and early, bold statement of the and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, author of the influential Capitalism and radical libertarian vision. By the mid-60s, the modern libertarian movement Freedom (1962). was coalescing, primarily behind the non-initiation of force principle and The most prominent and influential of modern libertarian figures, the “radical capitalism” of Ayn Rand, and Rothbard’s systematic libertarian however, were the aforementioned novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand, the corpus based upon the non-aggression principle or axiom. It is no surprise founder of “Objectivism” and a “radical for capitalism,” and Murray that the Libertarian Party was founded in 1971, as these ideas, and the Rothbard, the Mises-influenced libertarian anarcho-capitalist economist and liberty movement, were gaining steam. political theorist. Rothbard’s seminal role is widely recognized, even by In the ensuing decades many other influential works appeared non-Rothbardians. Objectivist John McCaskey, for example, has observed, expounding on the libertarian idea, such as Linda and Morris Tannehill, The that out of the debates in the mid-1900s about what rights citizens ought to Market for Liberty (1970), John Hospers, Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy have, for Tomorrow (1971), David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom (1973), Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), Henri Lepage, Tomorrow, Capitalism (1978), Samuel Edward Konkin III, New Libertarian Manifesto (1980), Jan 1 For more on this, see Brian Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement (New York: Public Affairs, 4 John P. McCaskey, “New Libertarians: New Promoters of a Welfare State” 2007) and David Boaz, The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary (published as a blog post on johnmccaskey.com, April 14, 2014). Readings from Lao-tzu to Milton Friedman (New York: Free Press, 1997). http://www.johnmccaskey.com/joomla/index.php/blog/71-new-libertarians. See 2 See Boaz, The Libertarian Reader. also, Wendy McElroy, “Murray N. Rothbard: Mr. Libertarian,” (published on 3 See Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism. LewRockwell.com, July 6, 2000). 6 7 A SPONTANEOUS ORDER FOREWORD Narveson, The Libertarian Idea (1988), Anthony de Jasay, Choice, Contract, action. Consent: A Restatement of Liberalism (1991), Richard Epstein, Simple Rules for a Thus, Rothbard, influenced by and building on the insights of Complex World (1995), Charles Murray, What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A earlier and contemporary thinkers, such such as Mises and Rand, first Personal Interpretation (1996), David Boaz, Libertarianism: A Primer (1998), presented a systematic vision of modern, radical libertarianism: anti-state, Randy E. Barnett, The Structure of Liberty (1998), and, more recently, Jeffrey pro-market, Austrian. This enabled Rothbard to adumbrate a broad A. Miron’s Libertarianism, From A to Z (2010), Jacob Huebert’s Libertarianism framework for liberty, from property to contract to punishment theory. Today (2010), Gary Chartier’s The Conscience of an Anarchist (2011), and Rothbard’s analysis extends also to, or draws on, other disciplines as Gerard Casey’s Libertarian Anarchism (2012). necessary, such as epistemology, history, the nature of the sciences, and the These and other works expounding on the ideas of liberty have like.7 their own strengths and merits, and many of them have their own Additional advances to the essentially Rothbardian perspective on deficiencies and idiosyncrasies as well. Some, for example, are statements social theory have been made over the years. Hoppe, for example, a diligent only of the author’s personal vision and do not purport to describe student of both Mises and Rothbard, has emphasized the essential role of libertarian thought in general; some are minarchist, at best, and do not even scarcity in the need for interpersonal property norms, leading to a more recognize anarcho-libertarianism as a type of libertarianism (Miron, for rigorous and streamlined restatement of the basic Lockean approach which example, says “libertarianism accepts a role for government in a few, limited underlies Rothbard’s own radical libertarian system. Hoppe has also areas: small government, not anarchy”);5 and some do not sufficiently extended Rothbardian analysis in the realm of political ethics with his appreciate Austrian economics and
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora Neale Hurston on War, Race, the State, and Liberty
    SUBSCRIBE NOW AND RECEIVE CRISIS AND LEVIATHAN* FREE! “The Independent Review does not accept “The Independent Review is pronouncements of government officials nor the excellent.” conventional wisdom at face value.” —GARY BECKER, Noble Laureate —JOHN R. MACARTHUR, Publisher, Harper’s in Economic Sciences Subscribe to The Independent Review and receive a free book of your choice* such as the 25th Anniversary Edition of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, by Founding Editor Robert Higgs. This quarterly journal, guided by co-editors Christopher J. Coyne, and Michael C. Munger, and Robert M. Whaples offers leading-edge insights on today’s most critical issues in economics, healthcare, education, law, history, political science, philosophy, and sociology. Thought-provoking and educational, The Independent Review is blazing the way toward informed debate! Student? Educator? Journalist? Business or civic leader? Engaged citizen? This journal is for YOU! *Order today for more FREE book options Perfect for students or anyone on the go! The Independent Review is available on mobile devices or tablets: iOS devices, Amazon Kindle Fire, or Android through Magzter. INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE, 100 SWAN WAY, OAKLAND, CA 94621 • 800-927-8733 • [email protected] PROMO CODE IRA1703 Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora Neale Hurston on War, Race, the State, and Liberty ✦ DAVID T. BEITO AND LINDA ROYSTER BEITO he ideals of liberty, individualism, and self-reliance have rarely had more enthusiastic champions than Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora TNeale Hurston. All three were out of step with the dominant worldview of their times. They had their peak professional years during the New Deal and World War II, when faith in big government was at high tide.
    [Show full text]
  • Markets Not Capitalism Explores the Gap Between Radically Freed Markets and the Capitalist-Controlled Markets That Prevail Today
    individualist anarchism against bosses, inequality, corporate power, and structural poverty Edited by Gary Chartier & Charles W. Johnson Individualist anarchists believe in mutual exchange, not economic privilege. They believe in freed markets, not capitalism. They defend a distinctive response to the challenges of ending global capitalism and achieving social justice: eliminate the political privileges that prop up capitalists. Massive concentrations of wealth, rigid economic hierarchies, and unsustainable modes of production are not the results of the market form, but of markets deformed and rigged by a network of state-secured controls and privileges to the business class. Markets Not Capitalism explores the gap between radically freed markets and the capitalist-controlled markets that prevail today. It explains how liberating market exchange from state capitalist privilege can abolish structural poverty, help working people take control over the conditions of their labor, and redistribute wealth and social power. Featuring discussions of socialism, capitalism, markets, ownership, labor struggle, grassroots privatization, intellectual property, health care, racism, sexism, and environmental issues, this unique collection brings together classic essays by Cleyre, and such contemporary innovators as Kevin Carson and Roderick Long. It introduces an eye-opening approach to radical social thought, rooted equally in libertarian socialism and market anarchism. “We on the left need a good shake to get us thinking, and these arguments for market anarchism do the job in lively and thoughtful fashion.” – Alexander Cockburn, editor and publisher, Counterpunch “Anarchy is not chaos; nor is it violence. This rich and provocative gathering of essays by anarchists past and present imagines society unburdened by state, markets un-warped by capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • American Affairs
    Amencan Tke Economic Record JULY, 1945 Summer Number Vol. VII, No. 3 Contents Review and Comment 121 Winds of Opinion 123 "Full Employment" and Freedom in America .. Virgil Jordan 125 The American Menace Garet Garrett 131 Battle of Britain C. T. Revere 138 Tke Future of Foreign Trade James J. Hill 140 Bold Brevities 142 The Right to Borrow E. A. Goldenweiser 143 Adrift on the Deficit Sea. James A. Farley 145 After the War A. P. Herbert 147 Demonstration by Mars Frank E. Hook 148 Books 151 A Kansan in Russia League of Nations Key to Our Planned World Now a World System of Planned Societies Monkey-gland Economics The Elusive Law of Wages Yalta Aftermath Isaac Don Levine 163 The Myth of the Mixed Economy Ludwig Mises 169 Deindustrializing Central Europe John Hubert 174 What Price a Planned Economy? Friedrich A. Hayek 178 Notable Excerpts 182 American Affairs is an extension of an earlier periodical publication, The Economic Record, as a quarterly journal devoted to the presentation of current thought and opinion on controversial questions. Its circulation is restricted to Associates of The Conference Board. Its pages are intention- ally open to views that provoke debate, and contributions are invited. The National Industrial Conference Board does not itself participate in controversy, and does not endorse any of the ideas presented. All that it does here is to acknowledge the integrity of the contributors and the good faith of their work. National Industrial Conference Board, Inc. 247 Park Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. American Affairs The Economic Record GARET GARRETT, Editor Copyright, 19$5, by JULY, 1945 National Industrial Conference Board, Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • Libertarianism, Feminism, and Nonviolent Action: a Synthesis
    LIBERTARIAN PAPERS VOL. 4, NO. 2 (2012) LIBERTARIANISM, FEMINISM, AND NONVIOLENT ACTION: A SYNTHESIS GRANT BABCOCK* I. Introduction MURRAY ROTHBARD’S CONTRIBUTION to libertarian ethics was to outline a theory prohibiting aggressive violence (1978, p. 27-30). The influence of Rothbard’s ethics,1 combined with a decades-long political alliance with conservatives based on anticommunism, has produced a debate within libertarian circles about whether libertarians qua libertarians must take positions against certain forms of repression that do not involve aggressive violence. The non-aggression principle is as good a libertarian litmus test as has been suggested. Often, the voices who levy allegations of non-aggressive (or at least not exclusively aggressive) oppression come from the political left, and have un-libertarian (read: aggressive) solutions in mind, even if they do not conceive of those solutions as violent. Despite these considerations, I do believe that libertarians qua libertarians are obligated to say something about the kind of non-aggressive oppression that these voices from the left have raised regarding issues including, but not limited to, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Making the case that libertarians have these obligations irrespective of their * Grant Babcock ([email protected]) is an independent scholar. My thanks to Robert Churchill, Matthew McCaffrey, Ross Kenyon, and two anonymous referees for their help and encouragement. The paper’s merits are largely a result of their influence; any remaining errors are my own. CITATION INFORMATION FOR THIS ARTICLE: Grant Babcock. 2012. “Libertarianism, Feminism, and Nonviolent Action: A Synthesis.” Libertarian Papers. 4 (2): 119-138. ONLINE AT: libertarianpapers.org.
    [Show full text]
  • Forestalling, Positive Obligations and the Lockean and Blockian Provisos: Rejoinder to Stephan Kinsella*
    Ekonomia — Wroclaw Economic Review 22/3 (2016) Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis No 3732 DOI: 10.19195/2084-4093.22.3.2 Walter E. Block Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics [email protected] Joseph A. Butt S.J. College of Business Loyola University New Orleans Forestalling, Positive Obligations and the Lockean and Blockian Provisos: Rejoinder to Stephan Kinsella* JEL Classification: K19 Keywords: forestalling, positive obligations, Lockean proviso, Blockian proviso Abstract Forestalling, Positive Obligations and the Lockean and Blockian Provisos: Rejoinder to Stephan Kinsella The Blockian proviso mandates that no one precludes or forestalls anyone else in their land home- steading patterns such that they prevent them from homesteading virgin encircled land. Kinsella (2007, 2009A) takes issue with this position and likens it to the properly denigrated Lockean pro- viso. The present paper is an attempt to distinguish the two provisos one from the other, and defend the former from Kinsella’s critiques. What is the Lockean proviso? Let us allow “da man” to speak for himself on this issue. According to Locke (1689, emphasis added): “Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property.
    [Show full text]
  • Judith Jarvis Thomson on Abortion; a Libertarian Perspective
    DePaul Journal of Health Care Law Volume 19 Issue 1 Fall 2017 Article 3 April 2018 Judith Jarvis Thomson on Abortion; a Libertarian Perspective Walter E. Block Loyola University New Orleans, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/jhcl Part of the Health Law and Policy Commons Recommended Citation Walter E. Block, Judith Jarvis Thomson on Abortion; a Libertarian Perspective, 19 DePaul J. Health Care L. (2018) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/jhcl/vol19/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Journal of Health Care Law by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Judith Jarvis Thomson on abortion; a libertarian perspective1 I. Introduction Abortion is one of the most vexing issues faced by society. On the one hand, there are those who favor the pro-choice position. In their view, the woman, and she alone (along with the advice of her doctor – but the final decision must be hers), should be able to legally determine on what basis, and whether, her pregnancy should be conducted. She should be as free to end her pregnancy at any stage of the development of her fetus, or give birth to it after the usual term of nine months. On the other hand, there are those who favor what is called the pro-life position. In this perspective, the fetus, from the moment of conception, is a full rights-bearing human being.
    [Show full text]
  • Law and Economics ECON B330-001 Fall 2021 (August 23 – December 17)
    Law and Economics ECON B330-001 Fall 2021 (August 23 – December 17) Class hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 12:30-1:20 p.m. Course Location: MI 208 Instructor: Dr. Walter E. Block Office Location: Miller Hall 318 Phone: (504) 864-7934 Email: [email protected] Office hours: Wednesday: 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. In addition to these formal office hours, I will be available most days of the week. If by odd chance none of these hours are convenient, a mutually agreeable appointment can always be made. I am very available for student consultation and willing to give as much time as is needed for questions, discussion, dialogue. Terms of Use A student's continued enrollment in this course signifies acknowledgment of and agreement with the statements, disclaimers, policies, and procedures outlined within this syllabus and elsewhere in the Canvas environment. This Syllabus is a dynamic document. Elements of the course structure (e.g., dates and topics covered, but not policies) may be changed at the discretion of the professor. College of Business Mission Statement The mission of the Loyola College of Business is to educate and empower ethical innovators who work with and for others to solve local and global problems. We teach conceptual, technical, and professional skills through engaging experiences that leverage New Orleans’ community and creative spirit. Course Description This course is an economic analysis used to consider the effects of legal rules upon people’s actions. Alternative rules are considered, with particular attention paid to the differing effects each is likely to have on the structure of incentives, and thus on human actions.
    [Show full text]
  • A Response to the Libertarian Critics of Open-Borders Libertarianism
    LINCOLN MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW __________________________________ VOLUME 4 FALL 2016 ISSUE 1 ____________________________________ A RESPONSE TO THE LIBERTARIAN CRITICS OF OPEN-BORDERS LIBERTARIANISM Walter E. Block, Ph.D. Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business I. INTRODUCTION Libertarians may be unique in many regards, but their views on immigration do not qualify. They are as divided as is the rest of the population on this issue. Some favor open borders, and others oppose such a legal milieu. The present paper may be placed in the former category. It will outline both sides of this debate in sections II and III. Section IV is devoted to some additional arrows in the quiver of the closed border libertarians, and to a refutation of them. We conclude in section V. A RESPONSE TO THE LIBERTARIAN CRITICS OF OPEN-BORDERS LIBERTARIANISM 143 II. ANTI OPEN BORDERS The libertarian opposition to free immigration is straightforward and even elegant.1 It notes, first, a curious bifurcation in international economic relations. In the case of both trade and investment, there must necessarily be two2 parties who agree to the commercial interaction. In the former case, there must be an importer and an exporter; both are necessary. Without the consent of both parties, the transaction cannot take place. A similar situation arises concerning foreign investment. The entrepreneur who wishes to set up shop abroad must obtain the willing acquiescence of the domestic partner for the purchase of land and raw materials. And the same occurs with financial transactions that take place across 1 Peter Brimelow, ALIEN NATION: COMMON SENSE ABOUT AMERICA’S IMMIGRATION DISASTER (1995); Jesús Huerta De Soto, A Libertarian Theory of Free Immigration, 13 J.
    [Show full text]
  • White, Right and Libertarian
    WHITE, RIGHT, AND LIBERTARIAN Chase Rachels Copyright © 2018 Christopher Chase Rachels All rights reserved. ISBN-13: 978-1979796521 ISBN-10: 1979796521 CONTENTS Foreword by Hans-Hermann Hoppe ...............................v Chapter I: What Anarcho-Capitalism Is ............................1 Chapter II: The Libertarian Case Against Open Borders ............11 Chapter III: For A “Libertarian Alt-Right” .........................35 Suggestions For Further Reading ..................................79 Appendix: Clearing Up The Hoppe Foreword Controversy ..........87 iii FOREWORD The social theory sailing nowadays under the label “Austro-Liber- tarianism” has a long and prominent history going back many centuries, culminating during the second half of the 20th century in the work of Murray N. Rothbard, and continued today by his various intellectual disciples and students (including myself ). The theory provides a simple, argumentatively irrefutable (without running into contradictions) answer to one of the most important questions in the entire field of the social sciences: How can human beings, “real persons,” having to act in a “real world” characterized by the scarcity of all sorts of physical things, interact with each other, conceivably from the beginning of mankind until the end of human history, peacefully, i.e., without physically clash- ing with one another in a contest or fight concerning the control of one and the same given thing? Put briefly, the answer is this: Absent a perfect harmony of all inter- ests, clashes regarding scarce resources can only be avoided if all scarce resources are assigned as private, exclusive property to some specified individual or group of individuals. Only then can I act independently, with my own things, from you, with your own things, without you and I ever clashing.
    [Show full text]
  • Createspace Word Templates
    MOLINARI REVIEW Molinari Review 1, No. 2 (Fall 2019) © The Molinari Institute 2019 All content in this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by: The Molinari Institute 402 Martin Avenue Auburn, Alabama 36830 U.S.A. ISBN: 978-1-947236-00-4 MOLINARI REVIEW The Molinari Review is a peer-reviewed, open-access, print-on-demand, interdiscipli- nary journal of libertarian research. We publish scholarship, sympathetic or critical, in and/or on the libertarian tradition, broadly understood as including classical liberalism, individualist anarchism, social anarchism, anarcho-capitalism, anarcho- communism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarcha-feminism, panarchism, voluntaryism, mu- tualism, agorism, distributism, bleeding-heart libertarianism, Austrianism, Georgism, public choice, and beyond – essentially, everything from Emma Goldman to Ayn Rand, C. L. R. James to F. A. Hayek, Alexis de Tocqueville to Michel Foucault. (We see exciting affiliations among these strands of the libertarian tradition; but you don’t have to agree with us about that to publish in our pages.) Disciplines in which we seek to publish include philosophy, political science, eco- nomics, history, sociology, psychology, anthropology, theology, ecology, literature, and law. We aim to enhance the visibility of libertarian scholarship, to expand the boundaries of traditional libertarian discussion, and to provide a home for cutting- edge research in the theory and practice of human liberty. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS Submissions should be sent by email to Roderick T. Long at [email protected] as Word .doc or .docx files, prepared for blind review (i.e. all author information re- moved), and accompanied by an abstract of around 150 words as a guide for referees.
    [Show full text]
  • Legislation and the Discovery of Law in a Free Society N
    LEGISLATION AND THE DISCOVERY OF LAW IN A FREE SOCIETY N. Stephan Kinsella* ______________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction .......................................................134 II. Centralized and Decentralized Legal Systems ................135 A. Civil Law and Common Law..........................135 B. Civil Law, Rationalism, and Libertarianism......... 137 III. Law, Legislation, and Liberty................................. 140 A. Anarcho-Capitalism.....................................140 B. Certainty..................................................141 1. Certainty, the Rule of Law, and Legislation 141 2. Decentralized Law-Finding Systems......... 144 a. Limits of Courts’ Decisions: Jurisdiction, Scope of Decision, and Precedent......................144 b. Government Courts: Extra-Market Powers and Disguised Legislation............ 146 3. Civil Codes......................................148 a. The “Special” Status of a Civil Code 148 b. Diluting Effect of Special Statutes.............................149 * N. Stephan Kinsella, JD, LL.M., practices computer software and hardware patent law with Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, in Philadelphia, and is licensed to practice in Louisiana, Texas, and Pennsylvania, and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In accordance with the author’s request, the footnote and citation style used in this article is primarily consistent with law review format. The author would like to thank Professor Saúl Litvinoff and Jack Criss, Jr. for helpful comments
    [Show full text]
  • Features Columns Departments
    VOLUME 60, NO 3 APRIL 2010 Features 8 Legends of the Fall: The Real and Imagined Sources of Our Bubble Economy by Richard W.Fulmer 13 The End of Medicine: Not With a Bang, But a Whimper by Theodore Levy 17 A Health Insurance Criminal Pleads His Case by James L. Payne 19 The Wisdom of Nien Cheng by James A. Dorn 24 Botswana: A Diamond in the Rough by Scott Beaulier 27 The Improbable Prose of Nassim Nicholas Taleb by Robert P.Murphy Page 17 31 Government Moonshine by Michael Heberling 34 How Shall We Live? by Paul Cleveland and Art Carden Columns 4 Ideas and Consequences ~ Anti-Force is the Common Denominator by Lawrence W.Reed 15 Thoughts on Freedom ~ On the Rule of Law by Donald J. Boudreaux 22 Our Economic Past ~ Private Capital Consumption: Another Downside of the Wartime “Miracle of Production” by Robert Higgs 29 Peripatetics ~ Opaque by Design by Sheldon Richman 37 Give Me a Break! ~ Let’s Take the “Crony” Out of “Crony Capitalism” by John Stossel 47 The Pursuit of Happiness ~ ObamaCare and Unions Page 6 by Charles W.Baird Departments 2 Perspective ~ Murray Rothbard by Sheldon Richman 6 Government Must Stimulate to Avoid a 1937-Style Recession? It Just Ain’t So! by Ivan Pongracic, Jr. 39 Capital Letters Book Reviews 41 The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley Reviewed by Max Borders 42 Capitalism at Work: Business, Government, and Energy by Robert L. Bradley, Jr. Reviewed by Michael Beitler 43 Herbert Hoover Page 44 by William E. Leuchtenburg Reviewed by Jim Powell 44 End the Fed by Ron Paul Reviewed by George Leef Perspective Murray Rothbard Published by n 1946 the fledgling Foundation for Economic Educa- The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 tion published a pamphlet titled “Roofs Phone: (914) 591-7230; E-mail: [email protected] or Ceilings: The Current Housing Problem” www.fee.org I (www.tinyurl.com/cpluwy), a brief against rent control President Lawrence W.Reed written by two unknown young economists: Milton Fried- Editor Sheldon Richman man and George Stigler.
    [Show full text]