An Anarchist Legal Order (video)

An Anarchist Legal Order

10. The Public Sector, I: Government in Business

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach [18:45]

The Issue of Tariffs: How U.S. Revenue Collection Was Turned Inside-Out

Brown Bag Seminar, Mises Institute; May 19, 2005. The handouts from this lecture are available for Download (in PDF). [58:57]

The Incredible Bread Machine Film

A film by Theo Kamecke. Written by Karl Keating, Susan Love Brown, Patrea Post and Stuart Smith. Released in 1975. [29:46]

Free Banking and Contract Law

Free Banking and Contract Law Ludwig von Mises Audio Mises Daily

The Fourteenth Amendment

Thomas Woods discusses The Fourteenth Amendment at The Truth About American History: An Austro-Jeffersonian Perspective seminar on June 21st, 2005.

From Monarchy to Democracy

Hans-Hermann Hoppe presents lecture two in his Economy, Society & History series; "From Monarchy to Democracy" in 2004.

Parasitism and the Origin of the State

Hans-Hermann Hoppe presents lecture seven in his Economy, Society & History series; "Parasitism and the Origin of the State" in 2004.

The Production of Law and Order: Natural Order, Feudalism, and Federalism

Hans-Hermann Hoppe presents lecture six in his Economy, Society & History series; "The Production of Law and Order: Natural Order, Feudalism, and Federalism" in 2004.

The Law

How is it that the law enforcer itself does not have to keep the law? How is it that the law permits the state to lawfully engage in actions which, if undertaken by individuals, would land them in jail?

These are among the most intriguing issues in political and economic philosophy. More specifically, the problem of law that itself violates law is an insurmountable conundrum of all statist philosophies.

The problem has never been discussed so profoundly and passionately as in this essay by Frederic Bastiat from 1850. The essay might have been written today. It applies in ever way to our own time, which is precisely why so many people credit this one essay for showing them the light of liberty.

Bastiat's essay here is timeless because applies whenever and wherever the state assumes unto itself different rules and different laws from that by which it expects other people to live.

And so we have this legendary essay, written in a white heat against the leaders of 19th century France, the reading of which has shocked millions out of their toleration of despotism. This new edition from the Mises Institute revives a glorious translation that has been out of print for a hundred years, one that circulated in Britain in the generation that followed Bastiat’s death.

This newly available translation provides new insight into Bastiat’s argument. It is a more sophisticated, more subsantial, and more precise rendering than any in print.

The question that Bastiat deals with: how to tell when a law is unjust or when the law maker has become a source of law breaking? When the law becomes a means of plunder it has lost its character of genuine law. When the law enforcer is permitted to do with others’ lives and property what would be illegal if the citizens did them, the law becomes perverted.

Bastiat doesn’t avoid the difficult issues, such as why should we think that a democratic mandate can convert injustice to justice. He deals directly with the issue of the expanse of legislation:

It is not true that the mission of the law is to regulate our consciences, our ideas, our will, our education, our sentiments, our sentiments, our exchanges, our gifts, our enjoyments. Its mission is to prevent the rights of one from interfering with those of another, in any one of these things. Law, because it has force for its necessary sanction, can only have the domain of force, which is justice.

More from Bastiat's The Law:

Socialism, like the old policy from which it emanates, confounds Government and society. And so, every time we object to a thing being done by Government, it concludes that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of education by the State — then we are against education altogether. We object to a State religion — then we would have no religion at all. We object to an equality which is brought about by the State then we are against equality, etc., etc. They might as well accuse us of wishing men not to eat, because we object to the cultivation of corn by the State.

How is it that the strange idea of making the law produce what it does not contain — prosperity, in a positive sense, wealth, science, religion — should ever have gained ground in the political world? The modern politicians, particularly those of the Socialist school, found their different theories upon one common hypothesis; and surely a more strange, a more presumptuous notion, could never have entered a human brain.

They divide mankind into two parts. Men in general, except one, form the first; the politician himself forms the second, which is by far the most important.

Bastiat concludes his penetrating analysis with this:

The social organs are constituted so as to enable them to develop harmoniously in the grand air of liberty. Away, then, with quacks and organizers! Away with their rings, and their chains, and their hooks, and their pincers! Away with their artificial methods! Away with their social laboratories, their governmental whims, their centralization, their tariffs, their universities, their State religions, their inflationary or monopolizing banks, their limitations, their restrictions, their moralizations, and their equalization by taxation! And now, after having vainly inflicted upon the social body so many systems, let them end where they ought to have begun — reject all systems, and try of liberty — liberty, which is an act of faith in God and in His work.

This special Mises Institute edition is priced for the largest possible distribution. Whether you buy one or one hundred, you can look forward to one of the most penetrating and powerful essays written in the history of political economy.

Learning from the Past: What History Teaches

Charles Adams presents lecture ten; "Learning from the Past: What History Teaches" in the series, The Rosetta Stone to the US Code: A New History of Taxation in 2004.

American Taxation

Charles Adams presents lecture nine; "American Taxation" in the series, The Rosetta Stone to the US Code: A New History of Taxation in 2004.

The Middle Ages

Charles Adams presents lecture four; "The Middle Ages" in the series, The Rosetta Stone to the US Code: A New History of Taxation in 2004.

The Kaleidoscopic Romans

Charles Adams presents lecture three; "The Kaleidoscopic Romans" in the series, The Rosetta Stone to the US Code: A New History of Taxation in 2004.

The Bible's World of Taxes

Charles Adams presents lecture two; "The Bible's World of Taxes" in the series, The Rosetta Stone to the US Code: A New History of Taxation in 2004.

The Making of a Tax Historian

Charles Adams presents lecture one; "The Making of a Tax Historian" in the series, The Rosetta Stone to the US Code: A New History of Taxation in 2004.

The Evils of Intellectual Property

The Evils of Intellectual Property John Sophocleus Auburn University Libertarians

The Privatization of Roads and Highways

A panel discussion with Walter Block, sponsored by the Federalist Society, University of Tennessee College of Law, 26 January 2009. [1:37:00]

Support for Free Trade: The Impact of Religious Ideology

Recorded at the Mises Institute on March 9, 2005; Auburn, Alabama.  The video version includes a post-lecture Question and Answer session. [50:30]

On the Need to Raise Taxes in Alabama

Brown Bag Seminar; Recorded at the Mises Institute on January 13, 2005. [1:02:19]

On the Ethics of Paying Organ Donors: An Economics Perspective

Brown Bag Seminar; Recorded at the Mises Institute on April 21, 2005. [59:24]

Democracy: How the Game Has Been Stacked Against You

Brown Bag Seminar; Mises Institute; May 5, 2005 [56:25]

A Libertarian Analysis of Law

Delivered at the Cumberland School of Law (Samford University) in Birmingham, Alabama; January 9, 2008. Sponsored by the Cumberland Libertarian Society and the Cordell Hull Speaker's Forum. [1:03:25]

A Critique of the Invasion of Iraq

Delivered to the Hillsdale Liberals, Hillsdale College; August 31, 2004.

The Macroeconomics of Government Finance

Roger Garrison covers The Macroeconomics of Government Finance at Mises University on August 8th, 2004.

Law and Economics

Hans-Hermann Hoppe discusses Law and Economics at Mises University on August 4th, 2004

04. The Fourteenth Amendment (video)

Video version of Thomas Woods discussing The Fourteenth Amendment at The Truth About American History: An Austro-Jeffersonian Perspective seminar on June 21st, 2005.

Sovereignty, International Law, and the Triumph of Anglo-American Cunning

Joseph Stromberg discusses Sovereignty, International Law and the Triumph of Anglo-American Cunning at the Brown Bag Seminar in 2005.

Money, Government and International Politics

Hans-Hermann Hoppe explains Money, Government & International Politics at the Austrian Economics and Financial Markets Conference in Las Vegas, February 2005.

The Dangers of Tax Reform

Llewellyn H. Rockwell. Jr. discusses The Dangers of Tax Reform at The Trouble with Taxation Seminar in January 2005.

International Law and the Economic Relations Between States

 Joseph Stromberg discusses International Law and the Economic Relations Between States at Mises University 2004.

Keeping What's Yours and Backing the Cause of Liberty

James Fogal talks about Keeping What's Yours and Backing the Cause of Liberty at the 2004 Mises Supporters Summit on Radical Scholarship.

Private Defense: Now More Than Ever

Hans-Hermann Hoppe Radical tackles the idea of privately-provided defense at the 2004 Mises Supporters Summit on Radical Scholarship.

The Real Axis of Evil

David Gordon Radical describes the Real Axis of Evil at the 2004 Mises Supporters Summit on Radical Scholarship.

Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Screen

Butler Shaffer suggests that we Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Screen at the 2004 Mises Supporters Summit on Radical Scholarship.

Murray Rothbard's View on Taxation

Joseph Stromberg talks about Murray Rothbard's View on Taxation at the 2004 Austrian Workshop.

Money, Mexico, and Mañana

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. gives his talk, "Money, Mexico, and Mañana" at the Money, Banking, and the New World Order supporters summit in Houston, Texas in 1995.

Austrian Economics and the Political Economy of Freedom

Richard M. Ebeling discusses Austrian Economics & the Political Economy of Freedom at the Austrian Scholars Conference, 2004.

Law v. Legislation: A Hayekian Entrepreneur in London

Law v. Legislation: A Hayekian Entrepreneur in London as described by Toby Baxendale at the 2004 Austrian Scholars Conference.

The Public Good: As It Appears to Ceasar

"The Public Good: As It Appears to Ceasar" by Robert LeFevre.

What is the Right Amount of Government?

"What is the Right Amount of Government?" by Robert LeFevre.

The Constitution Revisited

"The Constitution Revisited" by Robert LeFevre.

Background to the Constitution

"Background to the Constitution" by Robert LeFevre.

The Source of Government Power

"The Source of Government Power" by Robert LeFevre.

The Nature of Government

"The Nature of Government" by Robert LeFevre.

The Age of Robber Barons

"The Age of Robber Barons" by Robert LeFevre.

Ownership

"Ownership Robert" by Robert LeFevre. 

Property Classifications

"Property Classifications" by Robert LeFevre.

Property and Ownership

"Property and Ownership" by Robert LeFevre.