In his book Principles of Morals and Legislation , the eighteenth-century philosopher and legislator Jeremy Bentham divided all laws into three kinds: (1) laws designed to protect you from harm caused by other people; (2) laws designed to protect you from harm caused by yourself; and (3) laws requiring you to help and assist others. Bentham held
Professor David Gordon gives his critique of John Hospers’ “Libertarianism and Legal Paternalism” paper published in The Journal of Libertarian Studies. Volume 4, Number 3 (1980) Gordon, David. “Comment on Hospers.” Journal of Libertarian Studies 4, No.3 (1980):
The major claim in this paper is that there is a distinct ambiguity in the way in which H. L. A. Hart employs the concept of authority in his account of the nature of law. It is a flaw in Hart’s thesis that surprisingly few philosophers of law have detected. Perhaps this is because they share his view that the concept of authority is inherent in
In recent years a new and powerful critique of our current criminal justice system has been advanced by advocates of a totally new approach to criminal justice. These advocates challenge the current paradigm of criminal justice, which emphasizes punishment of the criminal, and support instead a radically different paradigm, which emphasizes
Economists have been relatively silent about the legislation from the 1930’s which supports unionism and collective bargaining in the United States. A failure to apply economic analysis to the Norris-LaGuardia and Wagner acts has allowed a consensus about this legislation to develop among labor writers, basically by default. Volume 6, Number 3
Substantive due process refers to a judicial policy that substantively protects, under the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, activities that are not elsewhere secured in the Constitution. With reference to the protection of economic liberties, the doctrine is referred to as economic due process. Volume 6, Number 3 (1982)
The central ideas of contemporary libertarianism have taken many centuries to evolve. The single most important aspect of libertarian theory to have emerged during this time is the concept of proprietary justice. The proprietary theory of justice is concerned with just one thing: the crucial determination of just versus unjust property titles of
In his recent work, Tyranny and Legitimacy, James Fishkin advances an argument against Roben Nozick’s theory of, what Fishkin calls, “absolute rights” by trying to demonstrate that such a theory would legitimate tyranny. Volume 6, Number 3 (1982) Machan, Tibor. “Fishkin on Nozick’s Absolute Rights.” Journal of Libertarian Studies 6, No. 3
Although historians had long missed the importance of religion in American politics, it has recently become a central topic. My focus will be on the late- nineteenth century, with particular concern for why voting and party affiliation were highly correlated with religious preferences. I will attempt to broaden the standard argument to include not
In a long editorial entitled “Let the People See,” which appeared in the New York Tribune in 1852, Horace Greeley, the great editor and leader of the Whig party, gloomily evaluated his party’s chances at the polls that autumn. He believed that in any work place, a machine shop for example, fifteen out of twenty workmen supported Whig economic
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.